Broadcom launches Jericho chip to advance AI data centre networks

[SAN FRANCISCO] Broadcom’s silicon division launched its next-generation Jericho networking chip on Monday (Aug 4), which is designed to connect data centres over 96.5 km apart and speed artificial intelligence (AI) computation.

The company’s Jericho4 introduces and improves several features that increase the amount of networking traffic speeding across large networks that operate inside and between data centres.

Building and deploying AI has become more computationally intensive and requires stringing together thousands of graphics processors (GPUs). Cloud computing companies such as Microsoft and Amazon require faster, more sophisticated networking chips to ensure data moves efficiently.

Security when transferring data beyond the physical walls of a data centre is crucial for cloud companies because of the potential attacks that could intercept it ahead of reaching its destination.

Broadcom’s engineers designed the Jericho chips to be deployed at a massive scale, and a single system can encompass roughly 4,500 chips, according to Ram Velaga, senior vice-president and general manager of Broadcom’s Core Switching Group.

To help mitigate issues around network congestion, the Jericho4 chips use the same high-bandwidth memory (HBM) that designers such as Nvidia and AMD use for their AI processors. It’s necessary because of the volume of data that needs to be stuffed into memory at any given moment of operation.

“The switch is actually holding that traffic (in memory) till the congestion frees up,” Velaga said. “It means you need to have a lot of memory on the chip.”

The longer the distance the data must travel from the chip to its destination, the more memory designers must include in the chip as well.

In addition to performance improvements, the Jericho4 also beefs up security by encrypting data.

Broadcom opted to use Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s three nanometre process for the Jericho4. REUTERS