- Broadcom Thor Ultra 800G Ethernet Card Targets the AI Era with Stunning 800G Ethernet Design
- Broadcom optimizes PCIe Gen6 performance directly into demanding AI data center workloads
- Traditional RDMA meets its replacement as Thor Ultra redefines packet control precision
Broadcom introduced the Thor Ultra, described as the industry’s first AI 800G Ethernet network interface card (NIC).
The card is designed for large data center environments that power advanced AI tools and workloads involving hundreds of thousands of XPUs.
With PCIe Gen6 x16, Thor Ultra improves the throughput of Ethernet cards and targets AI data centers where performance and scalability are essential.
Modernizing RDMA for Complex AI Networks
The Broadcom Thor Ultra 800G Ethernet Card addresses several limitations of traditional RDMA, which lacks multi-pathing and scalable congestion control.
Broadcom’s redesign adds Packet-Level Multipathing and Out-of-Order Packet Delivery, enabling more efficient use of network resources.
Selective retransmission and programmable congestion control have also been added to reduce latency and data loss in high-load environments.
The approach follows the open Ultra Ethernet Consortium (UEC) specification rather than a proprietary model.
It allows customers to connect to any compatible network switch or XPU without being tied to a single vendor’s infrastructure.
The Thor Ultra supports 200G or 100G PAM4 SerDes and long-range passive copper, while providing one of the lowest bit error rates in the industry to minimize connection instability.
Its PCIe Gen6 x16 interface allows it to move data at extreme speeds suitable for AI-based workloads.
The card can also perform line rate encryption and decryption with PSP offloading, which reduces the computational load on the host system.
Secure boot and signed firmware build confidence in the device, while packet reduction and congestion signaling align it with Broadcom’s Tomahawk 5 and 6 switches.
Broadcom describes Thor Ultra as the cornerstone of its AI Ethernet networking strategy, joining products such as Tomahawk Ultra and Jericho 4.
The company says that together, these components help create an open and scalable ecosystem for high-performance AI computing.
However, it remains to be seen how well Thor Ultra integrates with other vendors’ technologies or whether its benefits outweigh the cost and complexity of deployment in non-specialist environments.
Broadcom has begun sampling Thor Ultra, suggesting it may soon begin to see adoption by early AI partners and data center operators.
Via TechPowerUp
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