Intel is crowing about their silicon being used in Arista’s 7124SX switch. Note that this is Intel’s switching silicon (from their purchase of Fulcrum not the FPGA.). At Network Field Day, Arista was at pains to avoid discussing their merchant silicon vendors, claiming that they choose the best chipset available at any time.
Merchant Silicon and Vendor Software – The Hype in 2012
6th January 2012 by 23 Comments
The thing about merchant silicon is how far it has penetrated the network vendors. In fact, it’s getting difficult switches that don’t have the same Network Processor inside as any other vendor. Networking hardware is looking like servers hardware – glue some chips and then market the heck out of your pretty colours.
Routing Protocols and Computation in Silicon
27th November 2011 by 2 Comments
I got this question and I guess it may not be obvious to everyone so I’ll have a shot at answering it.
Technology advances in ASIC hardware have resulted in substantial improvements in switching performances of routers and switches. However, the routing processes are still dependent on CPU speeds. What are the existing limitations in router/switch models which prevent route computations from being performed in hardware?
