ICX7150 and ICX7250Introduced December 2016 Our understanding is that ICX switches with 7xxx model numbers have Broadcom ASICs as the core switching element and 6xxx are Marvell ASICs. There is no industry standardization of the stacking protocol. Each chip vendor has their own. That the 7150 and 7250 can be stacked with the 7750 [known broadcom] but not the 6610 leads to a consistent picture. So, if this is a broadcom, which one ?? Perhaps some varient of BCM56340. Hard to say. Probably a Helix varient rather than trident. With 1 Gig access ports, this is not an entirely exciting part. There are five varients of the 7150 and five more of the 7250. 24 and 48 ports; with and without PoE. Details are in the data sheets:
Brocade is following the tradition of selling separate access to features as extra cost licenses. Layer 3 features are not in the base price. And the right to run the uplink ports at speeds above 1 Gb/s are likewise an extra-cost item. Charging extra for features is an OK way to return value to the share holders. But management of licenses and keys in an environment that is not entirely homogeneous can be the number one technical assistance item. We are not a fan. |