Cisco Programmable ASICs and The Importance of Flexible Silicon with Dave Zacks

Dave Zacks, Distinguished Systems Engineer at Cisco, discusses why flexibility in networking has never been more important.  The way network engineers design, build, and operate networks is changing rapidly.  Traditional network silicon hardware – the network ASICs that form the heart of networking gear – lack the flexibility to handle the rapidly changing networking needs of today – and tomorrow.  Cisco saw this trend coming, and has created Flexible Silicon – networking ASICs that can be reprogrammed to handle new encapsulations, new protocols, and new capabilities as they arise.