NVIDIA Networking 2U MSN5600 Spectrum 4 Based 800GbE Switch

SN5600: Purpose-Built for 800G Data Centre Fabrics

The SN5600 smart-leaf, spine, and super-spine switch offers 64 ports of 800 GbE in a 2U form factor. The SN5600 offers diverse quad small form factor double density (OSFP) connectivity options ranging from 1 to 800 GbE and boasts a total throughput of 51.2 Tb/s, making it ideal for 800 G data center fabrics.

Spectrum: The World’s First Ethernet Fabric Built for AI

SN5000 switches are a key component of the NVIDIA Spectrum-X networking platform. This platform integrates Spectrum 5000 series Ethernet switches (excluding SN5400) with NVIDIA SuperNICs, standing out as the world’s first Ethernet fabric built specifically for AI. This unique design accelerates generative AI network performance, boasting a 1.6x improvement over traditional Ethernet fabrics. Additionally, Spectrum-X ensures consistent and predictable outcomes for thousands of simultaneous AI jobs at every scale by maximising resource utilisation and performance isolation. It not only enables advanced cloud multi-tenancy but also offers robust zero-trust security. For cloud service providers, this translates into faster AI solution development, quicker deployment, and accelerated time to market, ultimately enhancing their return on investment.

51.2 Tb/s Switching: Performance at Every Tier

With a bidirectional switching capacity of 51.2 terabits per second (Tb/s), SN5000 platforms are available in a range of configurations. Each delivers high performance with feature-rich layer-2 and layer-3 forwarding, ideally suited for both end-of-row and spine and suitable for replacing modular chassis switches. SN5000 switches provide full wire-speed performance with ultra-low cut-through latency, leveraging the fully shared 160 megabyte (MB) packet buffers for fair and predictable performance. By combining the low latency of the Spectrum-4 ASIC with the large switch radix of SN5000 systems, thousands of hosts can be connected in a two-tier network architecture while maintaining minimal port-to-port latencies.

End-to-End Security Built Into the Silicon

SN5000 series switches offer a complete security suite at all switch layers. Hardware, firmware, and software are authenticated by a built-in root of trust, from the basic input and output system (BIOS) to the network operating system (NOS). Any attempt to run an altered component or image that wasn’t originally signed by NVIDIA is automatically blocked, ensuring the safest network installation within data centres.

Cumulus Linux: Web-Scale Networking for Every Business

NVIDIA Cumulus® Linux is a powerful open network operating system that enables advanced automation, customisation, and scalability using web-scale principles hardened in the world’s largest data centers. Cumulus Linux was built for building data center networks ideally suited to diverse business needs. And it’s the only open NOS that enables the building of affordable and efficient network operations like the world’s largest data center operators, unlocking web-scale networking for businesses of all sizes.

Pure SONiC: Open Networking Without Vendor Lock-In

Designed for hyperscalers, service providers, and enterprises, SONiC is a fully open-sourced, hardware-agnostic NOS, perfect for preventing vendor lock-in and ideal for next-generation data centers. SONiC’s containerised design makes it flexible and customisable, allowing customers to combine and manage SONiC and non-SONiC switches within the same networking fabric. NVIDIA’s pure SONiC offering removes distribution limitations and enables enterprises to take full advantage of the benefits of open networking while adding the NVIDIA expertise and support that best guarantee success. NVIDIA is proud to guide the direction of SONiC as a member of the SONiC Governing Board and Technical Steering Committee. Pure SONiC is fully supported on all SN5000 switch systems.

NVIDIA Air: Digital Twin Simulation for CI/CD Networking

The NVIDIA Air infrastructure simulation platform creates digital twins of SN5000 switch systems (as well as the rest of the Spectrum portfolio). The digital twin includes logical instances of every switch and cable, so it can be used to validate security policy compliance, automation processes, monitoring tools, interoperability, and upgrade procedures. The digital twin is key to transforming network operations models, allowing IT architects and infrastructure specialists to deploy and update networks up to 95% faster through continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) integration.

NetQ: Real-Time Network Visibility With NetDevOps Workflows

NVIDIA NetQ™ is a highly scalable network operations toolset that provides visibility, troubleshooting, and validation of networks in real time. NetQ delivers actionable insights and operational intelligence about the health of data center networks—from the container or host all the way to the switch and port—enabling a NetDevOps approach. NVIDIA NetQ is the leading network operations tool that utilises telemetry for deep troubleshooting, visibility, and automated workflows from a single interface, reducing mean time to innocence (MTTI) and network downtimes.

Spectrum-4 Buffer Architecture: Bottleneck-Free at Any Scale

Packet buffer architecture has a major impact on overall switch performance. The Spectrum-4 ASIC features a fully shared and monolithic packet buffer across all ports, supporting cut-through traffic from all ports without compromising scale or features. With its fast packet buffer, Spectrum-4 provides a high-performance, fair, and bottleneck-free data path for mission-critical applications. In addition, Spectrum-4 provides the most advanced and innovative feature set yet. This includes unique features like RoCE extensions for NVIDIA Spectrum-X and end-to-end nanosecond-level timing precision from switch to host.

Silicon-Level Telemetry: Proactive, Granular, and Open

Spectrum-4 provides deep and contextual network visibility, which allows network operators to proactively manage issues and reduce mean time to recovery (MTTR) and innocence (MTTI). Available through the switch SDK, NVIDIA User Experience (NVUE), or SONiC command-line interface (CLI), What Just Happened leverages the underlying silicon and software capability to provide granular and event-triggered information about infrastructure issues. In addition, Spectrum-4’s rich telemetry information is readily available via open APIs and tools such as gNMI that can be integrated with NetQ, as well as third-party software tools and workflow engines.

Programmable Pipeline: High-Performance Network Virtualisation

For modern data center infrastructure to be software-defined and agile, both its compute and network building blocks need to be agile. Spectrum-4 includes a unique, feature-rich packet processing pipeline that offers data center network virtualisation without compromising on performance or scale. Spectrum-4 has a programmable pipeline and a deep packet parser and editor that can process payloads up to the first 512 bytes. Spectrum-4 supports single-pass VXLAN routing and bridging. In addition, Spectrum-4 supports advanced virtualisation features such as routing and NAT.

NVIDIA Spectrum 4

Spectrum-4 uses intelligent algorithms and efficient resource sharing and supports unprecedented scale for forwarding tables, counters, and policies. This fine-grained resource allocation enables Spectrum-4 to fit all specific needs, allowing up to 512,000 entries to be dynamically shared across media access control (MAC), Address Resolution Protocol (ARP), Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) routes, ACLs, ECMP, and VXLAN tunnels.

• 64 OSFP 800 GbE ports in a 2U form factor.
• Connector-to-Power (C2P) Airflow Orientation
• Supports up to 51.2 Tb/s switching capacity.
• Delivers 33.3 Bpps wire-speed throughput.
• Breaks out to 800, 400, 200, 100, 50, 40, 25, 10, and 1 GbE.
• Built on 8×50G PAM4 lanes per port for full 400G bandwidth.
• Powered by an octacore AMD CPU.
• Includes 32 GB system memory and 80GB NVMe 3 SSD.
• Equipped with a 160 MB fully shared packet buffer.
• Comes with RJ45 management and serial ports.
• Includes USB Type 3 port for fast local access.
• Features 2 hot-swap redundant power supplies.
• Includes 5 hot-swappable redundant fans.
• Operates in 0–35°C environments.
• Runs on 200–240 VAC input at 50–60 Hz.