Cisco claims its latest router based on its Silicon One chip provides 163-times better power efficiency over its earlier 2012 100G ASR 9000 systems.

In a blog post, Rakesh Chopra, a fellow in Cisco’s Common Hardware Group, explains how Cisco Silicon One “breaks the barrier” to delivering higher capacity systems that efficiently manage power required to cool down active components. It does this, in part, by shrinking the size of the system from 48 rack units (RU) to 1 RU.

Cisco 8201, which is a 1 RU system and part of the new 8000 series routers built on Silicon One chips, provides 10.8 Tb/s of network bandwidth while using only 415W of power. For comparison, Cisco’s NCS 6008, a 10 Tb/s system released in 2014, required at least 2,300 distinct chips assembled into 58 pieces of hardware inside a 48 RU chassis, Chopra explained.

The new 8201 is also 86% more power-efficient than the NCS 6008 using the 2T line-cards, and it is 89% more power-efficient than the ASR 9000 product families using the 8x100G line-cards. 

“This change defines a new era – where we can expect more gains in power efficiency, and at the same time, growth in system capacity to support the internet for the future,” he wrote.

The silicon's programmable infrastructure enables customization to streamline any number of applications from a single chipset. 

“Our goal in advancing power efficiency doesn’t stop with the silicon architecture. We captured gains across the entire system,” Chopra added, citing how the company achieved a 98% decrease per gigabit in the power required for memory in the data plane (per Gbit). 

These smaller systems also reduce transport footprints, which is a win to hyperscalers, Chopra said.

For example, shipping earlier systems required 10 pallets of equipment: a 2,000 lb. shipment with a 570-cubic-foot footprint. Meanwhile, the Silicon One chip technology and Cisco 8000 series ship in one box that weighs 32 lbs. and has a transport footprint of 2.8 cubic-feet, Chopra wrote.

“That’s a 62X reduction in shipping weight and a 202X reduction in shipping transport volume," he said. "Together, that’s a massive reduction in carbon emissions and packaging; magnifying the environmental impact.”

In 2017, U.S. based data centers alone consumed more than 90 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity – an amount equal to 34 massive coal-powered plants generating 500 megawatts each to power the demands of those data centers. 

“That’s a lot of power, and without intervention in some way, shape, or form, these numbers will get worse,” Chopra wrote. “As an organization, we have the 'power' to change how technology is made, creating a lasting effect on global electricity consumption, and ultimately reducing carbon emissions.”

Cisco’s shift to smaller, more power-efficient systems can help hyperscalers meet their own carbon-reduction goals, he added. “Hyperscale providers who want to deploy higher bandwidth systems have no choice but to look for systems with better power efficiency.”