HPE Slingshot 400 Brings a Liquid Cooled 51.2T Switch and 400Gbps Networking
HPE is joining the 400Gbps generation for its Ethernet-based HPC interconnect. The new HPE Slingshot 400 not only increases the switch ASIC speed to 51.2Tbps, but it also will usher in significantly faster HPC interconnect speeds to keep pace with solutions like the NVIDIA Spectrum-X we showed in the 100K GPU xAI Colossus Cluster that are being used in AI clusters. We saw the new liquid-cooled switch on the SC24 show floor.
The switch itself is made for HPE’s liquid-cooled supercomputing platforms. As such, and as something different from other 51.2T switches, it is completely liquid cooled designed to not use fans. That is a challenge since it has to cool not just the switch ASIC (Rosetta 2?) but also the optics.
The back of the switch interfaces with HPE’s HPC chassis. This is very similar to how blade chassis work if you are familiar with those switches.
On the front or rear, HPE has 24 optical cages. Pluggable optics at this speed generate enough heat that these need to be liquid-cooled in a switch like this as well.
