Broadcom Tomahawk 6 – Davisson 102.4T Switch with Co-Packaged Optics Shipping

Broadcom TH6 Davisson Cover

Broadcom announced that it is now shipping its Tomahawk 6 – Davisson or TH6-Davisson product. This is a big deal because it is bringing co-packaged optics to next-generation networking. This is an update to the Broadcom Tomahawk 5-based 51.2T Bailly that we also covered at Hot Chips 2024. Now we have a 1.6Tbps generation.

Broadcom Tomahawk 6 – Davisson 102.4T Switch with Co-Packaged Optics Shipping

The new TH6-Davisson switch is a 102.4Tbps part that has sixteen of Broadcom’s 6.4Tbps Davisson DR optical engines. These utilize the TSMC Compact Universal Photonic Engine or TSMC COUPE, on its way to drastically lower the power required for the switch. There are 64 integrated Condor 3nm SerDes cores. Each Condor core has eight integrated 212.5-Gb/s PAM4 SerDes. This is because the switch does not require high-speed and high-power electrical signals between the switch package and front pluggable optical cages. Broadcom says it is on the order of 70% lower power consumption.

Broadcom TH6 Davisson Overview Large

The new TH6-Davisson part number is BCM78919. Unlike solutions like the Intel Co-Packaged Optics and Silicon Photonics Switch we saw pre-pandemic, Broadcom is using a more modern setup with pluggable and replaceable laser modules. Light sources are usually the part with the highest failure rate, so making them FRUs means switches can be serviced in the field.

Broadcom TH6 Davisson Platform Large

Broadcom spent a lot of effort testing its CPO solution with the TH5-Bailly platform to show that not only can it achieve the speeds, but that CPO is reliable.

Final Words

Having 1.6TbE links is a lot these days. At the same time, for large AI clusters, the ability to connect more devices at 800GbE or 400GbE speeds is a huge benefit, as it can help connect more devices with fewer layers of switching. In AI clusters, networking power has come under scrutiny because it is both critical and power-hungry, diverting resources from AI accelerators. We have had generations of fairly straightforward new switches that double throughput. Co-packaged optics are the next massive change in the industry as they fundamentally redraw boundaries in switches.

Broadcom TH6 Davisson Timeline Large

If you want to see more of our Tomahawk 6 coverage, you can see our Broadcom Tomahawk 6 Launched for 1.6TbE Generation and Broadcom Tomahawk 6 102.4T 64-port 1.6TbE Switches at Computex 2025.