Über die Hardware - Das Switchboard

You cannot see this from the pictures, but the switch fabrics has the same layout on all ESX modules. On other pages you will see more. This is the 2400 chassis with the allmost same main switch fabric like the 4800.
More is on the ESX-2400 page.

This is the 4800 fabric and all spaces are completely loaded with all components, that means both backbone busses are completed.

More is on the ESX-4800 page.

The main switch fabric has a huge backbone connector to talk to the other boards in a chassis with 10 Gigabit/s (2400) and 20 (4800) Gigabit/s including all communication.
That means, it is not built for stand alone use. Its built for larger environments in 4 unit or 8 unit chassis.

These AMP (now Tyco) connectors are standard for high frequency data transprot from a board to a backplane.

This connector supplies 48 Volts DC to the 4800 boards from a Lucent 48V DC supply.

It is not available on the 2400 boards, these boards are connected directly over cables.