ASIC’S in Cisco Catalyst switches

Posted on by Malinda Rathnayake2 Comments on ASIC’S in Cisco Catalyst switches

Preface-

After I started working with Open networking switches, wanted to know more about the Cisco catalyst range I work with every day.

Information on older ASICS is very hard to find, but recently they have started to talk a lot about the new chips like UADP 2.0 with the Catalyst 9k / Nexus launch, This is more likely due to the rise of Desegregated Network Operating Systems DNOS such as Cumulus and PICA8, etc forcing customers to be more aware of what’s under the hood rather than listening and believing shiny PDF files with a laundry list of features.

The information was there but scattered all over the web, I went though CiscoLive, TechFieldDay slides/videos, interviews, partner update PDFs, Press leases and whitepapers and even LinkedIn profiles to gather information

If you notice a mistake please let me know

Scope –

we are going to focus on the ASIC’s used in the well-known 2960S/X/XR and the 36xx,37xx,38XX  and the new Cat 9K series

Timeline

 

Summary

Cisco Brought a bunch of companies to acquire the switching technology they needed that later bloomed into the switching platforms we know today

  • Crescendo Communications (1993) – Catalyst 5K and 6K chassis
  • Kalpana (1994) – Catalyst 3K (Fun Fact they invented VLANs that later got standardized as 802.1q)
  • Grand Junction (1995) – Catalyst 17xx, 19xx, 28xx, 29xx
  • Granite Systems (1996) – Catalyst 4K (K series ASIC)

After the original Cisco 3750/2950 switches, Cisco 3xxx/2xxx-G  (G for Gigabit) was released

Next, the Cisco 3xxx-E series with enterprise management functions was released

later, Cisco developed the Cisco 3750-V series with the function of energy-saving version for –E series, later replaced by Cisco 3750 V2 series (Possibly a die shrink)

G series and E series were later phased out and integrated into Cisco X series. which is still being sold and supported

in 2017-2018 Cisco released the catalyst 9k family to replace the 2K and 3K families

Sasquatch ASIC

from what I could  find there are two variants of this ASIC

The initial release in 2003

  • Fixed pipeline ASIC
  • 180 Nano-meter process
  • 60 Million Transistors

Shipped with the 10/100 3750 and 2960

Die Shrink to 130nm in 2005

  • Fixed pipeline ASIC
  • 130 Nano-meter process
  • 210 Million Transistors

Shipped in the 2960-G/3560-G/3750-G series

I couldn’t find much info about the chip design. will update this section when I find more.

 Strider ASIC

Initially Release in 2010

  • Fixed pipeline ASIC
  • Built on the 65-nanometer process
  • 1.3 Billion Transistors

Strider ASIC (circa 2010) was an improved design based on the 3750-E series was first shipped with the 2960-S family.

S88G_ASIC design
S88G ASIC

later in 2012-2013 with a die shrink to 45-nanometer, they managed to fit 2 ASICs in the same silicon, This shipped with the 2960-X/XR which replaced the 2960-S

  • higher stack speeds and features
  • limited layer 3 capabilities IP Lite feature (2960-XR only)
  • Better QoS and Netflow lite

Later down the line they silently rolled the ASIC design to a 32-nanometer process for better yield to achieve cheaper manufacturing costs

this switch is still being sold with no EOL announced as a cheaper Acess layer switch

On a side note – in 2017 Cisco released another version of the 2960 family the WS-2960-L This is a cheaper version built on a Marvel ASIC (Same as the SG55x) with a web UI and fanless design. I personally think this is the next evolution of their SMB market-oriented family the popular Cisco SG-5xx series. for the first the time the 2960 family had a fairly usable and pleasant web interface for the configuration and management. the new 9K series seems to be containing a more polished version of the web-UI

Unified Access Data Plane (UADP)

Due to the limitations in the fixed pipeline architecture and the costs involved with the re-rolling process to fix bugs they needed something new and had three options

As a compromise between all three Cisco Started dreaming up this programmable ASIC design in 2007-2008 the idea was to build a chip with programmable stages that can be updated with firmware updates instead of writing the logic into the silicon permanently.

they released the programmable ASIC technology initially for their QFP (Quantum flow processor) ASIC in the ISR router family to meet the customer needs (service providers and large enterprises)

This chip allowed them to support advanced routing technologies and new protocols without changing hardware simply via firmware updates improving the longevity of the investment allowing them to make more money out of the chips extended life cycle.

Eventually, this technology trickled downstream and the Doppler 1.0 was born

Improvements and features in UADP 1.0/1.1/2.0

  • Programmable stages in the pipeline
  • Cisco intent Driven networking support – DNA Center with ISE
  • Intergarted Stacking Support with Stack power – ASIC is built with pinouts for the stacking fabric allowing faster stacking performance
  • Rapid Recirculation (Encapsulation such as MPLS, VXLAN)
  • TrustSec
  • Advance on-chip QOS
  • Software-defined networking support – integrated NetFlow, SD access
  • Flex Parser – Programmable packet parser allowing them to introduce support for new protocols with firmware updates
  • On-chip Micro-engines – Highly specialized engines within in the chip to perform repetitive tasks such as
    • Reassembly
    • Encryption/Decryption
    •  Fragmentation
  • CAPWAP – Switch can function as a wireless Lan Controller
    • Mobility agent – Offload Qo and other functions from the WLC (IMO Works really nicely with multi-site wireless deployments)
    • Mobility Controller – Fullblown Wireless LAN controller (WLC)
  • Extended life cycle allowed integration of Cisco security technologies such as Cisco DNA + ISE later down the line even on the first generation switches
  • Multigig and 40GE speed support
  • Advanced malware detection capabilities via packet fingerprinting

Legacy Fixed pipeline architecture

Programmable pipeline architecture

Doppler/UADP 1.0 (2013)

While doppler1.0 programmable ASIC handling the Data plane coupled with Cavium CPU for the control plane the first generation of the switches to ship with these chip was the 3650-x and 3850-x gigabit versions

  • Built on 65 Nanometer Process
  • 1.3 billion transistors

UADP 1.1 (2015)

  • Die Shrink to 45 Nanometer
  • 3 billion transistors

UADP 2.0 (2017)

  • Built on 28nm/16nm Process
  • Equipped with an Intel Xeon D (Dual-core X86) CPU for the control plane
  • Open-IOS-XE

7.4 billion transistors

Flexible ASIC Templates –  

Allows Cisco to write templates that can optimize the chip resources for different use cases

the new Catalyst 9000 series will replace the following campus switching families built on the older Strider and more recent UADP 1 and 1.1 ASICS

  • Catalyst 2K —–> Catalyst 9200
  • Catalyst 3K —–> Catalyst 9300
  • Catalyst 4K —–> Catalyst 9400
  • Catalyst 6K —–> Catalyst 9500

I’m will update/fix this post when I find more info about the UADP 2 and the next evolution, stay tuned for a few more articles based on the silicon used in open networking X86 chassis.