Cisco N9K-X97160YC-EX Line Card
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Model: N9K-X97160YC-EX
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The Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches provide a foundation for modern data centers, designed to meet the growing demands of cloud applications, virtualization, and high-performance computing. Built on advanced Cisco Cloud Scale ASIC technology, these switches deliver high performance, scalability, and energy efficiency across enterprise, service provider, and cloud environments.
These networking platforms give organizations the operational flexibility to run in two distinct modes. Network administrators can choose between standard Cisco NX-OS software for traditional standalone deployments or automated, policy-driven infrastructure using Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) mode. This dual-operating capability allows businesses to modernize their infrastructure at their own pace without compromising on security or operational efficiency.
Product overview
The Cisco Nexus 9000 Series portfolio includes a diverse range of fixed and modular options, primarily centered around the Cisco Nexus 9300 fixed-configuration family and the Cisco Nexus 9500 modular series. Within the Nexus 9300 lineup, Cisco offers several sub-series, including the Nexus 9300-EX, 9300-FX, 9300-FX2, 9300-FX3, 9300-GX, and 9300-GX2 models. These fixed platforms support flexible port configurations with connection speeds spanning 1GbE, 10GbE, 25GbE, 50GbE, 100GbE, and up to 400GbE.
The Nexus 9300-EX and FX series switches provide high-density 1/10/25GbE copper and fiber ports for access and leaf deployments, paired with high-speed 40/100GbE uplinks. Building on these capabilities, the FX2 and FX3 platforms deliver higher port densities, enhanced security features, and improved latency performance. For ultra-high-bandwidth cloud environments and core deployments, the Nexus 9300-GX and GX2 series offer scalable 100GbE and high-density 400GbE switches designed for dense traffic handling.
Complementing the fixed portfolio, the Cisco Nexus 9500 Series modular switches provide a customizable chassis architecture. Supporting a variety of line cards, supervisor modules, and system controllers, the Nexus 9500 platform enables organizations to scale their data center core and spine layer capacity efficiently while maintaining investment protection.
Features and benefits
- Dual Operating Systems: Supports both standard Cisco NX-OS software for traditional management and Cisco ACI mode for policy-driven, automated fabric operations.
- High Performance and Port Density: Provides flexible interface options supporting multi-rate speeds from 1GbE, 10GbE, 25GbE, 50GbE, and 100GbE up to 400GbE connectivity to handle dense workloads without bandwidth bottlenecks.
- Cisco Cloud Scale ASIC Architecture: Utilizes custom silicon technology to deliver enhanced buffer management, lower power consumption, high packet throughput, and hardware-based telemetry.
- Deep Telemetry and Real-Time Analytics: Offers line-rate hardware streaming telemetry, flow tables, and packet tracking for full network visibility and integration with analytical platforms like Cisco Nexus Dashboard.
- Integrated Line-Rate Security: Features hardware-based MACsec encryption on select models and ports, protecting data in transit across leaf, spine, and inter-data center connections.
- Modern Fabric Architecture: Supports VXLAN with BGP EVPN control plane, enabling scalable, multi-tenant layer 2 and layer 3 overlay networks over traditional IP underlays.
- High Availability and Reliability: Equipped with hot-swappable, redundant power supplies and fan units, combined with software features like non-disruptive In-Service Software Upgrades (ISSU) to maximize uptime.
Product overview
The Cisco N9500 switching platform (Figure 1) offers three modular chassis:
● Cisco N9500 4-slot switch
● Cisco N9500 8-slot switch
● Cisco N9500 16-slot switch
Cisco N9500 Series Cloud-Scale Switch Chassis
The Cisco N9500 Series modular switches support a comprehensive selection of cloud-scale line cards and fabric modules that provide 1-, 10-, 25-, 40-, 50-, 100-, 200-, and 400-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. A cloud scale line card provides up to 6.4 Terabits per second (Tbps) per slot and each cloud scale fabric module provides up to 1.6 Tbps to each line card slot. Using these cloud-scale line cards the Cisco N9500 Series switches can be configured with up to.
1. 192 400-Gigabit Ethernet ports (or)
2. 384 200-Gigabit Ethernet ports (or)
3. 1024 100-Gigabit Ethernet ports (or)
4. 2048 50-Gigabit Ethernet ports (or)
5. 1024 40-Gigabit Ethernet ports (or)
6. 2304 25-Gigabit Ethernet ports (or)
7. 2304 1/10-Gigabit Ethernet ports
Note: This data sheet specifies hardware capabilities only. Please refer to Cisco ACI or Cisco NX-OS software release notes and appropriate feature documentation for more details.
