Arista launches 1.6T networking platforms for AI fabrics
Author: Joe Peck
Arista Networks, a provider of cloud and AI networking systems, has introduced the 7060XE7 Series, a new portfolio of 1.6T networking platforms designed for rack-scale AI infrastructure.
The launch reflects growing demand for networking architectures capable of supporting increasingly large AI deployments, as training and inference environments scale from thousands to hundreds of thousands of accelerators.
According to Arista, the new platforms are designed to support both scale-up and scale-out AI fabrics across air-cooled, liquid-cooled, and hybrid environments.
The company says the 7060XE7 Series is intended to address the density, power, and thermal requirements associated with large AI clusters, whilst also enabling greater compute density within a given power envelope.
Tyson Lamoreaux, Senior Vice President, Cloud and AI Networking at Arista Networks, comments, “The AI era requires a shift in how we think about the network. It is no longer a standalone layer of infrastructure, but a tightly integrated component of the AI supersystem.
“With the 7060XE7 Series, we are delivering massive-scale 1.6T systems that combine world-class reliability and the differentiation of EOS with liquid cooling and low-power optics to help our customers build AI fabrics designed for maximum performance and power efficiency.”
Designed for large-scale AI deployments
The 7060XE7 Series includes fixed-switch platforms and configurable rack-scale systems designed to support a range of AI workloads and infrastructure requirements.
According to Arista, the systems provide low-latency connectivity and intelligent packet buffering to manage the traffic patterns associated with AI training and inference workloads.
The platforms also support a range of EOS features aimed at improving resilience, congestion management, and operational visibility within AI environments.
The portfolio comprises three main configurations:
• 7060XE7-64PS and 7060XE7-64PRS rack switches, offering 64 1.6T ports in an air-cooled 4RU design
• 7060XE7-64PRS-RV3-L, a liquid-cooled 2OU platform designed for high-density AI clusters
• 7060XE7-128PE, providing 128 800G ports in an air-cooled 4RU form factor
The systems use 224G and 100G SerDes technologies, depending on configuration, and support Linear Pluggable Optics (LPO), which Arista says can reduce interconnect power consumption by around 60%.
Industry support for 1.6T ethernet
Several major cloud providers have provided statements supporting the development of higher-capacity ethernet infrastructure for AI environments.
Gaya Nagarajan, Vice President of Infrastructure at Meta, says, “Arista’s 1.6T platforms and liquid-cooled designs align with our focus on open, scalable AI fabrics that meet the requirements of next-generation training and inference.”
Rani Borkar, President, Azure Hardware Systems and Infrastructure at Microsoft, notes, “Our collaboration with Arista on the 1.6T ethernet interface helps enable the next generation of AI clusters with greater interconnect capacity for Azure Maia, Microsoft’s AI accelerator, and Fairwater, Microsoft’s extreme-scale AI data centres, while preserving operational simplicity across our infrastructure.”
Mahesh Thiagarajan, Executive Vice President, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, adds, “Arista Networks’ 1.6T platforms provide the throughput, determinism, and stability needed for our RDMA-based AI fabrics, while Arista EOS delivers operational consistency and performance at scale across our global AI infrastructure.”
The 7060XE7 Series is also supported through collaborations with AMD and Broadcom, with the platforms utilising Broadcom’s Tomahawk 6 ethernet switching silicon.
Arista expects the first systems in the portfolio to become available during Q4 2026, with additional models scheduled for release during Q1 2027.
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