Cisco Systems

Company:
Cisco Systems

Product Name:
Cisco Catalyst 4500 Switch

Product Type:
Modular switch series for enterprise, business, and metropolitan Ethernet customers

Altera Products Chosen:
Cyclone^® II FPGAs
Quartus^® II Software
Stratix^® II FPGAs

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“My goal in developing next-generation Catalyst 4500 switch products is to produce a cost-effective solution that provides breakthrough performance. To meet that goal, I evaluated several hardware components, and I found that Altera Stratix II and Cyclone II FPGAs provided the most robust solution at a fraction of the cost of alternatives. The density, speed, and price advantage of Stratix II FPGAs enabled me to offload several functions from processors to substantially enhance the overall system throughput, resulting in a solution that delivers unprecedented cost/performance benefits for our customers.”
 
“Altera’s Quartus II software tools allow me to get the design right the first time, and spend less time debugging in the lab. When I do need to troubleshoot problems, the SignalTap^® II embedded logic analyzer feature makes me confident that I can debug any issue.”
 
“After our products ship, we often get great ideas from our customers to improve them. The reconfigurability of Altera FPGAs allows us to consider implementing these features in the field through software upgrades. Altera has really streamlined this process and made our job much easier, resulting in a more flexible product and better support for our customers.”
 
“With Altera, I was able to easily implement my design with a nearly zero compromise approach.  This was the first time in my career that I was afforded this much freedom while still maintaining my primary cost/performance objectives.”

Alex Rose
Hardware Engineer