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Cisco Reveals Its $500 Million Router

Posted by timothy on from the like-the-$6-million-man dept.

Whitecloud writes "After 4 years of development and $500 million in costs, Cisco have a new router: the CRS-1, or Carrier Routing System. Cool features include a 40 gigabit-per-second optical interface, and the ability to cluster the boxes to act as a single router. retail starts at $450,000. Video available here." Update: 05/26 13:55 GMT by T : Sorry; I missed the previous mention of this device.

23 of 194 comments (clear)

  1. This would be interesting.. by Mz6 · · Score: 5, Informative

    If I didn't already read about this yesterday!

    --
    Hmmm.
    1. Re:This would be interesting.. by Zathrus · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yes, but that post was from CmdrTaco.

      This one is from timothy.

      Completely different.

    2. Re:This would be interesting.. by afidel · · Score: 4, Informative

      Different numbers, 92Tbps is total fabric capacity when used in a mesh, 40Gbps is what can be done on a single interface. So this thing can route 2300 40Gbps interfaces when used in a cluster, that's more capacity than any organization can use at this time, so there is TONS of room to grow. This sounds like a good thing to use for the core of *gasp* a carrier class network which needs future expandability without downtime.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    3. Re:This would be interesting.. by sinrakin · · Score: 5, Informative

      Note that Cisco is still using their misleading "times 2" throughput specs. Because they're full duplex they count interface twice, which makes the throughput through the box double what it truly is. I.E. if there's a unidirectional data flow with one MB/sec comes in one interface and gets routed out the other, they count that as 2 MB/sec of throughput. It's really only handling 46Tbps of throughput, and suppports 1152 40Gbps interfaces. Although that's still a lot...

  2. Backdoors... by mobiux · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wonder if they were smart enough to thoroughly check for backdoors, unchangeable passwords, and vulnerabilities before releasing it.

    1. Re:Backdoors... by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yes they did, and all of those backdoors, unchangable passwords and vulnerabilities were found to be within Cisco specifications.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  3. Another benefit from Cisco by toupsie · · Score: 4, Funny

    Another huge benefit of Cisco's new router is that you will be able to read Slashdot dupes even faster!

    --
    Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
  4. Gilette's Mach 3 cost $1 billion to develop... by vudufixit · · Score: 5, Interesting

    And doesn't do nearly as much as this thing does.

    1. Re:Gilette's Mach 3 cost $1 billion to develop... by Dr.+Cody · · Score: 5, Funny

      Gilette's Mach 3 cost $1 billion to develop and doesn't do nearly as much as this thing does.

      But haven't you seen the commercials? They had to test that sucker in F-15's and space stations on male underware models while ex-Russian kiddie-porn stars fondled them to evaluate the results.

  5. interesting math by pedantic+bore · · Score: 5, Interesting
    If they spent 500M on this, and they sell for 450T, and they have a 10% profit margin (unlikely, but it's a round number) then they'd need to sell +10,000 of these boxes to make a profit. Can we really use 10,000 of these things? That's a whole heck of a lot of throughput...

    I was working at BBN when they built the worlds first gigabit router, circa 1990. At the time, they claimed that they could route the entire internet through one of their boxes. It's amazing how far we've come.

    Oh, and yes, this whole story is redundant. We did this all yesterday.

    --
    Am I part of the core demographic for Swedish Fish?
    1. Re:interesting math by Timesprout · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Can we really use 10,000 of these things

      Maybe not right this second but demand for bandwith is only going to grow, and probably more rapidly than currently, for the foreseeable future as the entire world becomes digitized and goes online

      --
      Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
      What truth?
      There is no dupe
    2. Re:interesting math by afidel · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Cisco's margins are more along the lines of 50-60% depending on the product line. I know because the wireless division was being dumped on for only having ~40% margins. Then the bubble burst and other divisions suddenly had almost no sales so those margins on increasing sales started to look not so bad =)

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
  6. Link to the video... by Ianoo · · Score: 4, Funny

    Presuming that Cisco use their own products, this is just about the first link to a video on /. that isn't going to be /.'d within 5 minutes of the article being posted.

