Do you see 10 GigE over copper being driven by need, cost or a combination?
McCool: Ten GigE cost curve for copper-based connections over twisted pair will follow a slower timeline than we saw with GigE. There are power consumption challenges, such as the power needed to drive copper interconnect over 10 GigE. It will take several generations of silicon to achieve the density that’ll be appropriate for the desktop, but prior to that you’ll see strong interest in 10 GigE the data center. What’s Cisco’s stance on cabling regarding Category 5 vs. Category 5e? Obviously, Cat5 is widely deployed and companies have an investment in it, yet there are performance gains to be had with Cat5e. McCool: For new deployments, customers are future-proofing their cable plans, moving to Cat5e. Our equipment for GigE will run fine forever with Cat5 cable. As new capabilities emerge, such as 10 GigE, there emerges the prospect of operating over longer distance, perhaps longer than the standard cable, so I think that for new installations, Cat5e or higher makes sense. But I don’t