Cisco N9500 platform cloud-scale line cards
The Cisco N9500 platform supports a rich selection of hot-swappable multispeed cloud-scale line cards and fabric modules optimized for data-center deployments. These cloud-scale line cards and fabric modules, built using Cisco cloud-scale ASICs, provide the ideal foundation for large scalable data centers. The Cisco clouds-scale ASICs provide enhanced performance and features that are required to meet the evolving needs of the world’s largest cloud-scale data centers. These ASICs not only support foundational L2/L3 networking capabilities but also support enhanced capabilities such as policy-based fabric architectures (ACI or VXLAN), smart buffering, integrated line rate security, and real-time streaming telemetry over multispeed Ethernet ports.
The latest Cisco 400-Gigabit cloud-scale ASICs also support Segment Routing over IPv6 (SRv6) and enhanced streaming telemetry capabilities.
Table 1. Cisco N9500 cloud-scale line cards
| Line Card Type |
Description |
| 400-Gbps line cards |
|
| N9K-X9716D-GX: 400-Gigabit Ethernet Line Card
|
● 16-port 400-Gigabit Ethernet Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable Double Density (QSFP-DD) line card
● Every port is 1x400-, 4x100-, 2x100G-, 4x50-, 4x40-, 4x25-, and 4x10-Gigabit Ethernet breakout capable
*
|
| 100-Gbps line cards |
|
| N9K-X9736C-FX3: 100-Gigabit Ethernet Line Card
|
● 36-port 100-Gigabit Ethernet Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable 28 (QSFP28) line card
● Every port is 1x100-, 2x50-, 1x40-, 4x25-, 4x10-, and 1x10-Gigabit Ethernet breakout capable
*
● Ports 1 – 28 support 1 Gigabit Ethernet
|
| N9K-X9736C-FX: 100-Gigabit Ethernet Line Card
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● 36-port 100-Gigabit Ethernet Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable 28 (QSFP28) line card
● Every port is 1x100-, 2x50-, 1x40-, 4x25-, 4x10-, and 1x10-Gigabit Ethernet breakout capable
*
● Ports 1 – 28 support 1 Gigabit Ethernet
|
| N9K-X9732C-EX: 100-Gigabit Ethernet Line Card
|
● 32-port 100-Gigabit Ethernet Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable 28 (QSFP28) line card
● Every port is 1x100-, 2x50-, 1x40-, 4x25-, 4x10-, and 1x1/10-Gigabit Ethernet breakout capable
*
|
| N9K-X9732C-FX: 100-Gigabit Ethernet Line Card
|
● 32-port 100-Gigabit Ethernet Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable 28 (QSFP28) line card
● Every port is 1x100-, 2x50, 1x40-, 4x25-, 4x10-, and 1x1/10-Gigabit Ethernet breakout capable
*
● Supports 4+1 FM redundancy
|
| N9K-X9736C-EX: 100-Gigabit Ethernet Line Card
|
● 36-port 100-Gigabit Ethernet Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable 28 (QSFP28) line card
● Every port is 1x100-, 2x50-, 1x40-, 4x25-, 4x10-, and 1x1/10-Gigabit Ethernet breakout capable
*
|
| 10/25-Gbps Fiber Line Cards |
|
| N9K-X97160YC-EX: 1/10/25-Gigabit Ethernet Access-Layer and 10/40/100-Gigabit Ethernet Aggregation-Layer Line Card
|
● 48-port 1-, 10-, and 25-Gigabit Ethernet SFP+ and 4-port 40/100-Gigabit Ethernet QSFP28 line card
|
| 10-Gbps copper line cards |
|
| N9K-X9788TC-FX: 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet BaseT Access-Layer and 40/100 Gigabit Ethernet Aggregation-Layer Line Card
|
● 48-port 100-Megabit and 1/10-Gigabit Ethernet BASE-T and 4-port 40/100-Gigabit Ethernet QSFP28 line card
|
Table 2. Cisco N9500 cloud-scale line card use-case summary
| Line Card/Features |
Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco ACI spine |
MACSec |
N+1 FM redundancy |
| X9716D-GX |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| X9736C-FX3 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| X9736C-FX |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| X9732C-EX |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
| X9732C-FX |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
| X9736C-EX |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
| X97160YC-EX |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
| X9788TC-FX |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
No |
Table 3. Cisco N9500 cloud-scale line card specifications
| Line card |
FM required for max bandwidth |
FM required for N+1 redundancy |
Performance |
Packet buffer |
| X9716D-GX |
4 |
N/A |
12.8 Tbps 4.3 bpps |
160 MB |
| X9732C-EX |
4 |
N/A |
6.4 Tbps 4.3 bpps |
160 MB |
| X9736C-FX3 |
5* |
N/A |
7.2 Tbps 2.4 bpps |
160 MB |
| X9736C-FX |
5* |
N/A |
7.2 Tbps 2.4 bpps |
160 MB |
| X9732C-FX |
4 |
5# |
6.4 Tbps 2.16 bpps |
160 MB |
| X9736C-EX |
4 |
N/A |
6.4 Tbps 4.9 bpps |
160 MB |
| X97160YC-EX |
4 |
N/A |
3.2 Tbps 2.17 bpps |
80 MB |
| X9788TC-FX |
4 |
N/A |
1.76 Tbps 0.59 bpps |
80MB |
Select EX, FX, FX3 and GX line cards can be installed together in the same Cisco N9500 chassis. In such a configuration, the chassis supports a maximum of four fabric modules and any additional fabric modules installed will be powered down. Any features or capabilities that require more than four fabric modules will be automatically disabled in such a configuration.
