Cisco Systems touts mega-router

Cisco Systems Inc. said its CDS-3 Carrier Routing System had "12 times the traffic capacity of the nearest competing system."

In midday trading, the Nasdaq composite index of tech-dominated stock was up 0.73 percent, out-performing both the Standard & Poor's 500 and the Dow Jones industrial average. Cisco shares rose 0.27 percent.

Cisco said the new router handles 322 terabits per second, "which enables the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress to be downloaded in just over one second; every man, woman and child in China to make a video call, simultaneously; and every motion picture ever created to be streamed in less than four minutes."

Not everyone was overwhelmed by the announcement. "Cisco may have over-hyped the announcement just a tad," a reviewer for Cnet wrote. "After weeks of hype about a major announcement … it turns out the new product is an upgrade to an existing core Internet router," reviewer Marguerite Reardon wrote.

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