  7. the best news about the router... by jenkin+sear · · Score: 5, Funny

    The source code is available on the net for free!

    --
    What a strange bird is the pelican, his beak can hold more than his belly can.
  8. Video available?!? by imag0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    What the fuck are you gonna see in the video?

    <opening scene>
    box
    <queue the music>
    box with blinkinlights
    <musical creshendo>
    download done box on computer screen!
    <screen dissolve>
    bigass Cisco logo
    </closing scene>
    </music fades>
    call your local rep or 1-800-givemeyourfuckingbankaccount

  9. The right video URL by edyavno · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Video URL posted is outdated: that site is designed for the older browsers (Netscape 4.7) and older players used within Cisco.
    Here's the link that points to the site that has better support for Mozilla/Firefox, Linux and Mac.

  10. That Old Problem by CleverNickedName · · Score: 4, Funny

    A classic breakdown in communication between the hope-they-changed-the-passwords dept. and the like-the-$6-million-man dept.

    --


    Unfortunately, I am not Wil Wheaton
  11. Yeah right. by IainMH · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sorry if this has been mentioned but from zdnet:

    CRS-1, which previously had been code-named HFR for Huge Fast Router,

    Yes yes, I'm sure that while in dev the 'F' stood for 'Fast'.

  12. HFR? by Atrax · · Score: 4, Funny

    > CRS-1, which previously had been code-named HFR for Huge Fast Router,

    HFR : Huge Fast Router?

    BFG 9000 : Big Funky Gun 9000

    transpose with whatever word you feel appropriate. I know what I'm going with.

    --
    Screw you all! I'm off to the pub
  13. Re:Switches by arivanov · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No. It is jumping in a mature market, conceding to the market demands and playing by the market rules. In fact it is the first IP vendor to do so.

    The biggest demand and the main objection to IP by all big telcos since the first days of the Internet has been that you cannot interface routers directly into the provisioning backend and that you have to keep highly qualified expensive staff to run it instead of paying a fraction of that for backend software and coasting on it for 7-9 years.

    Cisco is the first one to comply with this demand from the IP vendors, but not the last one. In fact Juniper is about to follow, others will also jump on the bandwagon.

    It is the first router to have an XML/SOAP interface that can be plugged into the provisioning/maintenance system via an industry standard for interfacing large systems so you no longer need to employ a bunch of CCXX-es to bang on keyboards. In fact it is what carriers have been asking to use MPLS for a while now and similar to what the ITU would have forced down everyone's throat anyway.

    This also means that any CCXX that is not accompanied by computing background has just dropped in value and will continue to drop in value as Cisco releases the new IOS to other devices accompanied by tools.

    I can understand them doing it. Their revenue from certs has nearly leveled now after that mad rush at the end of the boom. It is time to pick up a new revenue stream in the form of upgrades to Cisco Wors (favourite oximoron) and interfacing to carrier systems.

    --
    Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
    http://www.sigsegv.cx/
  14. Surely you could do this more cheaply... by christophersaul · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...by hooking up a few homemade Intel boxes and putting Linux on them, using the same mythical Slashdot architecture that appears to apply to every other kind of computing problem discussed here?

  15. Futurepoll... "TONS of room to grow" by Tackhead · · Score: 5, Funny
    > 92Tbps is total fabric capacity when used in a mesh, 40Gbps is what can be done on a single interface. So this thing can route 2300 40Gbps interfaces when used in a cluster, that's more capacity than any organization can use at this time,

    Future Slashdot Poll: Suppose you had a router that could handle 2300 40Gbps interfaces?

    • 92Tbps ought to be enough for anybody!
    • 92Tbps is insignificant compared to the power of the Slashdot effect!
    • Spoken like someone who's never seen CowboyNeal's pr0n collection.
  16. The REAL name of the router... by doppleganger871 · · Score: 4, Funny

    CRS-1, that's funny...

    Can't Route Shit

    Why didn't they think of something better?

    heh.

    --
    -- Liberalism is a mental disorder.