Adam:
[...] Sort of like buying a GbE interface for a 7200 (It only get's
10% throughput... Why waste the money, just buy FE!).
How did the Foundry test lab arrive at those figures, and what substances were consumed at the time?
I used a Cisco 7200 VXR with NPE-400. I used two different 7200's with the exact same results. Bidirectional throughput on 1GbE is a fraction above 10%. Unidirectional is a bit better (23%). Singl line ACL drops it to 8% (permit ip any any). FE performance doesn't start to drop below line rate until you put more than two in the box. I have a powerpoint if you'd like it, but it is not meant to slander Cisco, just to convince my customers NOT to put GbE in a 7200! It is not a GbE platform!
I'd say 300+ mbit/sec on a PA-GE is a more accurate real-world limit, assuming you've got plenty of spare CPU cycles to burn, and no ACL's.
Besides, that's really an apples to oranges comparison. I don't think anyone, including Cisco, has ever made the claim that it can do line rate GbE; that's not to say it isn't useful for certain topologies requiring slightly-faster-than-fast-e router<->switch uplinks, etc.
My powerpoint compares the 7200 with the FastIron 4802 Premium. It is line rate with less than 7 us latency on the two GbE ports. I tested this myself. I can forward this to you if you like. It is a bunch of SmartApps screen captures of the testing. I really like the 7200 VXR. It is a good 10M and minimum FE platform. It can switch DS0 on the midplane and it supports a wide array of interfaces! I just don't like to see it oversubsribed. Many of our customers use the 7200 and have nothing bad to say about it when deployed properly. Gary