Catalyst 5000 Architecture Components

Copyright © 1999 Boson Software

Written by john@boson.com

NMP - Network Management Process | General control of hardware, config, and Diagnostics Executes Separate instance of STP pre VLAN SNMP agent is Here
MCP - Master Communication Processor | On Supervisor Engine Communication between the NMP and LCP Supports download of run-time code
LCP - Line Control Processor | 8051 processor It processes info from MCP (using SCP) Execute boot code in ROM
SAINT ASIC (Ethernet) | Permits use of half-duplex and full-duplex Encapsulation of Ethernet frame before crossing bus (12 bytes of VLAN ID, port origin, FCS) Each port has its own ASIC 192KB of dedicated RAM Performs ISL Encapsulation
SAGE ASIC (FDDI, ATM…) | Same as SAINT but non-Ethernet
SAMBA ASIC | On both line modules and supervisor module On Supervisor = MASTER (support 13 line cards) On line card = SLAVE (support 48 ports) Supports broadcast suppression Counters gather statistics
EARL - Encoded Address Recognition Logic | Learns network addresses Associates Port, VLAN, and MAC Controls Address Aging (300 seconds) Determines where to send frame LTL helps EARL find destination Port CBL = Color Blocking Logic , Block VLANS, STP Blocking
PHEONIX ASIC - Supervisor III | Enable 3.6-GBPS Crossbar Fabric Layer 3 Switching with EARL II Cisco IOS Software Modular Uplink Support

Flow Through the Switch
A ports DMA controller stores a frames in buffer
· SAINT ASIC requests Permission from BUS Arbiter
· Bus Arbiter Grants Permission
· Frame IS tramitted on BUS
· All ports receive it
· EARL tells non-destination ports to flush it
· Others forward it

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