Arista 7160 Series Guide: 7160-48YC6, 7160-48TC6 & 7160-32CQ

Published September 2026. Specifications are from Arista’s 7160 Series data sheet; lifecycle dates from Arista’s end-of-sale notice of September 28, 2020.

The Arista 7160 Series is a three-model family of 1RU data center switches built around a programmable packet processor rather than the fixed-function Broadcom silicon used in the 7050X and 7060X lines. Arista ended sales of the series in 2021 and manufacturer support in 2024, yet the 7160-48YC6 in particular remains in steady demand on the secondary market, both as spares for installed fleets and as an inexpensive 25G/100G leaf. This page covers the three models, what made the series different, where it stands in Arista’s lifecycle, and how to think about buying or replacing one.

The Three 7160 Models

All three models use a quad-core x86 control plane with 8 GB of DRAM (32 GB optional on the 32CQ) and a 2.4 Bpps forwarding rate, per the data sheet, and all are available in front-to-rear (-F) and rear-to-front (-R) airflow.

What Made the 7160 Different

Arista built the 7160 on a programmable packet-processing pipeline. In practical terms that meant new protocols, encapsulations, and tunneling features could be added through software updates rather than a hardware refresh, and table resources could be reallocated between L2 and L3 through flexible forwarding profiles. AlgoMatch, Arista’s algorithmic classification technology, is present on all three models for large-scale policy-based forwarding and telemetry. The trade-off is latency: the 7160 is a 2 to 3 microsecond platform, several times the latency of the 450 ns 7060X or 800 ns 7050X3, so it was never the choice for latency-sensitive workloads. Its natural roles were flexible 25G/100G leaf, tunnel- and policy-heavy edge designs, and telemetry-rich monitoring fabrics.

Lifecycle Status

Arista announced end of sale for the entire series (DCS-7160-32CQ, DCS-7160-48YC6, and DCS-7160-48TC6) on September 28, 2020, with a last day to order of March 28, 2021, software bug fixes through March 28, 2023, and end of life (last day of TAC support and RMA) on March 28, 2024. Arista’s notice names the 7050X3 line as the migration path: the 7050CX3-32S for the 32CQ, the 7050SX3-48YC8 for the 48YC6, and the 7050TX3-48C8 for the 48TC6, which it describes as providing equivalent or higher performance with improved scale and lower power. Note that the 7050CX3-32S and 7050SX3-48YC8 have since received their own end-of-sale notices; the current replacements are the 7050CX3-32C and 7050SX3-48YC8C, covered in our 7050X3 guide. Dates by part number are on our Arista end of life list.

Buying, Sparing, or Replacing a 7160

If you run 7160s today, the platform is past manufacturer support, so your options are refurbished spares (cold spares on the shelf are the usual approach, and the 48YC6 is readily available), third-party maintenance, or migration. The final EOS release train the hardware supports is fixed, so evaluate any security requirement for internet-facing roles before deciding to stay.

If you are considering a 7160 as a low-cost 25G leaf, it is one of the least expensive ways to get 48 x 25G with 100G uplinks, and the programmable pipeline is a genuine advantage for tunnel-heavy designs. Go in with eyes open on latency and on the lack of manufacturer support, and price it against a refurbished 7050SX3-48YC8, which is faster, still supported into 2031, and often not much more expensive.

If you are replacing 7160s, the like-for-like moves are the 7050SX3-48YC8C (25G), 7050TX3-48C8 (10GBASE-T), and 7050CX3-32C (100G), or the 7280SR3-48YC8 where deep buffers matter more than cost; see our 7280R3 selection guide.

BrightStar stocks the 7160-48YC6 and 7160-32CQ in both airflow directions and the 7160-48TC6, all tested on our 9-point process and covered by our 1-year in-house warranty for end users. Request a quote, browse the Arista 7160 Series category, or sell us the 7160s you are retiring.