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

Core Insights - Broadcom 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] Group 1: Product Features and Innovations - The TH6-Davisson switch 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 Broadcom's previous TH5-Bailly CPO solution, ensuring interoperability with various optical interconnects [6][15] - The switch integrates TSMC Compact Universal Photonic Engine technology, achieving a 70% reduction in optical interconnect power consumption, which is over 3.5 times lower than traditional pluggable solutions [4][15] Group 2: Market Context and Demand - The rise of large-scale AI training is creating unprecedented east-west traffic in data centers, necessitating advanced solutions like the TH6-Davisson to handle the increased data exchange between servers [3] - The demand for improved link stability is critical as even minor interruptions can lead to significant losses in XPU and GPU utilization during AI training jobs [5] Group 3: Future Developments - Broadcom is already working on its fourth-generation CPO solution, which aims to double per-channel bandwidth to 400 Gbps while enhancing energy efficiency, further solidifying its leadership in AI and cloud network technologies [7]