Cisco unveils new chip and optical modules to ease AI datacentre network bottlenecks

Cisco has unveiled a new chip and optical modules to ease AI datacentre network bottlenecks.

SiliconANGLE reported that Cisco showcased open silicon and optical networking systems in a keynote speech at the Open Compute Project (OCP) Global Summit held on Oct. 12 local time.

Networks are cited as a key bottleneck in AI data centres. Frontier models require large clusters made up of thousands of GPUs. Datacentre operators need to move more data between chips without increasing hardware costs and power use. Cisco is pursuing a strategy to address this with a “scale-across” architecture that links distributed AI data centres into one.

A core element of the scale-across architecture is the Silicon One family of chips.

Cisco also introduced an optical module made with Nvidia. The ultra-high-density small…