Cisco N9500 cloud-scale platform fabric modules and performance
The Cisco N9500 platform is designed as a Clos fabric that interconnects each line card directly with each rear-mounted fabric module.All traffic between the line cards is load balanced across all fabric modules, providing optimal bandwidth distribution within the chassis. This load-balancing capability provides enhanced system reliability and redundancy. The switch continues to operate even in the event of a loss of a fabric module, albeit at a lower capacity, as the remaining fabric modules continue to provide switching capacity to the line cards.
The Cisco N9500 Cloud Scale platform supports the following fabric modules:
● 4-slot and 8-slot FM-G fabric modules that provide up to 1.6 Tbps capacity per line card slot.
● 8-slot and 16-slot FM-E2 fabric modules that provide up to 800 Gbps capacity per line card slot.
● 4-slot, 8-slot, and 16-slot FM-E fabric modules that provide up to 800 Gbps capacity per line card slot.
These fabric modules provide upgradability and investment protection for the Cisco N9500 Series chassis. All fabric modules installed in a chassis should be of the same type.
Table 4. Cisco N9500 cloud-scale line cards and FM-G Fabric Module Compatibility
| Line card/FM |
C9504-FM-G |
C9508-FM-G |
| X9716D-GX |
Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS |
| X9736C-FX3 |
Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS |
| X9736C-FX |
Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS |
| X9732C-EX |
Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS |
| X9732C-FX |
Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco NX-OS |
| X9736C-EX |
Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco NX-OS |
| X97160YC-EX |
Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco NX-OS |
| X9788TC-FX |
Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco NX-OS |
Table 5. Cisco N9500 cloud-scale line cards and FM-E/E2 Fabric Modules Compatibility
| Line card/FM |
C9504-FM-E |
C9508-FM-E |
C9516-FM-E |
C9508-FM-E2 |
C9516-FM-E2 |
| X9716D-GX |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
| X9736C-FX3 |
Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS |
| X9736C-FX |
Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS |
| X9732C-EX |
Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS |
| X9732C-FX |
Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco NX-OS |
| X9736C-EX |
Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco NX-OS |
| X97160YC-EX |
Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco NX-OS |
| X9788TC-FX |
Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco NX-OS |
Cisco NX-OS |
The Cisco N9500 Cloud Scale line cards support several forwarding templates to efficiently allocate onboard memory for varying deployment scenarios.
Note: This data sheet specifies hardware capabilities only. Please refer to Cisco ACI or Cisco NX-OS software release notes and appropriate feature documentation for more details.
