The News: Marvell Technology introduced COLORZ 800, a new family of 800 Gbps ZR/ZR+ pluggable modules for data center infrastructure interconnects (DCIs) designed for swift, economical, and efficient scaling in the AI era. Read the full Press Release on the Marvell website.
Marvell Launches COLORZ 800: ZR/ZR+ for Spanning the Cloud
Analyst Take: Marvell has introduced the COLORZ 800 family of optical modules, incorporating Orion 800 Gbps coherent DSP and field-proven silicon photonics platform, which integrates multiple discrete components into a single die, providing up to 800 Gbps of bandwidth for DCI links up to 500 km. COLORZ 800 can also be enabled for connections up to 1,200 km operating at 400/600 Gbps to replace traditional transport equipment across a greater range of cloud infrastructure.
COLORZ 800 can lower the capital cost of DCI by up to 75% compared to traditional rack-based DCI boxes with embedded DSPs while reducing operating expenses such as power, rack space, and real estate. From my viewpoint, such competitive advantages can accelerate adoption of COLORZ 800 across intensely competitive DCI environments.
As a third-generation DCI module, COLORZ 800 expands the use case range of its pluggable portfolio, following the launch of the industry’s first switch pluggable DWDM 100G in 2017 (COLORZ) and the breakthrough 400G ZR/ZR+ in 2020 (COLORZ 400). Now COLORZ 800 supports 800 Gbps for 120 km DCI, 800 Gbps for 500 km in availability zones, and 400/600 Gbps for 1200 km in regional environments.
Key Takeaway: Broadening the ZR/ZR+ Opportunity in the AI Era
I anticipate that Marvell’s COLORZ 800 offering can energize uptake of coherent dense-wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) by offering the same size as 800G gray optics and providing an integrated amplifier in ZR+ that can deliver top competitive cost and energy savings per GB. Through enabling more versatile, speedier DCI capabilities, COLORZ 800 is primed to play an instrumental role in the expansion of virtual hyperscaler data centers, especially in assuring more efficient AI processing as well as improved dynamic load balancing.
From my view, COLORZ 800 and Orion 800 strengthen Marvell’s overall data infrastructure proposition, also consisting of its Teralynx 10, a 51.2T switch chip for powering cloud switch systems, and Nova, a 1.6T PAM4 DSP capable of transmitting 200G per wavelength of light to double the capacity of PAM4 modules. Plus, Marvell offers the 400 Gbps and 800 Gbps Alaska A DSPs for active electrical cable (AEC) capabilities. Additionally, Marvell produces drivers and amplifiers included in optical modules. Taken together, Marvell offers the data infrastructure silicon portfolio required to accelerate ecosystem adoption of coherent pluggable technology, especially across cloud environments.
Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.
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Author Information
Ron is an experienced, customer-focused research expert and analyst, with over 20 years of experience in the digital and IT transformation markets, working with businesses to drive consistent revenue and sales growth.
Ron holds a Master of Arts in Public Policy from University of Nevada — Las Vegas and a Bachelor of Arts in political science/government from William and Mary.
