Hi,
The supervisor engine is a module that is installed in one of the card slots in the switch/router(more specifically the 7600). The supervisor engine provides switching and local and remote management for the switch/router.
The supervisor engine contains the following integrated daughter cards that perform forwarding and routing and provide the protocols supported on the router:
Multilayer Switch Feature Card (MSFC) is the control plane and does the following:
.Performs routing for the chassis. The MSFC contains the route processor (RP) and switch processor (SP) for the router.
.Runs Layer 2 and Layer 3 protocols, such as the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) and others.
Policy Feature Card (PFC) is the forwarding plane and does the following:
.Performs Layer 2 and Layer 3 forwarding.
.Enforces access control list (ACL) functions.
.Performs policing and marking for QoS traffic.
.Collects Netflow statistics.
As for kinds of Sup, here you are the famous ones:
Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Engine 720
Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Engine 2
Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Engine 1A
Cisco Catalyst 6500 Supervisor Engine 32
And as a reference:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/modules/ps2797/prod_models_home.html
HTH, please rate if it does help,
Mohammed Mahmoud.
