Re: Getting a "portable" /19 or /20

[Greg Maxwell <gmaxwell () martin fl us>]

On Tue, 10 Apr 2001, James Thomason wrote:

> On Tue, 10 Apr 2001, Majdi S. Abbas wrote:
>
> > On Tue, Apr 10, 2001 at 12:32:03PM -0600, Aaron Dewell wrote:
> > > Memory and CPUs are not really that expensive, it just depends on how
> > > much certain router manufacturers think they can milk out of you for
> > > overpriced hardware.  Considering that you can build a router with a
> > > PC and Linux for better performance, better stability, and better
> > > scalability than a 7200 for about a tenth the price, I fail to see why
> > > any of those boxes continue to be sold...  It just requires actual
> > > quality PC hardware.
> >
> >     Please let me know when your Linux box is capable of doing 
> > line rate forwarding on an OC-192.  
>
> Please let me know when a 7200 will do line rate forwarding on an
> OC-192. :)  Sorry... I had to....I do not think that Linux is exactly cut
> out for the job, but he DID say a 7200. :)

Not to ruffle too many feathers, but I've seen a Linux box (with nice
high-end hardware) line speed forwarding on 6x100fdx. Something a 7200
would be probably not be too happy with.

It's stupid to use general purpose systems as routers. Routing can be done
very efficently with dedicated forwarding hardware and it's a large enough
market that economies of scale should be in effect. 

Since people seriously consider a high-end PC with Linux or *BSD (and 
click for higher performance) for a production router, then something must
be wrong with the price points. :)