Full English Description for Cisco N9K-C9336C-SE1
1. Part Number Naming Breakdown
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N9K: Cisco Nexus 9000 cloud-native fixed data center switch family
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C9336C: 36-port all-QSFP28 dual-purpose leaf/spine fixed chassis of Nexus 9300 SE1 platform
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C: Universal QSFP28 multi-rate optical ports with full breakout capability for 10/25/40/100G
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SE1: Silicon One Generation 1 ASIC architecture, high unified shared buffer, extreme L2/L3 TCAM scaling, native MACsec on all ports, model-driven telemetry, dual operational modes: standalone NX-OS and ACI intent-based fabric modeCisco
2. Short Sales One-Liner (For BOM, Quotation & Datasheet Header)
Cisco Nexus N9K-C9336C-SE1, 1RU rack-mount all-optical dual-purpose spine/leaf data center switch, 36 universal multi-rate QSFP28 10/25/40/100G breakout-capable ports, 7.2 Tbps non-blocking switching capacity, dual hot-swappable Platinum-grade redundant power supplies and six 5+1 N+1 variable-speed fan trays, dual-mode standalone NX-OS or ACI fabric operation, optimized for leaf-spine fabric core spine interconnection, low-latency GPU/HPC clusters, border leaf multi-pod ACI deployments, hyperscale multi-tenant cloud and unified lossless storage fabricsCisco.
3. Complete Product Overview Paragraph
The Cisco Nexus N9K-C9336C-SE1 is a compact 1RU fixed Layer 2/3 all-optical flexible leaf/spine switch built on Cisco Silicon One SE1 ASIC, purpose-built for terabit-scale enterprise, hyperscale cloud, AI machine learning, high-performance computing and Cisco ACI Application Centric Infrastructure multi-pod environmentsCisco. It features a full 36-port QSFP28 high-density optical layout without copper downlinks, delivering complete wire-rate non-blocking forwarding with total switching bandwidth of 7.2 Tbps and forwarding throughput of 2.8 Bpps for minimum 64-byte Ethernet framesCisco.
Every one of the 36 QSFP28 ports supports independent flexible breakout configurations: native 100G, native 40G, 2×50G NRZ, 4×25G or 4×10G via passive breakout cables and QSA adapters, enabling seamless fabric speed migration across 10G, 25G, 40G and 100G generations. All 36 ports integrate hardware wire-rate 128/256-bit MACsec encryption natively, eliminating separate security appliance overhead for inter-switch fabric links, plus VXLANsec and IPSec support for end-to-end fabric encryptionCisco.
Powered by Silicon One SE1 series silicon, this platform delivers drastically expanded LPM IPv4/IPv6 route table capacity, large unified shared dynamic packet buffer to absorb massive burst traffic from GPU parallel workloads, native hardware acceleration for EVPN/VXLAN overlay routing, and deeply optimized RoCEv2 lossless congestion control for ultra-low-latency AI and HPC environments. High-performance model-driven unsampled streaming telemetry integrates fully with Cisco Tetration Analytics via gNMI/OpenConfig for real-time end-to-end full-fabric observability, alongside expanded VRF, multicast and policy TCAM scaling for hyperscale multi-tenant isolationCisco.
The chassis integrates dual independent management interfaces: dedicated out-of-band RJ45 1G Ethernet and SFP multi-rate fiber management uplink ports, plus mini-USB RS232 console and single USB Type-A port to support POAP zero-touch provisioning, offline configuration backup and firmware upgrades. Dual hot-swappable power supplies and six N+1 redundant fan trays eliminate single points of hardware failure, with standardized bidirectional airflow options (PI port-side intake / PE port-side exhaust) selectable at order time; all power and fan modules must deploy identical airflow directions during operation to avoid thermal overload. This switch supports two independent operating modes: modular standalone Cisco NX-OS for traditional routed core data center architectures, or native ACI fabric mode for policy-driven automated multi-tenant cloud infrastructure. Its compact all-100G optical 1RU design maximizes rack density for terabit core interconnections and high-speed GPU cluster aggregationCisco.
