Cisco, Nvidia unveil 12.8 Tbps USFP optic

At the OCP summit, Cisco and Nvidia announced the ultra-dense small form factor pluggable (USFP), packing up to 32 400G lanes (12.8 Tbps) into an OSFP-sized module, 4-8x today's 1.6 Tbps pluggables. The open standard allows up to 100 W per module, and Cisco also said Microsoft is deploying its Silicon One P200 chips for multi-datacenter scale-across AI networking.

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A pluggable optic at 12.8 Tbps would sharply raise bandwidth density for AI cluster cabling, favoring optical module, DSP and laser suppliers who can meet 400G-per-lane and 100 W thermal demands. Nvidia's participation, despite its move to co-packaged optics on its switches, shows pluggables remain strategic for NICs and flexible deployments. The open standard widens the addressable market beyond Cisco and Nvidia but raises thermal, reliability and blast-radius challenges for module and cage makers. Microsoft's use of Cisco's P200 for scale-across networking strengthens Cisco's position against Nvidia Spectrum-XGS and Broadcom Jericho 4. Commercial impact is gradual, tied to 204.8 Tbps switches and Vera Rubin Ultra-class racks later in the decade.