NVIDIA begins mass production of Spectrum-X CPO Ethernet switches

NVIDIA has announced the mass production of its Spectrum-X Ethernet Photonics switch system, marking the world’s first mass-produced 200G/lane Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) Ethernet switch. The technology utilizes silicon photonics to integrate optical engines directly with the switching ASIC on a single substrate, addressing bandwidth, power consumption, and reliability challenges in large-scale AI clusters.

Compared to traditional pluggable optical modules, the CPO architecture reduces the number of lasers required by four times and improves power efficiency by five times. NVIDIA reports that the system also increases the mean time between failures (MTBF) by ten times. High-capacity models include the SN6810, capable of 102.4 Tbps in a 2U chassis, and the SN6800, which provides up to 409.6 Tbps in a 5U system.

The production involves a global supply chain: TSMC provides advanced silicon photonics manufacturing, Siliconware Technology Group (SiPro) handles wafer-level and chip-level packaging and testing, Lumentum and TFC provide laser chips and sub-assembly, and Foxconn is responsible for system assembly. Early customers adopting or integrating the technology include CoreWeave, Lambda, and Oracle.