Thinking about 10 gig IPS

I have been looking at 10 gig solutions for IPS and I have to say there is a wide difference in the way the different vendors are doing this.

IBM
Network Security Controller allows for two 10 giga-bit networks to be connected in an active/passive configuration. You would then connect the copper IPS devices to the controller and the controller spreads the load among the connected IPS devices. This would provide IPS with the ability to inspect up to 10 gigabit of traffic assuming the IPS devices connected to it can inspect up to 10 gig. The GX6116 has an inspected throughput of 6 Gbps. IBM has no native 10 giga-bit interfaces on their IPS devices.

Mcafee
Mcafee offers two devices with 10 giga-bit interfaces. The M8000 has 12 10 giga-bit Ethernet ports and a maximum throughput of 10 Gbps, the M6050 has 8 10 giga-bit Ethernet ports with a maximum throughout of 5 Gbps.

Sourcefire
Sourcefire has the 3D9800 with four Fiber 10 Gbps interfaces with up to 10 Gbps line speed and the 3D9900 with 4 10 Gbps SR interfaces. The line speed is up to 10 Gbps.

TippingPoint
The TippingPoint Core Controller has six 10 Gbps Ethernet interfaces(3 segments). This is similar in design to the IBM solution. The controller distributes the load across the connected backend IPS devices. The total inspected bandwidth is dependant on the backend IPS devices.