Broadcom released new switches and a retimer for data centers and cloud providers. The PEX88000 Switches and PEX88T32 Retimer, which are part of Broadcom’s suite of peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) switches, are designed to address the rising demand for high performance computing and storage, according to the vendor.

The PEX88000 family of switches features a range from 26 to 98 lanes and ports, which Broadcom claims is “ideal for high-throughput and low-latency applications such as deep learning, high-performance computing and NVMe [non-volatile memory access] all-flash arrays.”

The PEX88T32 retimer is based on Broadcom’s PCIe Gen 4.0 SerDes IP and designed to increase the deployment of the PCIe switches in applications that make use of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and high-performance computing.

Will Townsend, senior analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, says he expects the new products to be impactful in the white-box market with companies like Arrcus, Cumulus, and others that focus on merchant silicon solutions.

The PEX88000 line of switches and retimers, which were initially sampled by some customers in 2018, achieve data throughput up to 16 Gt/s. The switches also play a critical role in interconnecting general-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPUs), compute accelerators, central processing units, SSDs, and NICs in these environments, according to the vendor.

“The growth of data center workloads and applications continues to scale at a rapid pace, as machine learning and data inference platforms create new ways to transfer, analyze, optimize, store, and use data,” said Jas Tremblay, VP and GM of Broadcom’s Data Center Solutions group. “The adoption of innovative, next-generation technologies is vital for the creation and sustainability of smarter, optimized data centers.”

Broadcom remains a “major player in the networking infrastructure market,” Townsend said, adding that the new switches look compelling on the surface. The vendor’s closest competitor in the data center interconnect and switch silicon space is Barefoot, which recently inked a deal to be acquired by Intel, but Broadcom is “still very well positioned given its incumbent position and market momentum,” Townsend explained.

OEMs, ODMs, drive manufacturers, cloud providers, and GPGPU suppliers are all mentioned as Broadcom’s partners in this market. Nvidia, which is named as one of Broadcom’s partners, is working with the vendor to help cloud providers modernize their data centers with PCIe Gen 4 based infrastructure, explained Michael Diamond, senior director of strategic partnerships at Nvidia, in a statement.