electronics-journal.com
09
'25
Written on Modified on
Broadcom Tomahawk 6 Davisson Achieves 102.4 Tbps
Broadcom launched Tomahawk® 6 – Davisson, the industry's first 102.4 Tbps Ethernet switch with Co-Packaged Optics (CPO), doubling bandwidth and cutting optical interconnect power consumption by 70% for AI networking.
www.broadcom.com
Broadcom Inc. has announced that it is now shipping Tomahawk® 6 – Davisson (TH6-Davisson), the company’s third-generation Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) Ethernet switch. Designed specifically for the accelerating demands of AI networking, TH6-Davisson is the industry’s first to deliver an unprecedented 102.4 terabits per second of optically enabled switching capacity. Doubling the bandwidth of any CPO switch available today, TH6-Davisson sets a new benchmark for data center performance. Built on Broadcom’s foundation of CPO innovation and field shipments, the platform doubles the bandwidth of any CPO switch available today, while delivering major advancements in power efficiency and traffic stability to unlock optical interconnect performance required to scale-up and scale-out the world’s most demanding AI clusters.
CPO: Purpose-Built for AI Networking
The rise of large-scale AI training and inference is driving unprecedented east-west traffic in data centers, as XPUs and GPUs exchange vast datasets across tens of thousands of servers. Traditional pluggable optics are straining under this growth—consuming more power, introducing higher latency, and demanding larger system footprints. TH6-Davisson embodies Broadcom’s lead-edge and robust CPO architecture that has been fine-tuned over multiple generations of development to overcome these barriers and deliver the bandwidth, efficiency, and reliability required for next-generation AI networks.
World-Class Energy Efficiency
TH6-Davisson was architected from the ground up for power efficiency. By heterogeneously integrating TSMC Compact Universal Photonic Engine (TSMC COUPE™) technology-based optical engines with advanced substrate-level multi-chip packaging, the switch dramatically reduces the need for signal conditioning and minimizes trace loss and reflections. The result is a 70% reduction in optical interconnect power consumption—more than 3.5x lower than traditional pluggable solutions—delivering a step change in energy efficiency for hyperscale and AI data centers.
Improved Link Stability and Traffic Performance
As AI training jobs scale, link stability has become a critical bottleneck, with even minor interruptions causing measurable losses in XPU and GPU utilization. TH6-Davisson addresses this challenge by directly integrating optical engines onto a common package with the Ethernet switch. This highly integrated design eliminates many of the sources of manufacturing and test variability inherent in pluggable transceivers. The result is significantly improved link flap performance and higher cluster reliability as validated by a TH5-Bailly link flap study here.
Bandwidth Improvement and Interoperability
Operating at 200 Gbps per channel, TH6-Davisson doubles the line rate and overall bandwidth of Broadcom’s second-generation TH5-Bailly CPO solution. Designed for interoperability, it seamlessly interconnects with DR-based transceivers as well as LPO and CPO optical interconnects running at 200 Gbps per channel. This ensures frictionless connectivity with the industry’s most advanced NICs, XPUs, and fabric switches, enabling next-generation AI and cloud clusters to scale without compromise.
CPO Roadmap
Leveraging the advanced CMOS nodes and continuous breakthroughs in device technology, Broadcom is now developing its fourth-generation CPO solution. The new generation will double per-channel bandwidth to 400 Gbps while achieving greater levels of energy efficiency, further extending Broadcom’s leadership in enabling the scale and sustainability of future AI and cloud networks.
TH6-Davisson BCM78919 Product Highlights
CPO: Purpose-Built for AI Networking
The rise of large-scale AI training and inference is driving unprecedented east-west traffic in data centers, as XPUs and GPUs exchange vast datasets across tens of thousands of servers. Traditional pluggable optics are straining under this growth—consuming more power, introducing higher latency, and demanding larger system footprints. TH6-Davisson embodies Broadcom’s lead-edge and robust CPO architecture that has been fine-tuned over multiple generations of development to overcome these barriers and deliver the bandwidth, efficiency, and reliability required for next-generation AI networks.
World-Class Energy Efficiency
TH6-Davisson was architected from the ground up for power efficiency. By heterogeneously integrating TSMC Compact Universal Photonic Engine (TSMC COUPE™) technology-based optical engines with advanced substrate-level multi-chip packaging, the switch dramatically reduces the need for signal conditioning and minimizes trace loss and reflections. The result is a 70% reduction in optical interconnect power consumption—more than 3.5x lower than traditional pluggable solutions—delivering a step change in energy efficiency for hyperscale and AI data centers.
Improved Link Stability and Traffic Performance
As AI training jobs scale, link stability has become a critical bottleneck, with even minor interruptions causing measurable losses in XPU and GPU utilization. TH6-Davisson addresses this challenge by directly integrating optical engines onto a common package with the Ethernet switch. This highly integrated design eliminates many of the sources of manufacturing and test variability inherent in pluggable transceivers. The result is significantly improved link flap performance and higher cluster reliability as validated by a TH5-Bailly link flap study here.
Bandwidth Improvement and Interoperability
Operating at 200 Gbps per channel, TH6-Davisson doubles the line rate and overall bandwidth of Broadcom’s second-generation TH5-Bailly CPO solution. Designed for interoperability, it seamlessly interconnects with DR-based transceivers as well as LPO and CPO optical interconnects running at 200 Gbps per channel. This ensures frictionless connectivity with the industry’s most advanced NICs, XPUs, and fabric switches, enabling next-generation AI and cloud clusters to scale without compromise.
CPO Roadmap
Leveraging the advanced CMOS nodes and continuous breakthroughs in device technology, Broadcom is now developing its fourth-generation CPO solution. The new generation will double per-channel bandwidth to 400 Gbps while achieving greater levels of energy efficiency, further extending Broadcom’s leadership in enabling the scale and sustainability of future AI and cloud networks.
TH6-Davisson BCM78919 Product Highlights
- 102.4 Tbps Switching Capacity
- 16 x 6.4 Tbps Davisson DR Optical Engines
- 200 Gbps per link bandwidth
- Field-Replaceable ELSFP Laser Modules
- Supports Scale-Up cluster size of 512 XPUs and up to 100,000+ XPUs in two-tier networks at 200 Gbps per link
- IEEE 802.3 Compliance — Interoperable with existing 400G and 800G standards.
