What Cisco Catalyst 6500 & Catalyst 6500 E-Series Deliver? The Catalyst 6500 Switch is a modular chassis network switch manufactured by Cisco Systems since 1999, capable of delivering speeds of up to 400 million packets per second. A Cisco 6500 comprises a chassis, power supplies, one or two supervisors, line cards and service modules. A chassis can have 3, 4, 6, 9 or 13 slots each (Catalyst model 6503, 6504, 6506, 6509, or 6513, respectively) with the option of one or two modular power supplies. The supervisor engine provides centralized forwarding information and processing; up to two of these cards can be installed in a chassis to provide active/standby or stateful failover. The line cards provide port connectivity and service modules to allow for devices such as firewalls to be integrated within the switch. To support Borderless Networks, the Cisco 6500 switches deliver high performance and a broad feature set suitable for campus, data center, WAN, and Metro Ethernet deployments. About Cisco 6500E Series Switches The Cisco Catalyst 6500-E Series sets the new standard for IP Communications and application delivery in enterprise campus and service provider networks by maximizing user productivity and enhancing operational control. As the premier intelligent, multi-layer modular Cisco switch, the Cisco 6500E Series delivers secure, converged, end-to-end services, from the wiring closet to the core network, the data center, and the WAN edge. The Cisco 6500-E switches offer enhancements to scale beyond the 4000W power supply. Figure 1. Cisco Virtual Switching Supervisor Engine 720 Features
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