The 40-port module increases the density of the ExaScale E1200 core switch to 560 10Gbps Ethernet ports in a single half-rack chassis. Of those ports, 140 run at line rate while the remainder are oversubscribed, the company says.
Other contenders include Cisco's Nexus 7018, with 512 10G ports (64 line rate); Brocade's MLX 32, with 128 line rate 10G ports; Extreme's BlackDiamond, with 194 ports (65 line rate); 3Com's H3C 12518, with 512 10G ports (128 line rate); and Juniper's EX 8216, with 128 line rate 10G ports.
Market tracker Dell'Oro Group says 10G, which makes up 25% of the market in terms of revenue, will drive growth in Ethernet switching this year. It was the only segment of the switching market to show sequential growth in ports and revenue in 2009.
Dell'Oro expects 10G to reach $3.6 billion in revenue for 2010, up from $2.8 billion in 2009. The overall Ethernet switching market is expected to increase 4% to $16.3 billion, according to the firm.
Of that, Force10 owns less than 1% but the company is typically among the leaders in modular 10G ports shipped, due to its presence in supercomputing centers.
