[j-nsp] PIC Compatibility Matrix

[Richard A Steenbergen]

On Thu, Mar 25, 2004 at 04:36:08PM -0600, Kashif.Khawaja at Broadwing.com wrote:
> Hello Everyone,
> 
> In an effort to determine parts can be used where I have been going
> through the Juniper's website to find some definitive information once
> and for all about what PICs can be used in what platform. This link
> below shows a PIC compatibility matrix saying e.g. a 1-port GigE ( I
> understand they could be different parts physically/electronically) PIC
> can be used in an M10, M20, M40e, M160 (FPC1) and M320 (FPC1).

Bottom line: PICs are all the same based on the FPC they go into, not the 
model number they are sold under.

All FPC1 PICs are the same hardware wise, the only difference is
faceplates. P- (for M20/M40) has the classic faceplate, PE- (for M5-M10
including i's) is the classic faceplate with an ejector handle on the
front (and a little ejection mechanism on the bottom). You CAN insert a P
card in an m5-m10 if you have a way to get the PIC out later (such as:  
with your fingers, with a screw driver, with a string tied to the screws
on the bottom, etc). You can also insert a PE card into an M20/M40 FPC. 
(*)

PB is where it gets slightly tricky. The PICs which go into an M160/M40e 
FPC1 are the same as all the others, they simply have the M160 style 
faceplate and the little black plastic spacers to make the cards the same 
"size" as the other M160 cards. You can unscrew the faceplate from an M160 
FPC1 pic and put it in an M5 and it will work just fine, but the only way 
they will "fit" without removing the faceplate completely is to snip off 
the "ears" where the thumbscrews are (otherwise they are the same 
dimensions). Now, M160/M40e/M320 PICs which go into FPC2's are also under 
the PB- part number, but there are completely different and will not work 
in anything non FPC2.

(*) I'm not certain why noone at Juniper has thought of this, but there is
no reason you can't hot-swap PICs on the M20/M40 other than the lack of a)  
a physical way to pull them out without removing the whole FPC, and b) a
way to turn off the PIC before you do it. It would be really simple to add
the little plastic guides from the M5-M10 internal FPC's to the M20/M40
FPC's so that you could use PE- cards in M20/M40 and hot-swap individual
PICs. You can already turn off the PIC via software easily enough, but
they would probably want to go ahead and issue new craft interfaces (not
exactly expensive pieces of technology) to provide PIC disabling buttons
for M20/M40. Being able to use move to all PE PICs for the entire 
M5/M7i/M10/M10i/M20/M40 product line, and hot-swap individual PICs, sounds 
like the kind of useful functionality people might pay for, and Juniper 
would of course only be spending a few bucks per FPC to "upgrade" the 
metal plate that the electronics are screwed onto. If you were really 
bored, you could probably go into business doing after market upgrades on 
classic FPC/FPC-E's to make them support PE and per-pic hot-swap too. :)

-- 
Richard A Steenbergen <ras at e-gerbil.net>       http://www.e-gerbil.net/ras
GPG Key ID: 0xF8B12CBC (7535 7F59 8204 ED1F CC1C 53AF 4C41 5ECA F8B1 2CBC)