Microchip Technology has launched a new generation of high-speed semiconductor switches aimed at easing data bottlenecks in artificial intelligence and high-performance computing systems, as demand for faster interconnects continues to surge.
The US-based chipmaker said its Switchtec Gen 6 PCIe switches are the industry’s first to be built using a 3 nm process, offering lower power consumption and support for up to 160 lanes of connectivity. The devices are designed to handle the growing data transfer needs of modern data centres, which increasingly rely on complex, distributed computing architectures.
The new switches incorporate hardware-based security measures including a root of trust and secure boot features, using post-quantum safe cryptography compliant with the US National Security Agency’s Commercial National Security Algorithm Suite 2.0.
Microchip’s latest release follows the adoption of the PCIe 6.0 standard, which doubles bandwidth to 64 gigatransfers per second per lane compared with PCIe 5.0.
The company said this increase will reduce latency and help maintain steady data flows between CPUs, GPUs, AI accelerators and storage devices—an essential requirement for large-scale AI training and inference systems.
“Rapid innovation in the AI era is prompting data centre architectures to move away from traditional designs and shift to a model where components are organised as a pool of shared resources,” said Brian McCarson, Corporate Vice-President of Microchip’s Data Centre Solutions business unit. “By expanding our proven Switchtec product line to PCIe 6.0, we’re enabling this transformation with technology that delivers the most powerful and energy-efficient switch we’ve ever produced.”
The Switchtec Gen 6 family supports up to 20 ports and 10 stacks, each featuring hot- and surprise-plug controllers. It also includes Non-Transparent Bridging to isolate multiple host domains and multicast capability for one-to-many data distribution within a single domain. The devices feature extensive diagnostics and debugging tools, integrated MIPS processors, and flexible bifurcation options at x8 and x16.
The switches are supported by Microchip’s ChipLink diagnostic suite, which provides configuration and monitoring tools via PCIe or sideband connections. An evaluation kit, the PM61160-KIT, is available for developers seeking to prototype and test new designs.
Microchip said samples of the Switchtec Gen 6 switches are now available to qualified customers, with full commercial availability expected later.
The move positions Microchip among a handful of semiconductor firms vying to provide the backbone interconnects for next-generation AI data centres—a market forecast to grow sharply as companies scale up computing infrastructure to support large language models and other data-intensive applications.
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