112 Gbps is one of the most important building blocks for Ethernet Switching, and networking in general, for this decade and today Innovium announced a 25.6 Tbps ASIC based on the technology.
650 Group has been forecasting 112 Gbps in our reports for over three years and are excited to see the market getting ready for shipments in 2021.
We expect 25.6 Tbps ASICs to manifest as 32-port 1RU 800 Gbps platforms, as well as a higher density of 400 Gbps and 100/200 Gbps platforms. 112 Gbps is also an important technology for Data Center Interconnect (DCI) as more tiers in the networking are being added at many hyperscalers will utilize this technology to connect buildings and locations as metro spines become popular and widespread.
While 400 Gbps optics have been in short supply for over one year, we are more optimistic about 800 Gbps as the technology leap to get there in a pluggable is more manageable. At the same time, the industry can use gearboxes and retimers to use older (generation 1) 400 Gbps optics. With the continued interest from Cloud providers to use Fixed CLOS racks, the industry will also benefit from these higher-speed ASICs with copper connectivity. Not 100% dependent and gated on optics availability is an important aspect to 800 Gbps in the early quarters of shipments.
With each 25.6 Tbps switch replacing at least six 12.8 Tbps (dependent on over subscription), the market will adopt and move rapidly towards 25.6 Tbps ASICs. Besides DCI and the increased bandwidth mentioned earlier, AI/ML workloads will be moving from nascent to mainstream in 2021, which will provide additional market demand for the increased bandwidth.
