Digital storage firm Marvell has revealed its new Prestera CX 8500 Switch family, designed for edge and private data centres utilising composable infrastructure.
Ranging from 2 to 12.8 Terabits per second (Tbps), the Prestera CX 8500 range arrives complete with a robust feature-set to support connected intelligence, edge computing and 5G applications. With 25Gbps and 50Gbps I/O options, it provides more than 35% lower power consumption and 25% more total buffer memory when compared to traditional switching ICs, the company said.
The portfolio also represents a shake-up in approach to data centre architectures, boasting features that offer improved workflow visibility, analytics and network simplification to support QoS, traffic management and scalability.
In order to handle the complexity of network infrastructure, the Prestera CX 8500 utilises Storage Aware Flow Engine (SAFE) technology for greater insight into network flows with per-flow visibility, advanced telemetry, as well as comprehensive diagnostics to improve network congestion.
The inclusion of Forwarding Architecture using Slice of Terabit Ethernet Routers (FASTER) technology also means that users can take advantage of high radix cores and congestion-aware load balancing. Through virtualisation, FASTER helps reduce the number of network layers and complexity, allowing data centre networks to be collapsed into a single layer – lowering power, space and latency as a result. FASTER can also reduce overall costs by more than 50%, Marvell said.
“Leveraging two decades of field proven deployments of Prestera technology with more than three billion Ethernet switch ports shipped, as well as demonstrated leadership in Ethernet networking and storage technology, Marvell is revolutionising data centre switching,” said Eric Hayes, SVP and general manager at Marvell’s Networking Business Unit.
“Specifically, our newest Prestera CX solutions incorporate cutting-edge SAFE and FASTER technologies at bandwidths up to 12.8 Tbps, unleashing 32 ports of 400 Gbps or 256 ports of 50 Gbps network throughput.”
Elsewhere, the CX 8500 family’s packet processor also includes a ninth-generation Ethernet switch pipeline and uses a stable 16-nanometre high volume process node for a quick time-to-market for customers. It’s also supported by the Core Prestera Software Suite (CPSS) and maintains API compatibility with the Marvell Prestera DX and EX families.
“Marvells innovations are enabling edge data centres to implement a higher performance network in a smaller footprint, with substantial lower power and cost,” Hayes concluded.
