Hardware

Broadcom Switch Chipset Families 1. Tomahawk Series — “The Bandwidth Beast” Focus: Maximum throughput, low latency, and high radix (port density). These are the “packet pushers” used in the Spine and Core of hyperscale data centers. Tomahawk 5 (TH5) The first to hit 51.2 Tbps. It introduced “Cognitive Routing” to handle the bursty nature of AI traffic and supports 64 ports of 800GbE. Tomahawk 6 (TH6) Hit production volume in March 2026. Doubles capacity to 102.4 Tbps on a single die. ...

Form Factor Speed Lanes (Elec) Modulation Connector Types Approx. Intro SFP+ 10 Gbps 1 x 10G NRZ LC Duplex, RJ45 2006 SFP28 25 Gbps 1 x 25G NRZ LC Duplex 2014 SFP56 50 Gbps 1 x 50G PAM4 LC Duplex 2019 SFP-DD 100 Gbps 2 x 50G PAM4 LC Duplex 2019/20 QSFP+ 40 Gbps 4 x 10G NRZ MPO-12, LC 2012 QSFP28 100 Gbps 4 x 25G NRZ MPO-12, LC 2014 QSFP56 200 Gbps 4 x 50G PAM4 MPO-12, LC 2019 QSFP-DD 400G / 800G 8 x 50/100G PAM4 MPO-16, LC, CS 2017/21 OSFP 400G / 800G 8 x 50/100G PAM4 MPO-12/16, LC 2019 OSFP1600 1.6 Tbps 8 x 200G PAM4 MPO, Dual LC 2024/25