Our panel of judges was most impressed by the raw power of the device. Designed for high-performance environments, like those of the world's top Web site companies, the TeraScale E1200 supports the highest densities in the industry. It features 14 line card slots, two route processor module slots and 672 Gigabit Ethernet ports or 1.34 Tbps of capacity per rack chassis, as well as 56 line-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports. Plus, with its 5 Tbps passive copper backplane, the TeraScale E1200 has the capacity to support future generations of density increases without the expense of a forklift upgrade.

The device also received excellent marks for its innovative functionality. Using its fully distributed architecture, the TeraScale E1200 distributes switching, routing and management functionality between three separate processors, isolating faults and protecting against denial of service attacks. In order to condense the width of the line cards to fit 16 in a chassis, Force10's engineers went back to the drawing board and developed a new way to accommodate more traffic in a single system, providing scalability for future growth. As a bonus, the device has built-in redundancy for key components such as switch fabrics, power supplies and route processor modules, helping ensure maximum network uptime.

However, like a luxury automobile, the TeraScale E1200 comes with an exorbitant price ranging from $150,000 up to $500,000, which one of our judges deemed "unbelievably expensive." Regardless, our panel couldn't deny the TeraScale E1200's unparalleled combination of speed and quality. Additionally, the device has been thoroughly tested in both laboratory environments and production networks, and is backward-compatible with Force10's first generation of switches.

Eric B. Parizo