• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

Broadcom Now Shipping Their 12.8 Tbps Tomahawk 3 Ethernet Switch Chip

Joined
Sep 22, 2017
Messages
889 (0.37/day)
Broadcom Limited, today announced that it has delivered the StrataXGS Tomahawk 3 switch series, demonstrating an unprecedented 12.8 Terabits/sec of Ethernet switching performance in a single device -- double the bandwidth of any other switch silicon available in the market today. The Tomahawk 3 series represents the industry's first shipping product that supports high-density, standards based 400GbE, 200GbE, and 100GbE switching and routing for hyperscale cloud networks, fortifying Broadcom's position as the market leader in raw Ethernet performance, silicon execution, and switch product velocity. Remarkably, the Tomahawk 3 switch series was developed, manufactured, and shipped to customers a mere 14 months following the introduction of the previous 6.4Tbps product generation, while delivering 40% lower power consumption per 100GbE switch port and up to 75% lower cost per 100GbE switch port.


The growth of hyperscale cloud networks is at an upward inflection point, with the sheer number of hyperscale data centers expected to double by 2020, and the amount of machine-to-machine traffic within such data centers expected to increase 5 times over that period[1]. Emergent workloads for deep learning, using massively distributed neural networks and alternative computing nodes, are demanding a quantum leap in bandwidth to dense 100/200/400GbE links spanning high-radix, ultra-low-latency network topologies. The nascent trend towards disaggregated, high-density flash storage, interconnected with compute nodes via NVMe-over-Fabrics (NVMeoF) and RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCEv2), is concurrently driving step functions in network throughput and collapsed end-to-end access times. With its market leading switching performance, 100/200/400GbE port density, and rich feature set optimized for cloud use cases, Broadcom's Tomahawk 3 solution is ideally suited to serve as the backbone for the next generation scale-out of hyperscale data center networks.

Key attributes and benefits of the new StrataXGS Tomahawk 3 Series:
  • Enables the next major leap in hyperscale data center network throughput, supporting 32 x 400GbE, 64 x 200GbE, or 128 x 100GbE line rate switching and routing on a single chip
  • Delivers disruptive gains in hyperscale CAPEX and OPEX efficiency: 40% reduction in power per 100Gbps, and up to 75% lower cost per 100Gbps, versus alternatives
  • New, state-of-the-art, integrated 12.8Tbps shared-buffer architecture offers 3X to 5X higher incast absorption and provides the highest performance and lowest end-to-end latency for RoCEv2 based workloads
  • Industry-leading Broadview Gen 3 integrated network instrumentation feature set and software suite, providing full visibility to network operators into packet flow behavior, traffic management state, and switch internal performance
  • Comprehensively supports all packet processing and traffic management requirements for next-gen hyperscale network use cases: >2X IP route forwarding scale, 2X ECMP scale, Dynamic Load Balancing and Group Multipathing, In-Band Network Telemetry, Elephant Flow detection and re-prioritization
  • Robust connectivity using 256 instances of the industry's best performing and longest-reach 50G PAM-4 integrated Serdes core, enabling long-reach (LR) East-West optical links and Direct-Attached-Copper (DAC) in-rack cabling in the data center, fully compliant to new IEEE standards for 50/100/200/400GbE
  • Implemented with unparalleled silicon area and power efficiency on proven, high-volume 16nm process technology node, ensuring fastest time to CY2018 production network deployment for hyperscale customers

"The Tomahawk franchise is the flagship for cutting-edge, single-chip performance and integration among Broadcom's multi-vectored Ethernet switch silicon portfolio, tailored to the unique and rigorous demands of hyperscale data center operators," said Ram Velaga, senior vice president and general manager, Switch Products at Broadcom. "I am proud of our world-class engineering team for innovating and delivering the 12.8Tbps Tomahawk 3 chip in a record 14 months after we released Tomahawk 2. We've applied great focus and diligence working with our hyperscale customers to ensure this product is the ideal fit for their upcoming high-radix 100/400GbE deployments and aggressive Terabit-per-dollar and Terabit-per-Watt targets. Broadcom is proving yet again that customers can rely on us to lead the industry on switch silicon performance and execution at every generation."

