Aha. It appears I was correct in framing my knowledge as out-of-date. :-) It looks like the technology *has* advanced, and that 10GE on MMF or SMF, single-channel, is what the current state of the art is, and at the $2k-3k unit price. In which case, yes, not offering this (and not building cards to use cheaper and/or more flexible component, ie XENPAK), is likely going to be a huge mistake Cisco. Unless they bite the bullet and do whatever it takes to make xenpak-based 10G cards, on at least some flavour of card on any 10G platform. (I don't really expect a xenpak-compatible version of soho routers to show up, although it *would* be nice as an option on most of their switch families.) So, I sit corrected. ;-) BTW, thanks for pointing this out; it's nice to see that things haven't completely stagnated in the last couple of years. Brian P.S. At that price level, I actually *do* expect another Swede will have, or already has, one or more of this class of box at home. In his WC, even. ;-) P.P.S. He's not crazy. But he *should* have a t-shirt that says "I'm with STUPI". ;-) -----Original Message----- From: Mikael Abrahamsson [mailto:swmike@swm.pp.se] Sent: Sunday, August 29, 2004 12:08 PM To: Dickson, Brian Cc: nanog@merit.edu Subject: Re: optics pricing (Re: Weird GigE Media Converter Behavior) Then why can I purchase 10km 10GE Xenpaks directly from the manufacturer for under $2000?

On the other hand, it'd be nice to see a copper 10GBIC, even if its max cable length were a few metres. ;-)

There is one. It's called CX4 and has a reach of 15 meters. Cisco sold it for $600 list price at first but it has now disappeared from the price list. I don't know why. http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/modules/ps4835/products_data_sheet091 86a008007cd00.html -- Mikael Abrahamsson email: swmike@swm.pp.se