NORTH AMERICAN BUSINESS
  • HOME
  • SUSTAINABILITY
  • INVEST
  • MARKET
  • PARTNERSHIP
  • INNOVATION
  • PEOPLE
  • INSIGHTS
No Result
View All Result
NORTH AMERICAN BUSINESS
  • HOME
  • SUSTAINABILITY
  • INVEST
  • MARKET
  • PARTNERSHIP
  • INNOVATION
  • PEOPLE
  • INSIGHTS
No Result
View All Result
NORTH AMERICAN BUSINESS
No Result
View All Result
Home ALL IT

The power of your power

by Ed Johnson
June 11, 2021
A A

Posted: June 10, 2021

While power consumption has always been an important metric for switch/router silicon, it is quickly becoming one of the most critical factors in network system design. Over the last decade, power consumption has progressed from factors related mainly to cost to a deciding factor on whether new network equipment can be deployed at all — considering infrastructure and rack-level power supply or cooling limitations. For example, IT managers are now asking themselves, “Will I have to use a heat sink or what type of fan will I need?” Recognizing the importance of power efficiency, Broadcom has been at the forefront of low power network silicon design and has consistently led the industry in terms of throughput per watt.

A good example of what has been achieved in successive generations of Broadcom silicon can be seen in the evolution of the high-end data center switch chips, as shown in the figure below.

Over the past 10 years, Broadcom switch silicon has increased in bandwidth by a factor of 40x.  The 640Gbps Trident switch had a typical power consumption of 65W or 102W/Tbps. The latest Tomahawk4 switch, the world’s only shipping product at 25.6Tbps, has a typical power consumption of 310W, or 12W/Tbps. This is almost a 90 percent improvement in power efficiency.

There are three main factors that contribute to power efficiency in networking silicon: architecture, process technology and physical design.

Choice of architecture is the largest lever in optimizing power. There’s been much focus recently about application-specific architectures dominating the next wave of compute silicon. Most times during these discussions, people fail to understand that this trend has already been in place for networking silicon. Broadcom has three application-specific switch/router architectures — Tomahawk, Trident and Jericho — that were optimized for specific network needs. Alternative approaches, such as NPU-style run-to-completion engines, which try to span multiple applications with one architecture, inherently have higher power consumption.

The advantages of leading-edge process technology and low-power IP are well known factors in minimizing power consumption. Broadcom has consistently led the industry in adopting the latest process technologies.  The Broadcom Trident 4, for example, was the industry’s first switch/router silicon implemented in 7nm. Broadcom also leads the industry in providing low-power IP, including a wide variety of memory instances specifically optimized for the tables and buffers required for switching and routing, as well as SerDes specifically designed for ultra-high port count ASICs.

Finally, physical design, the ability to translate an architecture into a fully optimized collection of transistors and wires, is the last remaining factor in providing the lowest power. Broadcom is well known for its execution capabilities, consistently bringing the highest-end switch/router silicon to market before any of its peers. This execution capability includes physical design techniques that minimize power: incorporating a wide-variety of optimized SRAMs and TCAMs, extensive clock gating, low-power standard cells, tools and frequency selection to minimize supply voltages and the number of low-Vt transistors, among other factors. As the saying goes, there’s no compression algorithm for experience. This is certainly true for extremely complex networking silicon containing hundreds of SerDes and billions of transistors.

As the networking industry continues its inexorable path toward higher bandwidths and increased systems densities, power efficiency is playing an increasingly important role.  Customers can be assured that Broadcom will continue its focus on providing application-specific architectures implemented with the most advanced process technology and the most efficient physical design, allowing them to deploy the world’s most power-efficient networking devices.

Tags: < Market
ShareTweetShareSend

Related Industries

IT

Emerson to Spotlight Innovations Advancing Sustainability Progress in Energy Industries

November 3, 2023
IT

Siemens and Microsoft partner to drive cross-industry AI adoption

November 1, 2023
IT

Energy Exemplar to be Acquired by Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners

November 1, 2023
IT

Rockwell Automation and Microsoft Expand Partnership to Leverage Generative AI Capabilities for Enhanced Productivity and Faster Time-to-Market

October 27, 2023
IT

IBM Expands Relationship with AWS to Bring Generative AI Solutions and Dedicated Expertise to Clients

October 19, 2023
IT

EY and IBM Launch Artificial Intelligence Solution Designed to Help Increase Productivity and Drive Efficiencies within HR

October 11, 2023

Bristol Myers Squibb Appoints Christopher Boerner, Ph.D., to Chair of the Board of Directors, Effective April 1, 2024

November 1, 2023

...

Cargill’s newly expanded soybean processing plant in Sidney, Ohio poised to connect local farmers to growing demand for soybean oil and meal

November 2, 2023

...

Diverse Customers Announce Plans to Purchase BYD Battery Electric Buses in Canada

November 15, 2023

...

Chase Corporation Announces Completion Of Acquisition By KKR And Welcomes Lance Reisman As Chairman Of The Board Of Directors

November 16, 2023

...

Siemens to invest more than US$500 million in U.S. manufacturing for critical infrastructure in 2023

November 4, 2023

...

Hyundai Announces Higher Wage Structure for Production Team Members in Alabama and Georgia

November 14, 2023

...

Morgan Stanley Wins Four 2023 Money Management Institute (MMI)/Barron’s Industry Awards

November 3, 2023

...

Lilly Extends Tender Offer to Acquire POINT Biopharma to Dec. 1, 2023

November 20, 2023

...

Boston Scientific Closes Acquisition of Relievant Medsystems, Inc.

November 18, 2023

...

NORTH AMERICAN BUSINESS (www.na-biz.com) is a leading source of business and corporate news, information, industry trends, market updates and insights across a broad spectrum of industries in North America and worldwide.

MENU

  • HOME
  • SUSTAINABILITY
  • INVEST
  • MARKET
  • PARTNERSHIP
  • INNOVATION
  • PEOPLE
  • INSIGHTS

CONTACT US

EDITORIAL:     editor#na-biz.com

PARTNERSHIP:     biz#na-biz.com

HUMAN RESOURCE:     hr#na-biz.com

* (replace # with @)

  • Official Site

Copyright © NORTH AMERICAN BUSINESS All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • HOME
  • SUSTAINABILITY
  • INVEST
  • MARKET
  • PARTNERSHIP
  • INNOVATION
  • PEOPLE
  • INSIGHTS

Copyright © NORTH AMERICAN BUSINESS All rights reserved.