Juniper bakes 250Gbps core router chip

Juniper Networks has said it has new silicon in the oven that will soon let its T Series core routers reach a full duplex per-slot capacity of 250 gigabits per second.

On Thursday, the company said trials with products using the chipset, an in-house affair fabbed at 45nm, are penned for the second half of 2010 and will be available for purchase in 2011.

Perhaps a bit early to boast about the chipset — but it's probably no coincidence the word arrives when rumors that Cisco is working on a new carrier core router with speeds of 120Gbps per slot are afloat.

Juniper's T1600 Core Router currently tops off at a per-slot capacity of 100Gbps. Cisco's new product is thought to be an answer to Juniper T Series. That makes today's news an answer to Cisco's answer to Juniper's answer. Or something.

Juniper goes on to boast that the new chipset will allow scaling of 4Tbps though a half-rack box. The chipset will also include diagnostic capabilities, auto detection and "self-healing," and — for your mandatory green pitch — it has "significant power efficiency features to enable more environmentally conscious data center and service provider networks."

Mind you, Cisco has not formally announced any updates to its carrier core router line. And if the whispers true, the company may be having some issues with the supporting ASIC design that could delay the product until 2011. Perhaps with Juniper's pre-emptive attack, we'll be hearing something from Cisco soon. ®