"Broadcom continues to execute on Ethernet switch ASSPs matched to the priority needs of hyperscalers: faster port speeds, dense network radix, extended serdes reach, robust buffering and load balancing, scalable forwarding, software-defined instrumentation, slashed cost and power per Gbps, and most of all, time to market," said Bob Wheeler, principal analyst at The Linley Group. "Tomahawk 3 delivers on these requirements, meeting the anticipated onslaught of deep learning and RDMA-based storage workloads over 400GbE-upgraded cloud networks. Being the first to deliver a 12.8Tbps switch-enabled by 56Gbps PAM4 serdes in 16nm technology-is a major achievement, and it extends Broadcom's leadership position in hyperscale networking."

Availability
Broadcom is now shipping Tomahawk 3 12.8Tbps (BCM56980) and 8.0Tbps (BCM56982) devices to qualified customers.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site
 
Joined
Jun 30, 2016
Messages
12 (0.00/day)
Sad that my old boss Greg Reyes who in my opinion was a great leader and co-worker is no longer in charge of this company.
 
Joined
Sep 15, 2011
Messages
6,457 (1.41/day)
Processor Intel® Core™ i7-13700K
Motherboard Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite AX
Cooling Noctua NH-D15
Memory 32GB(2x16) DDR5@6600MHz G-Skill Trident Z5
Video Card(s) ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 3080 AMP Holo
Storage 2TB SK Platinum P41 SSD + 4TB SanDisk Ultra SSD + 500GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD
Display(s) Acer Predator X34 3440x1440@100Hz G-Sync
Case NZXT PHANTOM410-BK
Audio Device(s) Creative X-Fi Titanium PCIe
Power Supply Corsair 850W
Mouse Logitech Hero G502 SE
Software Windows 11 Pro - 64bit
Benchmark Scores 30FPS in NFS:Rivals
Just curious, how much does those CPUs costs??
 

TheLostSwede

News Editor
Joined
Nov 11, 2004
Messages
15,999 (2.26/day)
Location
Sweden
System Name Overlord Mk MLI
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Motherboard Gigabyte X670E Aorus Master
Cooling Noctua NH-D15 SE with offsets
Memory 32GB Team T-Create Expert DDR5 6000 MHz @ CL30-34-34-68
Video Card(s) Gainward GeForce RTX 4080 Phantom GS
Storage 1TB Solidigm P44 Pro, 2 TB Corsair MP600 Pro, 2TB Kingston KC3000
Display(s) Acer XV272K LVbmiipruzx 4K@160Hz
Case Fractal Design Torrent Compact
Audio Device(s) Corsair Virtuoso SE
Power Supply be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 850 W
Mouse Logitech G502 Lightspeed
Keyboard Corsair K70 Max
Software Windows 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores https://valid.x86.fr/5za05v
Just curious, how much does those CPUs costs??

They're not CPUs, they're just handling the switching and still need to be connected to a CPU/SoC, memory etc.
The previous generation cost around US$3,200+ a pop and that's only for 3.2Tbps.
 
Joined
Oct 7, 2013
Messages
344 (0.09/day)
They're not CPUs, they're just handling the switching and still need to be connected to a CPU/SoC, memory etc.
The previous generation cost around US$3,200+ a pop and that's only for 3.2Tbps.

They said up to 75% reduction in cost so we can only hope this stuff keeps advancing and data center pricing and internet keeps getting cheaper and faster.
 

TheLostSwede

News Editor
Joined
Nov 11, 2004
Messages
15,999 (2.26/day)
Location
Sweden
System Name Overlord Mk MLI
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Motherboard Gigabyte X670E Aorus Master
Cooling Noctua NH-D15 SE with offsets
Memory 32GB Team T-Create Expert DDR5 6000 MHz @ CL30-34-34-68
Video Card(s) Gainward GeForce RTX 4080 Phantom GS
Storage 1TB Solidigm P44 Pro, 2 TB Corsair MP600 Pro, 2TB Kingston KC3000
Display(s) Acer XV272K LVbmiipruzx 4K@160Hz
Case Fractal Design Torrent Compact
Audio Device(s) Corsair Virtuoso SE
Power Supply be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 850 W
Mouse Logitech G502 Lightspeed
Keyboard Corsair K70 Max
Software Windows 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores https://valid.x86.fr/5za05v
They said up to 75% reduction in cost so we can only hope this stuff keeps advancing and data center pricing and internet keeps getting cheaper and faster.

No, they said 75% reduction in cost per 100Gbps switch port, which is not the same as a reduction in cost per switching chip. The BCM56960 (which is the previous generation) only supports up to 32 100Gbps ports whereas the BCM56980 supports 128 100Gbps ports, i.e. the cost per switching chip is likely to remain at about the same kind of cost, but you get 4x as many 100Gbps ports for your money.
 
Top