Back when I first starting using the 7K’s I thought the naming of the line cards followed the same logical naming scheme of all other Cisco equipment (by that I mean there is no logic to it at all!).

It was when I was watching one of this years Cisco Live presentations on the 7K architecture that it all became a lot clearer.

So without further ado here is how to use the magical Nexus 7K linecard decoder ring:

N7K-M224XP-23L

N7K - Signifies that the card is for a Nexus 7K
M2  - Show that this is an M2 generation / type card
24  - The number of ports on the card
X   - That each of the ports is capable of running at 10Gbps
P   - That each of the ports uses the SFP+ type of transceiver
2   - That the module uses / requires FAB2 modules
3   - The number of fabric modules needed to run at full capacity
L   - That the card is licensed to hold a L(arge) routing table (licensed)