What is the limit? (was RE: multi-homing fixes)

Wed Aug 29 14:21:40 UTC 2001

On Wed, 29 Aug 2001, Leo Bicknell wrote:

> On Wed, Aug 29, 2001 at 04:58:03AM -0700, Sean M. Doran wrote:
> > If the size or the dynamicism of the global routing system grows
> > for a sustained period faster than the price/performance curve of
> > EITHER memory OR processing power, the Internet will FAIL again.
> 
> This is great FUD.  First rate.  Have you considered working on a
> political campaign?  This statement seems so true, but is so false.
> We are all being held hostage by vendors here, and I hope the rest
> of the people on here are letting them know as loudly as I do at
> every opportunity.
> 
> Routers, in terms of route processing ability, are about as far from
> state of the art as computers get these days.  I can buy a < $1000
> PC with 10x the MIPS and twice the memory of major vendors largest

<snip rant>

There is certainly some truth about re: planned obsolescence of very
expensive routers, but every time I hear this argument, it always seems to
overlook the three most important factors in big router hardware
performance: I/O, I/O and I/O.

Nonetheless, it's still annoying as hell that Cisco can't just allow a GB
or more of RAM in 5-6 figure router and just be done with that aspect of
it...

James Smallacombe		      PlantageNet, Inc. CEO and Janitor
up at 3.am							    http://3.am
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