The Versatile Interface Processor 4 (VIP4) for the high-end Cisco 7500 router series enables high-performance switching, and scalable LAN and WAN intelligent network services to meet the needs of high-performance applications. It provides over twice the distributed switching performance and twice the aggregate bandwidth of previous model VIPs, employs higher-capacity memory modules for rich IP services, and utilizes Error Correction Code (ECC) for increased system availability. The VIP4 serves as an ideal platform for enterprise and service-provider networks that require high performance and processing power to support service-enabled edge and core applications. The VIP4 is a highly configurable, RISC-based, intelligent interface processor. Port Adapters (PAs) provide the media-specific interfaces for the VIP4, enabling the VIP4 configuration to be optimized in terms of price, performance, and density, up to two PAs can be configured on each VIP4. More than 50 media-specific LAN and WAN PAs are supported, including Fast Ethernet, T1/E1, High-Speed Serial Interface (HSSI), T3/E3, T3/E3 ATM, multichannel T1/E1, multichannel T3/E3, OC-3 ATM, packet over SONET (POS), and OC-12 ATM. The VIP4 greatly increases the switching performance of the Cisco 7500 series and serves as an ideal platform for new, higher-speed, higher-density LAN and WAN interfaces. On the Cisco 7500 series, VIP4 distributed switching scales system performance to over two million packets per second (pps). In addition, the VIP4 features Single-Error-Correction, Double-Error-Detection Code (SECDED) logic, detecting and correcting single event upsets within a data word. This enables greater system resiliency and continued system availability in the presence of a single-event parity upset. A key VIP4 feature is its ability to receive and execute on route information provided by the master Route Switch Processor (RSP). Based on this route data, a VIP4 can make its own Layer 3 switching decisions.
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