Cisco Systems Inc has upped the performance of its high-end routers with a series of enhancements including processor and interface card upgrades. The new releases will replace the company’s 7000 and 7010 series systems that will cease production in July. The 7200 Series uses the NPE-150 processor, a lower speed alternative to the NPE-150, introduced last June for Cisco 7204 and 7206. The new routers are prices from $4,000 and will start shipping in February. Top-end 7500 systems are based on a new Route-Switch processor, the RSP4, and a new Versatile Interface Processor card, the VIP2-15, for Cisco 7500 series routers. According to Cisco, the RSP4 boosts performance up to 50% for most protocols and the VIP2-15 includes around twice the static RAM capacity of the older VIP2-10, enabling it to support higher-speed, higher-density port adapter modules. Cisco 7505, 7507 and 7513 with 1 RSP4 processor range from $16,900 – $30,900 and are available from February. There are also new high-speed, high density port adapter modules for both 7500 series and 7200 series systems, including full duplex Token Ring, 100VG AnyLAN, full duplex FDDI, ATM OC-3 (155 Mbps), ISDN Primary Rate Interface and ISDN Basic Rate Interface.
