- Broadcom Thor Ultra 800G Ethernet Card Targets the AI Age with Stunning 800G Ethernet Design
- Broadcom Brings PCIe Gen6 Performance Directly to Demanding AI Data Center Workloads
- Traditional RDMA Replaces: Thor Ultra Redefines Packet Management Accuracy
Broadcom introduced Thor Ultra, the industry's first 800G AI Ethernet network interface card (NIC).
The card is intended for large data center environments that promote development Artificial Intelligence Tools and workloads involving hundreds of thousands of XPUs.
Using PCIe Gen6 x16, Thor Ultra increases the throughput of Ethernet cards and is aimed at artificial intelligence data centers where performance and scalability are essential.
RDMA Modernization for Complex AI Networks
The Broadcom Thor Ultra 800G Ethernet Card addresses several limitations found in traditional RDMA, which lacks multipath access and scalable congestion control.
Broadcom's updated design adds “packet-level multipath control” and “out-of-order packet delivery” features to enable more efficient use of network resources.
Selective retransmission and programmable congestion control have also been added to reduce latency and data loss in high-traffic environments.
This approach follows the open Ultra Ethernet Consortium (UEC) specification rather than a proprietary model.
This allows clients to connect to any compatible network switch or XPU without being tied to a single vendor's infrastructure.
Thor Ultra supports 200G or 100G PAM4 SerDes and long-reach passive copper while offering one of the lowest bit error rates in the industry, minimizing connection instability.
Its PCIe Gen6 x16 interface allows data transfer at extreme speeds suitable for AI-driven workloads.
The card can also perform line-speed encryption and decryption with PSP offload, reducing the processing load on the host system.
Secure boot and signed firmware add confidence to the device, while packet trimming and congestion alarms align it with Broadcom Tomahawk 5 and 6 switches.
Broadcom describes Thor Ultra as the cornerstone of its Ethernet AI networking strategy, joining products such as Tomahawk Ultra and Jericho 4.
The company says that together these components create a scalable, open ecosystem for high-performance computing using artificial intelligence.
However, it remains to be seen how well Thor Ultra integrates with other vendors' technologies and whether its benefits outweigh the cost and complexity of deployment in non-specialized environments.
Broadcom has begun testing Thor Ultra, suggesting it could soon begin adoption among early partners and AI data center operators.
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