David Bombal #570: 100 Terabit Smart Switches: What You Need to Know
Mar 31, 2026
Will Eatherton, a Cisco networking executive focused on data center and AI infrastructure, discusses the rise of 100 Tbps smart switches powered by Cisco Silicon One G300. He covers optics tradeoffs like co-packaged vs linear packaged, DPUs and smart NICs enforcing security, Ethernet vs InfiniBand for AI clusters, and the shift toward higher-bandwidth interfaces and operational tools.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Programmable 100Tbps Switch Chips Change The Game
- Cisco's G300 100Tbps chip offers programmable features at full line rate to adapt mid-cycle to AI needs.
- Will Eatherton described truncating packets with a congestion bit and adding features post-design thanks to on-chip programmability.
Three Optics Paths With Different Tradeoffs
- Optics choices are splitting into pluggables, linear packaged optics (LPO), and co-packaged optics (CPO) with tradeoffs in power and vendor lock-in.
- Eatherton said LPO lowers power but must be tuned to silicon, while CPO gives power benefits yet raises reliability and single-vendor concerns.
Cisco Partners With NVIDIA On Spectrum Switches
- Cisco announced switching back to NVIDIA Spectrum silicon for some products and shipping Spectrum 4 and planning Spectrum 6 switches.
- Eatherton explained Cisco will ship Spectrum 4 (50T) soon and expects Spectrum 6 (100T) to be orderable and shipping by late summer.