Data Center Switch Silicon Evolves

Cisco updated its Cloud Scale ASIC to use 7nm fabrication and to support up to 25.6T throughput. Cisco stated the ASIC was built using multi-die silicon technology to decouple switch logic from the serializer deserializer (SerDes) allowing each section to evolve independently. The company also said the latest chips support telemetry with more granular visibility into packets and traffic flows, larger layer 3 (L3) route tables and bigger buffers than the previous version, and segment routing over the IPv6 dataplane (SRv6). The new chips will be used in their latest Nexus 16x400GE line card, plus two Nexus 32/64-port 400GE ToR switches.

Innovium announced its TERALYNX 8 Ethernet switch silicon family. Samples will be available in the second half of 2020 and design collateral is currently available for early access. TERALYNX 8 chips support up to 25.6T throughput and Innovium offers several reference models including a 1RU 32x800GE switch, a 2RU 64x400GE switch, and a 4RU 128x200GE switch. Innovium states the silicon is programmable and compatible with open-source network operating systems like software for open networking in the cloud (SONiC); plus supports FLASHLIGHT v3, Innovium’s telemetry and hardware analytics software.

NVIDIA (previously Mellanox) began shipping its Spectrum-3 SN4000 Ethernet Switches. The SN4000 series switches include the SN4700, a 1RU 32x400GE switch; the SN4600, a 2RU 64x200GE switch; the SN4600C, a 2RU 64x100GE switch; and the SN4800, a 4RU chassis that accepts 16x100GE, 4x400GE, and 8x200GE line cards. NVIDIA says all SN4000 models use its Spectrum-3 programmable ASICs and have three purchasing options: pre-installed with Mellanox Onyx operating system (OS), pre-installed with Cumulus Linux OS, or delivered as bare metal with an Open Network Install Environment (ONIE) image.

Intel announced its co-packaged solution, which integrates its 1.6T silicon photonics with its Barefoot Networks’ 12.8T programmable Tofino Ethernet switch ASICs. Intel stated the co-packaged offering will put optical ports closer to switch chips, resulting in lower power use and improved bandwidth capacity.

Broadcom, the undisputed leader in merchant silicon offerings, made headlines in the past when it released the Tomahawk 4 ASIC, built from ARM processors and designed to support up to 64x400GE ports and 25.6T throughput.

Proprietary silicon mostly resides in switches from incumbent DC switch vendors like Cisco and Juniper, which have the R&D resources to develop their own chips in-house.

Programmable silicon consists of a mix of merchant and proprietary silicon vendors, i.e. Innovium, Intel (Barefoot Networks), and NVIDIA (Mellanox). Although programmable silicon is the newest of the three DC switch silicon types and has the lowest adoption to date, it has the highest growth potential with a 26 percent five-year CAGR from 2019 to 2024.