The technology company NVIDIA has unveiled its innovative photonic network switches, NVIDIA Spectrum-X and NVIDIA Quantum-X, at GTC, designed to enhance connectivity in artificial intelligence factories on an unprecedented scale. This new generation of infrastructure will connect millions of GPUs across data centers while simultaneously reducing energy consumption and operational costs.
As Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, explained, “AI factories are a new class of extreme-scale data centers, and the network infrastructure needs to be reinvented to keep up.” With the direct integration of silicon photonics into the switches, the company is challenging the traditional limits of hyperscale and enterprise networks.
Innovation with Integrated Photonic Technology
The new technology presented by NVIDIA combines electronic circuits and optical communications in a single system. Thanks to this innovation, NVIDIA’s photonic switches use four times fewer lasers, achieving 3.5 times greater energy efficiency, 63 times more signal integrity, and 10 times higher resilience in large-scale networks. Additionally, they allow for a deployment that is 1.3 times faster compared to traditional solutions.
Platforms for Extreme Performance
The new switches integrate into two main platforms:
- NVIDIA Spectrum-X Photonics Ethernet, which provides superior performance with a bandwidth density 1.6 times greater than conventional Ethernet. They are available in configurations that reach up to 400 Tb/s of total transmission capacity.
- NVIDIA Quantum-X Photonics InfiniBand, which includes models with 144 ports at 800 Gb/s, featuring liquid cooling to maintain optimal temperature. These switches offer double the speed and five times greater scalability compared to the previous generation.
Ecosystem and International Collaboration
NVIDIA has collaborated with key partners for this development, including TSMC, Coherent, Corning, Foxconn, Lumentum, and Sumitomo Electric Industries. From TSMC, its chairman C. C. Wei highlighted that “the combination of advanced chip manufacturing and TSMC’s 3D stacking technology will enable NVIDIA to scale AI factories to a million GPUs and beyond, pushing the boundaries of artificial intelligence.”
Market Availability
The NVIDIA Quantum-X Photonics InfiniBand switches will be available throughout this year, while the Spectrum-X Photonics Ethernet switches will hit the market in 2026 through leading infrastructure and systems providers.
With this advancement, NVIDIA reaffirms its leadership in developing the necessary infrastructures for the new generation of AI factories, capable of operating at massive scales with greater efficiency, resilience, and sustainability.
via: Nvidia