Comparison of Cisco Catalyst 6500 Supervisor Engine Features

Supervisor Engine 32 expands the Intelligent Service of Supervisor Engine 720 to the access layer, and provides cost-effective performance for LAN access, WAN edge and Metro Ethernet access.

Comparison of features of several Cisco Catalyst 6500 Supervisor Engines

Features	Supervisor Engine 720	Supervisor Engine 32	Supervisor Engine 2	Supervisor Engine 1A
Upstream Link	2 Gigabit Ethernet ports-1 GBIC-based, 1 can be set to either GBIC-based or 10/100/1000-based RJ-45	8 Gigabit Ethernet SFP port + 1 10/100/1000 RJ-45 port or 2 10 GB Ethernet XENPAK ports + 1 10/100/1000 RJ-45 Port	2 Gigabit Ethernet GBIC Ports	2 Gigabit Ethernet GBIC Ports
Upstream link queue Structure	Tx 1p2q2t Rx 1p1q4t KB Cache/Port	Tx 1p3q8t Rx 2q8t 9.5 MB Cache/GE port 100 MB Cache/10GE Port	Tx 1p2q2t Rx 1p1q4t 512 KB Cache/Port	Tx 1p2q2t Rx 1p1q4t 512 KB Cache/Port
Uplink Port Scheduling	WRR	DWRR or SRR	WRR	WRR
USB port	None	2 USB 2.0 ports-1 host port and 1 device Port	None	None
Automatic power-off and power-on Restart	Not Supported-only supports cold-start line cards	Supported-you can remotely start the instance on the Console port.	Not Supported-only supports cold-start line cards	Not Supported-only supports cold-start line cards
Backplane	Gbps integrated switching matrix Module	32 Gbps shared bus	32 Gbps shared bus, or Mbps matrix Switching Module SFM)	32 Gbps shared bus
Performance	For CEF720 and dCEF720 interface modules, up to 400 Mpps	15 Mpps	30 Mpps Up to 210 Mpps	15 Mpps
Cisco fast forward (CEF)	Supported	Yes. Use MSFC2A to implement hardware-based CEF forwarding.	Yes. Use MSFC2 to implement hardware-based CEF forwarding.	Not Supported. Only traffic-based forwarding is supported.
Distributed Cisco fast forward	Supported. DFC3 is required.	Not Supported	Supported. DFC is required.	Not Supported
SP NVRAM	2 MBSP)	2 MBSP)	512 KBSP)	512 KBSP)
SP dynamic RAMDRAM)	The default capacity is 512 MB, and can be upgraded to 1 GB on the Supervisor Engine 720 and Supervisor Engine 720-3B; the default capacity on the Supervisor Engine 720-3BXL is 1 GB	The default capacity is 256 MB, which can be upgraded to 512 MB and 1 GB.	The default capacity is 256 MB, which can be upgraded to 512 MB.	The default size is 128 MB.
SP onboard flash BootFlash)	64 MB	256 MB, which is regarded as a boot disk on the command line interface [CLI] through the internal small flash memory)	32 MB	16 MB
Removable Storage	Small flash memory Type II-64, 128 and 256 MB; Hardware supports 512 MB and 1 GB	Small flash memory Type II-64, 128 and 256 MB; The hardware can support 512 MB, 1 GB, and USB	PCMCIA-16, 24 and 64 MB; ATA-64MB	PCMCIA-16, 24 and 64 MB; ATA-64MB
Supported Chassis	All Cisco Catalyst 6500 series chassis and Cisco 7600 series chassis are equipped with fan disks 2 or E series fan disks and power supplies larger than W)	All Cisco Catalyst 6500 series chassis and Cisco 7600 series chassis are equipped with fan disks 2 or E series fan disks and power supplies larger than W)	All Cisco Catalyst 6000 series chassis, Cisco 6500 series chassis, Cisco 7600 series chassis with any fan disk)	All Cisco Catalyst 6000 series chassis, Cisco 6500 series chassis, Cisco 7600 series chassis with any fan disk)
Slot requirements	Use slots 1 and 2 in a 3-slot chassis; Use Slots 5 and 6 in a 6 or 9-slot chassis; Use slots 7 and 8 in a 13-slot chassis	Use slots 1 and 2 in a 3-slot chassis; Use Slots 5 and 6 in a 6 or 9-slot chassis; Use slots 7 and 8 in a 13-slot chassis	Use slots 1 and 2 in all Chassis	Use slots 1 and 2 in all Chassis
Hardware-based forwarding Engine	Onboard PFC3A, PFC3B, or PFC3BXL	Onboard PFC3B	On-board PFC2; cannot be upgraded on site	On-board PFC2; cannot be upgraded on site
MSFC sub-card version	Onboard MSFC3	On-board MSFC2A; layer-3 support is provided after the FCMs with the layer-3 license	Optional MSFC2	Optional For MSFC2; cannot be upgraded on site

Supervisor Engine 32 expands the Intelligent Service of Supervisor Engine 720 to the access layer, and provides cost-effective performance for LAN access, WAN edge and Metro Ethernet access.

The PFC3B and MSFC2A daughter cards of Supervisor Engine 32 provide the following functions:

• PFC3B: Implements hardware-based layer-2 group forwarding and grouping classification, traffic management, and policy execution.
  
• MSFC2A-implements layer-3 Control Panel functions, including address resolution and routing protocols. Compared with MSFC2, MSFC2A provides enhanced upgrade functions and supports up to 1 GB of memory.