4. Detailed Hardware Interface Specifications
Universal QSFP28 High-Speed Ports (36 × Full Multi-Rate Slots, all MACsec-capable)
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Native supported speeds: 40GBASE, 100GBASE
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Full breakout options per port:
1 × 100G, 1 × 40G, 2 × 50G NRZ, 4 × 25G, 4 × 10G via breakout cables / QSA adapters
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1G limitation: 1G transceivers only supported via QSA on middle port range; edge ports block 1G operation
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Compatible transceivers & cables: QSFP28 100G SR4/LR4/ER4/ZR, QSFP+ 40G SR4/LR4, SFP28 25G, SFP+ 10G, passive short-reach DAC twinax cables
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FCoE note: Fibre Channel transceivers not supported on this pure high-speed core chassis
Management & Auxiliary Ports
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1 × 10/100/1000BASE-T RJ45 out-of-band management port
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1 × SFP multi-rate fiber out-of-band remote management uplink port
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1 × Mini-USB RS232 console port for local CLI access
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1 × USB 2.0 Type-A port for firmware upload, configuration backup and POAP deployment
Power & Cooling
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Dual hot-swappable power supply options (1+1 load-sharing redundancy, live hot-swap without traffic interruption):
750W AC PI, 750W AC PE, 1100W AC PI, 1100W AC PE, 1100W DC PI/PE, 1100W HVAC/HVDC PI/PECisco
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Six variable-speed fan trays (5+1 N+1 redundancy):
NXA-SFAN-35CFM-PI (burgundy label, port-side intake)
NXA-SFAN-35CFM-PE (blue label, port-side exhaust)
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Power efficiency: 80Plus Platinum certified
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Operating temperature range: 0°C ~ 40°C full load; non-operating storage range: -40°C ~ 70°CCisco
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Humidity tolerance: 5%–90% non-condensing operating; max operating altitude: 4000 meters
Physical Form Factor
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Dimensions: 1RU standard 19-inch rack chassis
Height: 4.37 cm (1.72 in), Width: 43.94 cm (17.3 in), Depth: 57.1 cm (22.47 in)
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Empty weight (without PSUs and fans): ~8.5 kg / 18.8 lb
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Compliance: RoHS-6, NEBS Level 3, global safety, EMC and telecom regulatory certifications
Core Hardware Performance Benchmarks
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Total switching capacity: 7.2 Tbps full duplex non-blocking
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Forwarding rate: 2.8 Bpps (64-byte frame wire-rate)
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Shared dynamic packet buffer: Large Silicon One unified buffer pool for cross-port burst traffic absorption
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MAC address table size: Massively expanded SE1-scale MAC forwarding entry pool
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IPv4 / IPv6 unicast LPM route table capacity: Ultra-large TCAM scale for hyperscale multi-pod fabrics
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VLAN support: Up to 4094 standard IEEE 802.1Q tagged VLANs
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Maximum isolated VRF instances: 16,000 multi-tenant virtual routing tables
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System memory: 24GB DRAM + 128GB high-capacity onboard SSD storage
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Typical cut-through switching latency: Less than 1 microsecond for minimum-size Ethernet frames
5. Core Software Feature Suite (Dual NX-OS / ACI Operating Modes)
Layer 2 & Layer 3 Routing
Static routing, RIP, OSPFv2/v3, EIGRP, full BGP routing suite, VRRP, PIM sparse/dense multicast; FCoE not supported on this pure high-speed core spine chassis
Cloud Fabric Overlay
Hardware-accelerated EVPN/VXLAN symmetric & asymmetric routing, multi-tenant VXLAN segmentation, fabric multicast optimization, advanced lossless RoCEv2 congestion control for GPU/AI/HPC low-latency workload clusters
Enterprise & Fabric Security
802.1X port authentication, MAB MAC bypass authentication, DHCP Snooping, Dynamic ARP Inspection, CoPP control-plane policing, hardware 128/256-bit MACsec + VXLANsec encryption on all 36 QSFP28 fabric ports, TrustSec SGT zero-trust micro-segmentation for core fabric isolationCisco
Monitoring & Telemetry
High-performance model-driven sampled/unsampled IPFIX/gNMI streaming telemetry, ERSPAN remote port mirroring, local SPAN/VSPAN, real-time per-port/per-queue buffer utilization visibility, full Cisco Tetration flow export compatibility for end-to-end fabric analytics
SE1 Platform Exclusive Capabilities
Silicon One unified buffer architecture, enhanced congestion management for AI workloads, expanded security encryption suite (MACsec/VXLANsec/IPSec), native OpenConfig/YANG model support, optimized multi-pod inter-fabric routing scale
Automation & DevOps
POAP zero-touch provisioning, NX-API REST JSON/XML APIs, embedded Linux Bash shell, native Python scripting, Ansible/Puppet/Chef full integration, containerized application hosting via CAF, hot patching and ISSU in-service software upgrade without core fabric traffic downtimeCisco
High Availability
Modular fault-isolated process architecture, stateful process restart, redundant control plane, hot-swappable power supply and fan FRUs for non-disruptive field maintenance
6. Typical Deployment Use Cases
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Primary core spine switch for large-scale 100G leaf-spine data center fabrics
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Low-latency aggregation leaf switch for 100G GPU virtualization and large-scale AI model training clusters
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Inter-pod border spine / border leaf switch connecting multiple independent ACI multi-pod fabric domains
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Dedicated high-bandwidth core node for hyperscale IaaS/PaaS multi-tenant cloud environments
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Professional media network core switch for high-bitrate streaming and large media asset workloads
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HPC parallel computing cluster leaf/spine with breakout capability to support mixed 25G/100G GPU interconnect speeds
7. Datasheet Short Summary Paragraph
The Cisco Nexus N9K-C9336C-SE1 is a compact 1RU SE1 Silicon One generation all-optical dual-purpose spine/leaf cloud data center switch equipped with 36 breakout-capable universal QSFP28 10/25/40/100G fabric ports, delivering 7.2 Tbps non-blocking switching performance with dual Platinum redundant power and six 5+1 redundant fan trays. Supporting both standalone modular NX-OS and native ACI intent-based fabric operational modes, it features the first-gen Silicon One ASIC with large unified shared buffer, ultra-expanded L2/L3 TCAM routing scale, full-port wire-rate MACsec/VXLANsec encryption and optimized RoCEv2 lossless transport, serving as a high-density terabit core spine aggregation switch for hyperscale cloud, AI/GPU HPC, multi-pod ACI fabrics and professional media networking built around 40G/100G high-speed optical fabric infrastructure.
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