Broadcom began sampling its 7nm 400G PAM-4 PHY device for hyperscale data center and cloud infrastructure.
The BCM87400 device, which leverages Broadcom’s 7nm Centenario 112G PAM-4 DSP platform, provides 400G 8:4 gearbox performance.
Broadcom says its 7nm 400G PHY solution delivers significant power savings compared to existing 16nm PHYs, thereby enabling sub-8W optical modules, compared to 12W power dissipation current generations 16nm PHYs.
7nm Centenario PAM-4 DSP Highlights
- Industry leading DSP performance and power efficiency enabling DR4/FR4 optical modules to meet IEEE standards and MSA specifications
- DSP platform supporting DR/FR optical modules for legacy switch applications
- Client-side interface compliance to CEI-28G/56G LR specification supporting long reach (LR) channels
- IEEE 802.3bs standard-compliant KP4 and end-to-end FEC bypass operation
- Proven PAM-4 architecture supporting multiple optics front ends including EML, DML and silicon photonics
- Optimized design with proven interoperability with Broadcom switch ASICs and ASSPs using 28Gbaud PAM-4 and NRZ SerDes architecture
“With the general availability of 12.8-Tb/s switches such as Broadcom’s Tomahawk 3, hyper-scale data center operators and cloud providers will be leveraging the 400GbE ports in these switches to address increasing demand for higher bandwidth. Our low power 7nm Centenario PAM-4 DSP is essential to support high density 400G connectivity using QSFP-DD and OSFP optical modules, accelerating the adoption of 400GbE network infrastructure,” said Lorenzo Longo, senior vice president and general manager of the Physical Layer Products Division at Broadcom. “The currently available 16nm 400G PHYs have been used to enable engineering prototypes and testing of 100G per lambda optical components. Our 7nm Centenario 400G PHY enables high volume deployment of 400G optical modules in hyper-scale data centers.”