Broadcom will provide its new 25.6-Tbps Humboldt co-packaged optics (CPO) network switch to Tencent.
Humboldt features Broadcom’s StrataXGS Tomahawk 4 switch chip directly coupled and co-packaged with four 3.2-Tbps Silicon Photonics Chiplets In Package (SCIP) optical engines.
Tencent has defined the system architecture and worked closely with Broadcom to develop hardware and software for field deployment of the 25.6-Tbps CPO switch system. Ruijie Networks Co., Ltd. will verify the design, manufacture and test the full CPO switch system, and then provide the finished product to Tencent.
The companies plan to demonstrate the jointly developed 25.6-Tbps CPO switch system at the China International Optoelectronic Exposition (CIOE) in Shenzhen from September 7th to 9th.
Humboldt 25.6-Tbps CPO Switch Product Highlights:
- 2RU system design with high efficiency air cooling to support 4×3.2-Tbps optical CPO interfaces routed to 16 MPO connectors and 32x400G electrical QSFP112 ports
- CPO engine to front-panel routing supports both traditional fiber and flexible printed fiber (FPF) solutions
- System design compatible to support multiple remote laser modules (RLM)
- More than 50% optical interconnect power consumption savings compared to standard pluggable optics solutions
- Production ready for data center deployment
Broadcom said CPO will become increasingly important for data center switches as copper interconnects approach a reach limit. Likewise, 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 25.6-Tbps Humboldt CPO switch leverages Broadcom’s uncooled continuous wave (CW) laser at 1310 nm for silicon photonics, delivering significant power efficiency and cost gains.
Broadcom also notes that it has over 15 external partners currently working on its SCIP and CPO designs.
“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.”
