Cisco Catalyst 6509-E vs Dell PowerEdge FX2
Side-by-side specifications from the vendors' own documents. The Cisco Catalyst 6509-E is the benchmark 9-slot enterprise core chassis switch that powered global enterprise networks, internet exchange points, and datacenter cores for nearly two decades. The PowerEdge FX2 is a 2U converged modular enclosure that combines the density and efficiency of blade architecture with the cost-effective simplicity of rack systems.
| Cisco Catalyst 6509-E | Dell PowerEdge FX2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Brand | Cisco | Dell |
| Status | end-of-sale | end-of-sale |
| Released | Oct 2004 | Nov 2014 |
| Form factor | modular chassis | modular chassis |
| Chassis slots | 9 | — |
| Supervisor slots | Slots 5 and 6 (redundant supervisors) | — |
| Line card slots | 7 payload line card slots (Slots 1-4, 7-9) | — |
| Chassis height | 15U rack mount | — |
| System bandwidth | Up to 2 Tbps with Supervisor 2T | — |
| Power supplies | Dual hot-swappable power supplies up to 6000W each | — |
| Legacy | One of the most widely deployed modular chassis in networking history | — |
| Chassis size | — | 2U converged modular rack enclosure |
| Sled slots | — | Up to 4x half-width sleds (FC630, FC640) or 8x quarter-width sleds (FC430) or 2x full-width sleds (FC830) |
| Pcie slots | — | FX2s configuration includes 8x PCIe Gen3 expansion slots mapped to sleds |
| Power supply | — | Dual hot-plug redundant 1100W, 1600W, or 2000W Platinum PSUs |
| Io modules | — | Dual pass-through or FN-series I/O aggregators (FN410s, FN410t, FN2210s) |
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