Table 6. Cisco N9500 Cloud-Scale Line Cards: Product Specifications – Performance and Scale1
| Cisco N9500 Series cloud-scale line cards (X9716D-GX) |
Cisco N9500 Series cloud-scale line cards (X9736C-FX3, X9736C-FX, X9732C-FX, X9788TC-FX) |
Cisco N9500 Series cloud-scale line cards (X9732C-EX, X9736C-EX, X97160YC-EX) |
|
| Number of Longest Prefix Match (LPM) route entries |
IPv4: Upto 2 million IPv6: 1,900 to 1 million (based on prefix length) |
IPv4: Up to 2 million IPv6: 1,900 to 1 million (based on prefix length) |
IPv4: up to 1 million IPv6: 1900 to 500,000 (based on prefix length) |
| Number of IP host entries |
IPv4: up to 2 million IPv6: up to 32,000 |
IPv4: up to 2 million IPv6: up to 32,000 |
IPv4: up to 1 million IPv6: up to 16,000 |
| Number of MAC address entries |
Up to 1 million |
Up to 512,000 |
Up to 512,000 |
| Number of multicast routes |
Up to 131,000 |
Up to 131,000 |
Up to 32,000 |
| Number of Interior Gateway Management Protocol (IGMP) snooping groups |
With VPC: 4000 to 32,000 Without VPC: 8000 to 32,000 |
With VPC: 4000 to 32,000 Without VPC: 8000 to 32,000 |
With VPC: 4000 to 32,000 Without VPC: 8000 to 32,000 |
| Number of VLANs |
Up to 4096 |
Up to 4096 |
Up to 4096 |
| Number of Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) instances |
Up to 16,000 |
Up to 16,000 |
Up to 16,000 |
| Number of port channels |
Up to 512 |
Up to 512 |
Up to 512 |
| Number of port channel links |
Up to 32 |
Up to 32 |
Up to 32 |
| Number of Equal Cost Multipath (ECMP) paths |
Up to 64 |
Up to 64 |
Up to 64 |
| Number of active Cisco Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN) sessions |
4 to 32 |
4 to 32 |
4 to 32 |
| Number of Multiple Spanning Tree (MST) instances |
Up to 64 |
Up to 64 |
Up to 64 |
| Number of Rapid per-VLAN Spanning Tree (RPVST) instances |
Up to 4000 |
Up to 4000 |
Up to 4000 |
| Number of Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP) groups |
Up to 490 |
Up to 490 |
Up to 490 |
| Number of tunnel endpoints (VTEP) and VXLAN physical servers per VLAN |
Up to 10,000 |
Up to 10,000 |
Up to 10,000 |
Supported optics modules
Each Cisco N9500 cloud-scale line card supports an extensive set of optic modules. The Cisco Optics Compatibility Matrix (https://tmgmatrix.cisco.com/home) provides the list of optics supported on each line card.
Mechanical specifications
Table 7. Cisco N9500 Cloud-Scale Line Cards: Product Specifications – Mechanical
| X9716D-GX |
X9732C-EX |
X9736C-FX3 |
X9736C-FX |
X9732C-FX |
X9736C-EX |
X97160YC-EX |
X9788TC-FX |
|
| Weight |
15.2 lb 6.8 kg |
12.13 lb 5.5 kg |
14.38 lb 6.5 kg |
14.38 lb 6.5 kg |
15 lb 6.8 kg |
14.77 lb 6.7 kg |
12.75 lb 5.78 kg |
13 lb 5.9 kg |
| Typical power |
650 W |
430 W |
690 W |
607 W |
520 W |
632 W |
415 W |
513 W |
| Maximum power |
1680 W |
720 W |
1075 W |
900 W |
840 W |
792 W |
516 W |
684 W |
| Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) hours |
338,442 |
481,470 |
368,050 |
420,050 |
429,090 |
476,970 |
580,050 |
429,630 |
| Hot swappable |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Airflow |
Port-side intake |
Port-side intake |
Port-side intake |
Port-side intake |
Port-side intake |
Port-side intake |
Port-side intake |
Port-side intake |
Table 8. Cisco N9500 FM-G Cloud-Scale Fabric Modules: Product Specifications – Mechanical
| N9K-C9504-FM-G |
N9K-C9508-FM-G |
|
| Total capacity |
6.4 Tbps |
12.8 Tbps |
| Capacity (per slot) |
1.6 Tbps |
1.6 Tbps |
| Maximum flow size |
400 Gbps |
400 Gbps |
| Weight |
7.7 lb (3.4 kg) |
14.08 lb (6.3 kg) |
| Typical power |
