Broadcom, Tencent to commercialise co-packaged 25Tbit optical switch
Broadcom is working with Tencent in China on a 25Tbit/s co-packaged optics (CPO) network switch for cloud infrastructure using optical chiplets.
Broadcom will provide the 25.6-Tbit/s Humboldt CPO switch that combines the StrataXGS Tomahawk 4 switch chip directly coupled and co-packaged with four 3.2Tbit/s Silicon Photonics Chiplets In Package (SCIP) optical engines. This provides a 50% power saving over pluggable optical modules.
Broadcom has also just launched the 52Tbit/s Tomahawk 5 switch for 800Gbit/s Ethernet links with the option for co-packaged optics which indicates the roadmap for the technology.
- World’s first 51.2 Tbit/s Ethernet switch chip plans optical chiplets
- Co-packaged optics and FPGA for 800G data centre AI links
- Fine pitch socket for co-packaged optical modules
- First Terabit optical link for chip-to-chip connections
Tencent has defined the system architecture and worked closely with Broadcom to develop hardware and software for field deployment of the 25.6Tbit/s CPO switch system. Ruijie Networks in China will verify the design, manufacture and test the full CPO switch system, and then provide the finished product to Tencent.
The 2RU air cooled system design supports four 3.2-Tbit/s optical CPO interfaces routed to 16 MPO connectors and 32 x 400G electrical QSFP112 ports and supports multiple remote laser modules (RLM). A CPO engine to front-panel routing supports both traditional fibre and flexible printed fibre (FPF) technology.
Traditional pluggable optical transceivers require high power to equalize signal impairments incurred on a signal as it traverses long traces and through multiple connector discontinuities in a standard switch system. The power reduction is achieved by eliminating these interfaces and using Broadcom’s uncooled continuous wave (CW) laser at 1310 nm for silicon photonics.
Next generation cloud infrastructure deployments require lower optics cost per bit and power consumption. Broad adoption of CPO solutions is critical to sustaining the rapid growth of bandwidth inside the data center driven by AI/ML, HPC, and networking workloads, says Broadcom.
“We are pleased to announce our strategic partnership with Tencent as we enable the industry’s first 25.6-Tbps CPO system for hyperscale data center field deployment,” said Near Margalit, Vice President and General Manager, Optical Systems Division, Broadcom. “We expect to continue to innovate and extend our market leadership position with Tencent as we migrate to 51.2-Tbps switch CPOs and next generation 200G/lane PAM-4 applications.”
“Customer demands for higher bandwidth have pushed Tencent to perpetually scale our network,” said Sage Zou, Vice President of Tencent Cloud. “We are glad to partner with Broadcom on CPO based technology, which will bring not only higher bandwidth for applications such as AI/ML and HPC, but also it could address the power constraints from the acceleration of growth in new workloads.”
“Addressing the general trend towards chip-scale optical interconnects versus traditional copper-based implementation, CPO technology combines microelectronics and optoelectronics on silicon-based platforms, which can carry more information and transmit longer distances,” said Liu Zhongdong, President and CEO, Ruijie Networks. “CPO switching networks have the advantages of high bandwidth and low power consumption, and Ruijie is glad to participate in the innovation and implementation of this new technology with Tencent & Broadcom.”
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