A Silicon Chip Developed in Israel Powers Cisco’s New Router Series

A silicon chip developed in Israel is powering Cisco’s new router series, designed to support the next generation of web services. At a press conference held in San Francisco last week, Nasdaq-listed networking hardware company Cisco Systems Inc. unveiled its new Cisco 8000 Series of carrier-class routers, built using Cisco Silicon One chips, developed at the company’s Israel research and development center. According to Cisco, the new routers will help internet carriers reduce bottlenecks and offer a broadband infrastructure fit for future online services.

Located in coastal town Caesarea, Cisco Israel was established following the 2016 acquisition of chip startup Leaba Semiconductor Ltd. New technologies, such as fiber-optic cables and 5G cellular internet, have already significantly increased connection speeds between users and internet curriers, but, according to Cisco, the ever-increasing demand for wider broadband creates bottlenecks in the curriers’ facilities.

This is only going to get worse, according to Cisco, as more demanding technologies—including virtual reality, 16K video streaming, and artificial intelligence-based services—surface and the number of internet users rises from 3.4 billion in 2018 to 4.8 billion in 2022. The amount of data transferred in 2022 is estimated to equal all of the data transferred up to this point in time, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins said at the event. What the world needs, Robbins said, is internet for what is coming—with greater capacity and speed but with a lower price tag.

Cisco hopes the new router, which it says can handle a rate of 10.8 terabytes a second, will stand at the center of internet carriers’ telecommunication systems, replacing complex clusters of routers and servers that consume vasts amounts of electricity and require significant cooling.

At the heart of the router is the Cisco Silicon One chip which is based on technology developed by Leaba. The company claims the chip can process up to 25 terabytes a second, the equivalent of 6,250 HD feature films or over 6 million photos at a resolution of 12 megapixels. According to Cisco, the chip is compatible with various platforms and can process universal data from different services.

Calcalist's reporter was invited to the event as a guest by Cisco.