2948G

[andyirving]

Can anyone explain why the 2948G has 24Gbps backplane.

The 2950G-48 has a 13.6Gbps backplane and is claimed to be wirespeed. (48x100(Mbps)x2(full duplex))+(2x1Gbps GBIC)x2(full duplex))= 13.6Gbps as specified.

If this is wirespeed what is the extra 11.4Gbps backplane capacity giving you on the 2948G, it is obviously a better performing switch or why else would it still be available.

Any advice on this would be appreciated.

[ahojmark]

It doesn't really.

The 2948G is built on the 12 Gbps K1 chipset, which came out of the Granite accuisition. The K1 chipset is 12 Gbps, and the marketing folks of cause call that 24 Gbps.

So does the 2948G really *need* 12 Gbps with only 48x100 Mbps + 2x1 Gbps? Of cause it doesn't.

If the question really is 'why was the 2948G built on a 12 Gbps chipset', then the answer is probably that the chipset was already there and relatively cheap.

-A

[andyirving]

Is this the reason for the 4908 and 2980 still being around then, I am surprised Cisco still offer these switches in light of the 2940,2950,2970,3550,3750 ranges. Which other switches were part of the Granite acquisition?

[ahojmark]

Do you mean the 4912G and 2980G-A? I guess they're still here because lots of enterprise customers bought them (still buys them), and they're the only pizza boxes that still does CatOS. Other than the CLI, I can't think of any reason why people would prefer them over the newer switches.

No actual switches were part of the Granite acquisition, just technology. The K1 chipset was the primary thing that came out of that, and it was used in the Catalyst 4000 Sup1 and Sup2, 2948G, 2980G.

The 4908G-L3 (and 2948G-L3) are completely different boxes, built on the 8500 CSR technology. Oh, and they've been announced end-of-sale/end-of-life, just like the rest of the CSR-based products.

-A

[andyirving]

Many thanks for your wisdom on this it has shed light on what was a dark area in the cisco range for me.