Broadcom samples the first 51.2-terabit switch chip

• Broadcom's Tomahawk 5 marks the era of the 51.2-terabit switch chip
• The 5nm CMOS device consumes less than 500W
• The Tomahawk 5 uses 512, 100-gigabit PAM-4 (4-level pulse amplitude modulation) serdes (serialisers-deserialisers)
• Broadcom will offer a co-packaged version combining the chip with eight 6.4 terabit-per-second (Tbps) optical engines

Part 1: Broadcom's Tomahawk 5

Broadcom is sampling the world's first 51.2-terabit switch chip.

With the Tomahawk 5, Broadcom continues to double switch silicon capacity every 24 months; Broadcom launched the first 3.2-terabit Tomahawk was launched in September 2014.

"Broadcom is once again first to market at 51.2Tbps," says Bob Wheeler, principal analyst at Wheeler's Network. "It continues to execute, while competitors have struggled to deliver multiple generations in a timely manner."

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North American operators in an optical spending rethink

Optical transport spending by the North American operators dropped 13 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2014, according to market research firm Dell'Oro Group.

Operators are rethinking the optical vendors they buy equipment from as they consider their future networks. "Software-defined networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) - all the futuristic next network developments, operators are considering what that entails," says Jimmy Yu, vice president of optical transport research at Dell’Oro. "Those decisions have pushed out spending."

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Optical transport to grow at a 10% CAGR through 2017

• Global optical transport market to reach US $13bn in 2017
• 100 Gigabit to grow at a 75% CAGR

"I won't be surprised if it [100 Gig] grows even faster"

Jimmy Yu, Dell'Oro Group

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60-second interview with .... Dell'Oro's Jimmy Yu

Market research firm Dell'Oro Group has reported that the global optical transport equipment market in the first half of 2012 shrank 5 percent, to US $6.1 billion. In the latest 60-second interview, Gazettabyte spoke with Jimmy Yu, vice president of optical transport research at Dell’Oro Group.

"For the year, it is going to be a fivefold growth rate [for 100 Gig transport]."

Jimmy Yu, Dell'Oro

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