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Supervisor engines can be configured with optional factory-installed daughter cards—a Policy Feature Card (PFC)
providing hardware-based Layer-2 forwarding, and a Multilayer Switch Feature Card (MSFC) providing Layer 3
capabilities.
A supervisor engine performs controloperations centrallyon processors thatrun eitherCisco IOS Softwareor Cisco
Catalyst Operating System Software while special-purpose application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) perform
bridging and routing (based on Cisco Express Forwarding), QoS marking and policing, and access control. The same
ASICs are used on the DFCs, daughter cards that can be installed on certain interface modules to distribute
forwarding in a decentralized fashion to achieve system forwarding rates of up to 400 Mpps (Table 2).
For additional information about the following Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series supervisor engines visit:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps708/products_data_sheets_list.html
• Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Engine 720 Data Sheet
• Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Engine 1A and Supervisor Engine 2 Data Sheet
Ethernet Interface Modules
Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Ethernet interface modules, designed for wiring closet, distribution and core, and data
center applications, as well as service provider and Metro Ethernet environments, use one of the following types
of Ethernet interfaces:
Table 2 Cisco Catalyst 6500 Supervisor Engines
Feature Supervisor Engine 1 Supervisor Engine 2 Supervisor Engine 720
Solution and Market Wiring closet Enterprise distribution,
core, and WAN edge;
service provider WAN and
Internet edge
Enterprise core and data center;
service provider metro; wireless;
national research networks; grid
computing
Forwarding
Architectures
Supported
Centralized forwarding
only—engine located on
supervisor engine’s PFCx
daughter card
Centralized CEF—engine
located on supervisor
engine’s PFCx daughter
card;
Distributed CEF—engine
located on interface
module’s DFC daughter
card
Centralized CEF—engine located
on Supervisor Engine 720’s PFC3
daughter card;
Distributed CEF—engine located
on interface module’s DFC3
daughter card;
Accelerated CEF—engine located
on interface module’s ASICs
Fabric Connections 32-Gbps shared bus
connection to modules
16 Gbps per slot; Dual-
fabric connection to
modules at 8 Gbps full
duplex per channel
40 Gbps per slot;
Dual-fabric connection to
modules at 20 Gbps full duplex
per channel
Performance
Maximum (Mpps)
15 Mpps 210 Mpps Sustained 400 Mpps— dCEF720
Peak 400 Mpps—aCEF720
DFC Modules Not supported DFC DFC3
Route Processor On MSFC2 daughter card
(optional)
On MSFC2 daughter card
(optional)
MSFC3 integrated
PFC Modules PFC daughter card
(optional)
PFC2 integrated PFC3 integrated
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