Crehan Research Inc. says that it predicts in an upcoming report that 400 Gigabit Ethernet (400GbE) data center switch port shipments should exceed 10 million this year. Concurrently, 50-Gbps SerDes shipments are outpacing those of 25-Gbps SerDes, making them the mostly widely deployed data center switch SerDes lane speed.
If current trends hold, 400GbE data center switch port shipments will exceed last year’s by more than 3X, Crehan Research states. “The 400GbE data center switch transition is well under way, with volumes now starting to move toward the tens of millions in conjunction with broader customer adoption,” said Seamus Crehan, president of Crehan Research. “Newer applications and architectures such as machine learning and disaggregated computing, on top of existing high-bandwidth drivers including video, machine-to-machine traffic, and data analytics, are driving the need for faster switch speeds with better bandwidth economics.”
The rise in 400GbE switching reflects the fact that data center switch silicon is transitioning from 3.2 Tbps to 12.8 Tbps, which also accounts for the increasing shipments of 50-Gbps SerDes. Crehan’s report notes that the three years it is taking the market to transition to 50-Gbps SerDes transition is shorter than the adoption time of 25-Gbps SerDes.
"These large deployments of 12.8-Tbps data center switches, with underlying 50-Gbps SerDes technology, are laying the groundwork for the deployments of next-generation 25.6-Tbps data center switches with 100-Gbps SerDes technology, which we expect to start ramping next year," Crehan said.
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