The Cisco Interface Flexibility (I-Flex) design combines shared port adapters (SPAs) and SPA interface processors (SIPs), taking advantage of an extensible design that helps enable service prioritization for voice, video, and data services. Enterprise and Service provider customers can take advantage of improved slot economics resulting from modular port adapters that are interchangeable across Cisco routing platforms. The Cisco I-Flex design maximizes connectivity options and offers superior service intelligence through programmable interface processors that deliver line-rate performance. Cisco I-Flex enhances speed-to-service revenue and provides a rich set of quality of service (QoS) features for premium service delivery while effectively reducing the overall cost of ownership.