Broadcom Continues to Lead in Optical PHY, Advancing Next-Generation Connectivity

Broadcom has, for the past two decades, used its physical layer products to help in its vision of connecting everything by focusing on developing cutting-edge, best-in-class DSP and SerDes technology. This is all critical to moving data in and around data center, campus and service provider networks.

Through this time, Ethernet connectivity has always been core to Broadcom’s wired infrastructure solutions.

According to Rajesh Annapillai, the senior product line manager, the proliferation of AI, 5G and cloud computing over the past decade has led to the unrelenting demand for increased bandwidth, which has been matched with increased infrastructure investments by both enterprise and hyperscale data center operators.

“Operators looking for CAPEX and OPEX efficiencies have latched on to two key metrics: lower power as measured in pico-Joule per bit (pJ/b) and lower cost as measured in dollar per gigabit ($/Gb),” Rajesh said in his blog published on the Broadcom website.

Broadcom continues to be the market leader in delivering key physical layer connectivity components that cost-effectively deliver speed and help its customers build robust networks. These connectivity components proliferate every segment of a data center network be it in a rack inside a data center, a core network, a router or a service provider network.

Broadcom has been leading the industry with investments in multiple SerDes technologies (NRZ/PAM4), DSP, high speed ADC/DAC and coherent architectures that have resulted in an unparalleled portfolio of retimers, gearboxes, optical transceiver PHY, MACSec PHY and 1588 solutions.

The Broadcom portfolio stands out in the industry for its breadth and depth of products (200+ SKUs in high volumes), that address the various connectivity needs, be it on a frontpanel, backplane, inside an optical module, or within a copper cable.

In the last decade, Broadcom’s physical layer products have helped hyperscalers increase the bandwidth by 64x, while at the same time reducing the power per GB footprint by 90%. The company continues to develop products in next-generation process nodes – 7nm and 5nm and continues to drive the R&D in new low power SerDes and PHY architectures that will enable the next technology leap over the next decade.

Rajesh further states that Broadcom is proud to be a leader in this incredible journey with our hyperscalers/telecom operator partners in addressing the key need to support faster port speeds.

“In a little more than five years, Broadcom launched the world’s first 50G PAM4 SerDes technology with PHYs and switches; Broadcom has achieved the incredible milestone of having shipped more than 200 million 50G and 100G PAM4 ports to datacom, telecom and enterprise markets,” Rajesh says.

Over the last decade alone, Broadcom’s physical layer products have helped hyperscalers increase the bandwidth by 64x, while at the same time reducing the power per GB footprint by 90 percent. (See Figure 1 below). Broadcom continues to develop products in next-generation process nodes — 7nm and 5nm and continues to drive the R&D in new low power SerDes and PHY architectures that will enable the next technology leap over the next decade.

Broadcom is proud to be a leader in this incredible journey with our hyperscalers/telecom operator partners in addressing the key need to support faster port speeds, dense network radix and extended SerDes reach. In a little more than five years, Broadcom launched the world’s first 50G PAM4 SerDes technology with PHYs and switches; Broadcom has achieved the incredible milestone of having shipped more than 200 million 50G and 100G PAM4 ports to datacom, telecom and enterprise markets.

The last decade has seen two major inflection points — the first happened with the shift from NRZ to the PAM4 modulation format, and the second is happening with the push for 100G/lane deployments. The first inflection resulted in the market moving away from high loss PCB based designs using rather simple optical module (SFP28/QSFP28) to low loss PCB based designs that use rather sophisticated optical modules (SFP56/QSFP56/QSFPDD).

With PAM4 modulation, OEMs had to use lower loss PCB board materials for improved signal integrity and at the same time DSPs were needed within the optical module to support the reach requirements that were supported with the previous generation NRZ modulation. Broadcom’s toolkit of long reach retimers, gearboxes and high performance/low power 7nm DSP solutions have enabled the market to navigate this transition. The second inflection point is happening now with the continued push into 100G/lane (400GbE and 800GbE) deployments. Data center operators are beginning to prioritize the cooling infrastructure, and there is a strong focus on power and cost.

Broadcom is responding to this challenge with strong investments in 5nm process node and R&D focused on higher integration of sub-components (be it laser drivers or trans-impedance amplifiers or voltage regulators) to drive both cost ($/Gb) and power (pj/b) down.

Broadcom will be also be part of the Africa Cloud and Security Summit. Feel free to register for the event to interact with Broadcom staff at the event and get to know more about the company.