Dell Z9100

First product announcement that uses the new Broadcom Tomahawk switch. Trade press article April 23, 2015. Dell has released a data sheet that specs packet buffer at 16 MB. The ports are all QSFP28. This is plug compatible with the older version of QSFP that had 4 ea 10 Gb/s lanes. "28" is the signalling speed of each lane required to get a payload rate of 25 Gb/s. Tomahawk is capable of downshifting the speed of the lanes for plug compatibility with 10G / 40G ports. The Z9100 will have an ONIE boot loader and the first available sofware will be FTOS, a Force-10 derivative. Dell expects other partners like Cumulous and Big Switch will also offer compatible switch images.

12 May 2015