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