Cisco powers the scale-across era
AI workloads are growing faster than the data centers that host them. AI training workload demands are effectively limitless, constrained only by power availability. To keep up, data centers are migrating to remote locations, wherever power is available. This migration requires unprecedented bandwidth to interconnect massive AI clusters over large distances. These huge AI training runs can last months and are incredibly costly, and any network downtime risks leaving a billion-dollar data center idle.
To meet the demands of AI workloads, data center networks have been scaling along two dimensions – scale-up, connecting GPUs within a rack, and scale-out, connecting racks within a data center. Now, a third dimension is essential to unlock new AI intelligence: “scale-across” extends AI workloads across multiple data centers while making them operate as one coherent, unified cluster. To achieve this, networks must be ultra-reliable, secure, high bandwidth, and scalable – effectively merging routing and switching requirements.
That’s why we built the Cisco 8223, powered by Cisco Silicon One P200. It’s the industry’s first 51.2-terabit fixed Ethernet router, featuring the highest bandwidth 51.2-terabit deep-buffer routing silicon. The Cisco 8223 is purpose-built for scale-across networking demands. With industry-leading power efficiency, scalability, and security features, it’s engineered to handle what’s next.
At its core is Cisco Silicon One P200 routing silicon – the latest innovation in the Cisco Silicon One portfolio. Silicon One is the industry’s only scalable, programmable unified networking architecture. In just six years, it has gone from launch to deployments at five of the six top hyperscalers, and now powers over 50 Cisco systems, including Catalyst, Nexus, and Cisco 8000. Its unified routing and switching architecture is designed for efficiency, scalability, programmability, and security, with five purpose-built silicon families that span every major market — hyperscaler, enterprise, and service provider.
Cisco uniquely designs its own system, silicon and optics, delivering optimized solutions, and full-stack innovation. With Silicon One P200 and the Cisco 8223, we are building the AI fabric for the scale-across era. The third dimension of AI scaling is here, and it’s securely powered by Cisco.