Key takeaways from the conversation

• Scale-across – It is the new buzzword for Data Center Interconnect (DCI), the technology used for inter-connecting data centers. Traditionally, the coherent optics used for DCI required big, expensive, power-hungry servers. However, the market was transformed in 2015 with the introduction of pluggable ZR/ZR+ based coherent optical modules in OSFP or QSFP-DD-based form factors.
• Key Benefits of ZR-based Pluggable Modules – It includes their small size and low power consumption. They perform similar tasks to a traditional server but consume up to 80% less power while providing capex savings up front and considerably reducing rackspace requirements. This results in huge efficiencies for data center operators and is the only way to enable bandwidth to be ramped up to today’s requirements.
• Product Range – Marvell currently supplies 100G and 400G products, which still ship in large numbers. It is also starting to ship its latest 800G product. Traditionally, DCI was limited to 100km. However, Marvell’s customers now want to connect metros and regions with a single pluggable unit. Marvell has responded to this need by developing an 800G module with a range of up to 1,000km. The company recently also announced its next-generation 1.6T product, based on a 2nm process, which will have even more improvements in power, bandwidth and reach. It is expected to sample in 2026.
• Coherent Lite – It is an optical technology optimised for relatively short distances – between 2km to 20km – to connect, for example, data centers in a campus-style architecture. Coherent lite is more capable than PAM4 but less expensive than fully coherent modules. Marvell’s Aquila chip is the first coherent lite device to take advantage of the O-band, which means that it is more efficient and economical than standard coherent DSPs, which operate in the C and L-bands.

Analyst Take

• Optical networking pedigree – Marvell has a long heritage in the data center optical market and has developed considerable expertise in optical networking via its acquisition of companies such as Cavium, Avera, Inphi and more recently Celestial AI. Arguably No. 1 or No. 2 globally in several critical markets, it has become a strategic enabler of optical networking.
• Strong market position – Marvell is a dominant supplier of merchant coherent DSPs – particularly pluggable ZR/ZR+ – with strong adoption by hyperscalers and optical module vendors. Additionally, it sells other module components such as amplifiers, drivers and silicon photonics chips and also markets its own coherent modules via the COLORZ brand. Modules now represent the majority of ports and bandwidth in the scale across market. Marvell is also a top supplier of PAM4 DSPs and retimers used inside data centers.
• Coherent lite opportunities – Coherent lite plugs the gap between PAM4 (low cost, low-power, short reach) and ZR/ZR+ (higher cost, higher-power, long reach). Opportunities for Marvell include new markets such as short reach-to-metro DWDM connectivity for data centers, AI cluster interconnect and telecom metro aggregation, where PAM4 cannot reach and ZR is overkill. While the ZR/ZR+ market represents a volume opportunity of hundreds of thousands of units per year, coherent lite potentially represents unit volumes in the millions. Marvell is also developing coherent lite modules that will connect racks down to 500 metres apart, for use inside data centers, thus extending its market opportunity.