Guinness World Record for Cisco router
Published: 02 Jul 2004 09:05 BST
What does networking giant Cisco Systems have in common with Radhakant Bajpai of India, whose longest ear hair measures 5.19 inches at its longest point? They're both world record holders.
On Thursday, Cisco announced that Guinness World Records, an authority for record-breaking achievement around the world, has certified the Cisco Carrier Routing System (CRS-1) as the highest capacity Internet router ever developed. The new router will be the first networking technology to be recognised by Guinness World Records.
The CRS-1, announced in May, is designed to shuttle traffic across the backbone of the Internet. The company spent four years and $500m (£275m) developing the technology, and even created a new software operating system for the product. Cisco claims that the router can reach a routing throughput of 92 terabits, or 92 trillion bits per second. With this kind of capacity, the entire printed collection of the US Library of Congress could be downloaded in 4.6 seconds. The same feat using a dial-up modem would take around 82 years.
"We liked this entry, because the numbers are so huge," said David Hawksett, science and technology editor at Guinness World Records. "I just installed a wireless network at home and was quite pleased with 54 megabits per second of throughput, but 92 terabits is just incredible."
Hawksett said that Guinness gets roughly 100,000 entries every year for consideration for a world record, and only a small percentage actually are chosen for recognition. He admitted that neither he nor anyone else at Guinness has actually tested the Cisco router. He said he relies on experts to confirm claims.
Cisco has already been listed in the Guinness record books for other achievements. On 11 April, 2000, Guinness recognised Cisco as having the highest market capitalisation of any computer company in the world, eclipsing Microsoft. On that day, Cisco's market capitalisation was $503.4bn, according to the record books.
While Guinness is best known for keeping track of some outrageous accomplishments, it also records more serious technological advancements. For example, it closely follows and lists winners of Internet2's Land Speed Record. It also has acknowledged Toshiba for developing the world's smallest computer hard drive, which measures only 0.85 of an inch. In March 2003, Texas Instruments was recognised for developing the world's fastest digital signal processor. The TMS320C6416 has a clock speed of 720 megahertz.
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