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Cisco's Insieme Building Massively Scalable Switch

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) spin-in Insieme is working on a switch that can support at least 100 ports of 100Gbit/s Ethernet, Light Reading has learned.

Even though Insieme has been at it for at least (checking wristwatch) five months, that's probably not enough time to finish something as big as that. Especially given the Insieme team's (and Cisco's) penchant for ASIC design.

The box may also include a controller for software-defined networking. That would jibe with the common theory that Insieme was created as part of Cisco's overall SDN strategy.

Massive scale could be a bigger part of the startup's charter, though. Cisco is facing increased competition from switch vendors thanks to the capabilities of merchant chips. Companies such as Arista Networks Inc. , Extreme Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: EXTR) and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. have produced high-end switches using chips from Broadcom Corp. (Nasdaq: BRCM). (See 10G Ethernet Switches Pass the Test.)

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—Craig Matsumoto, Managing Editor, Light Reading
Newest Comments First       Display in Chronological Order
nooser
User Ranking
Tuesday September 4, 2012 5:41:45 PM
no ratings

Given the likely terms of the the spin-in from Cisco's this would not be surprising.

 

Hard to imagine Cisco being truly innovative in this space.

Soupafly
User Ranking
Monday August 27, 2012 12:26:48 PM
no ratings

Am with bigbro on this one. Out of the posts his reads the most plausible.

I also wouldnt rule out Cisco having other SDN interests, I mean can you imagine them investing in more than 1 thing at a time? Its a shock I know.... :-)

BigBro
User Ranking
Sunday August 26, 2012 8:48:48 PM
no ratings

This should not be a surprise to anyone. The whole "Insieme is an SDN play" shpiel is a smokescreen.

Consider the people behind Insieme, and their track record: Crescendo, Andiamo, Nuova were all switching companies, each with their own little twist, and the guys running the show are hardware guys.

The Insieme guys are building the platform that will replace the Cat6k and the Nexus 7000, but if Cisco were to say this in public, they would admit that the Nexus 7000 is a dead-end platform, and that they can't build the next-gen switch internally.

Would you want to be the guy to deliver that message to customers, shareholders, and the Nexus 7000 team? Me neither.

Instead, they cherry-pick their buddies, form an "SDN spin-in", and do what they do best: build switch hardware, and slap software (NX-OS, from the looks of it) on it.

By the way, Insieme now has a website: www.insiemenetworks.com

 

myhui
User Ranking
Friday August 24, 2012 3:19:23 PM
no ratings

Maybe this will be the first switch to use optical interconnect between circuit boards?

desiEngineer
User Ranking
Friday August 24, 2012 2:12:23 PM
no ratings

Hmm.  You're right - I should have looked at the intransitive verb since you did use it as such.  It's weird because jibe just sounds so wrong compared to jive.  Thanks for the tip.

-desi

Craig Matsumoto
User Ranking
Friday August 24, 2012 1:57:21 PM
no ratings

Point taken, but my Merriam-Webster says:

jibe -- to be in accord: Agree

desiEngineer
User Ranking
Friday August 24, 2012 1:52:56 PM
no ratings

From Webster

jibe: to shift suddenly and forcibly from one side to the other —used of afore-and-aft sail

jive: to move along rhythmically

I tried to pick the most appropriate meanings out of the options given by Webster.  "Jibe" didn't jive with the sentence.

-just sayin'

sailboat
User Ranking
Friday August 24, 2012 12:10:44 PM
no ratings

I have been waiting for a switch like this to emerge for some time.  Interesting that it is going to emerge from Cisco (apparently first).... wonder what Arista is doing for this space?  likewise Juniper and others.  

depending on features, this could be a killer platform in some key applications.

Curious minds want to know more.

sailboat

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