455 W |
685 W |
| Maximum power |
504 W |
936 W |
| MTBF hours |
551,390 |
455,270 |
| Hot swappable |
Yes |
Yes |
| Airflow |
Port-side intake |
Port-side intake |
Table 9. Cisco N9500 Cloud-Scale FM-E/E2 Fabric Modules: Product Specifications – Mechanical
| N9K-C9504-FM-E |
N9K-C9508-FM-E |
N9K-C9508-FM-E2 |
N9K-C9516-FM-E |
N9K-C9516-FM-E2 |
|
| Total capacity |
3,200 Gbps |
6,400 Gbps |
6,400 Gbps |
12,800 Gbps |
12,800 Gbps |
| Capacity (per slot) |
800 Gbps |
800 Gbps |
800 Gbps |
800 Gbps |
800 Gbps |
| Maximum flow size |
100 Gbps |
100 Gbps |
100 Gbps |
50 Gbps |
100 Gbps |
| Weight |
6.6 lb (2.98 kg) |
11.6 lb (5.28 kg) |
10.94 lb (5.0 kg) |
22.7 lb (10.3 kg) |
20.31 lb (9.21 kg) |
| Typical power |
234 W |
455 W |
266 W |
980 W |
439 W |
| Maximum power |
313 W |
570 W |
420 W |
1320 W |
900 W |
| MTBF hours |
829,890 |
653,420 |
642,820 |
363,100 |
515,870 |
| Hot swappable |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Airflow |
Port-side intake |
Port-side intake |
Port-side intake |
Port-side intake |
Port-side intake |
Regulatory standards compliance
Table 10. Regulatory standards compliance: safety and EMC
| Specification |
Description |
| Regulatory compliance |
Products should comply with CE Markings according to directives 2004/108/EC and 2006/95/EC |
| Safety |
● UL 60950-1 Second Edition
● CAN/CSA-C22.2 No. 60950-1 Second Edition
● EN 60950-1 Second Edition
● IEC 60950-1 Second Edition
● AS/NZS 60950-1
● GB4943
|
| EMC: Emissions |
● 47CFR Part 15 (CFR 47) Class A
● AS/NZS CISPR22 Class A
● CISPR22 Class A
● EN55022 Class A
● ICES003 Class A
● VCCI Class A
● EN61000-3-2
● EN61000-3-3
● KN22 Class A
● CNS13438 Class A
|
| EMC: Immunity |
● EN55024
● CISPR24
● EN300386
● KN 61000-4 series
|
| RoHS |
The product is RoHS-6 compliant with exceptions for leaded-Ball Grid-Array (BGA) balls and lead press-fit connectors. |
Ordering information
Table 11. Cisco N9500 Cloud-Scale Line Cards: ordering information
| Part Number |
Product Description |
| N9K-X9716D-GX (=) |
Cisco N9500 16p 400G QSFP-DD cloud-scale line card |
| N9K-X9732C-EX (=) |
Cisco N9500 32p 100G QSFP cloud-scale line card |
| N9K-X9736C-FX3 (=) |
Cisco N9500 36p 100G QSFP cloud-scale line card |
| N9K-X9736C-FX (=) |
Cisco N9500 36p 100G QSFP cloud-scale line card |
| N9K-X9732C-FX(=) |
Cisco N9500 32p 100G QSFP cloud-scale line card |
| N9K-X9736C-EX(=) |
Cisco N9500 36p 100G QSFP cloud-scale line card |
| N9K-X97160YC-EX(=) |
Cisco N9500 48p 1/10/25G SFP+ plus 4p 100G QSFP cloud-scale line card |
| N9K-X9788TC-FX(=) |
Cisco N9500 48p 1/10G BaseT plus 4p 100G QSFP cloud-scale line card |
Table 12. Cisco N9500 Cloud-Scale Fabric Modules ordering information
| Part Number |
Product Description |
| N9K-C9504-FM-G(=) |
Cisco N9500 4-slot 1.6Tbps cloud-scale fabric module |
| N9K-C9508-FM-G(=) |
Cisco N9500 8-slot 1.6Tbps cloud-scale fabric module |
| N9K-C9504-FM-E(=) |
Cisco N9500 4-slot 800Gbps cloud-scale fabric module (100G flows) |
| N9K-C9508-FM-E(=) |
Cisco N9500 8-slot 800Gbps cloud-scale fabric module (100G flows) |
| N9K-C9516-FM-E(=) |
Cisco N9500 16-slot 800Gbps cloud-scale fabric module (50G flows) |
| N9K-C9508-FM-E2(=) |
Cisco N9500 8-slot 800Gbps cloud-scale fabric module (100G flows) |
| N9K-C9516-FM-E2(=) |
Cisco N9500 16-slot 800Gbps cloud-scale fabric module (100G flows) |
Note: All part numbers with “=” sign refer to Spare part numbers for ordering.
For more information
For more information about the Cisco N9000 Series, please visit https://www.cisco.com/go/n9000.
| Model | N9K-X97160YC-EX |