Broadcom Announces Tomahawk® 6 – Davisson, the Industry's First 102.4-Tbps Ethernet Switch with Co-Packaged Optics

Core Insights - Broadcom Inc. has launched the Tomahawk® 6 – Davisson (TH6-Davisson), a third-generation Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) Ethernet switch, which offers a groundbreaking 102.4 terabits per second switching capacity, doubling the bandwidth of existing CPO switches and setting a new standard for data center performance [1][2][3] Product Features - The TH6-Davisson is specifically designed to meet the increasing demands of AI networking, enhancing link stability and energy efficiency, which facilitates smoother and more cost-effective AI model training [2][4] - It operates at 200 Gbps per channel, effectively doubling the line rate and overall bandwidth compared to the previous TH5-Bailly CPO solution, while ensuring interoperability with various optical interconnects [6][15] Energy Efficiency - The switch is built for power efficiency, achieving a 70% reduction in optical interconnect power consumption compared to traditional pluggable solutions, which is over 3.5 times lower [4][15] Performance Enhancements - TH6-Davisson integrates optical engines directly onto a common package with the Ethernet switch, significantly improving link stability and cluster reliability, which is crucial for large-scale AI training jobs [5][6] - The architecture is designed to support large AI clusters, addressing the challenges of increased east-west traffic in data centers due to the exchange of vast datasets among numerous servers [3][5] Future Developments - Broadcom is already working on its fourth-generation CPO solution, which aims to double the per-channel bandwidth to 400 Gbps while enhancing energy efficiency, further solidifying its leadership in AI and cloud network scalability [7]