What is Arista Switch?

The Arista Switch offers true innovation for high performance data center switches delivering support for a programmable forwarding pipeline, flexible profiles, up to 6.4Tbps of forwarding with 24MB of dynamic packet buffer and a choice of interface types in a set of power efficient compact systems. This switch also offers high density, non- blocking ethernet ports that are controlled through an extensible modular Linux based network operating system.

The system design of Arista switch is built around a high performance x86 CPU and 8GB of system memory for the control plane. The CPU is connected to internal flash, bootflash, power supplies, fans, management I/O and peripherals. The x86 CPU is also connected over PICe to the 3.2Tbps Switch on Chip that runs all the data plane forwarding and has all the directly connected front panel ports.

Arista switches are designed for high availability and provide various hardware and software-based availability features that help prevent loss of data flow in the unlikely event of subsystem failure. Additionally, some availability features allow maintenance and replacement of hardware components without powering off the switch, thus ensuring uninterrupted switch operations even during maintenance.