Merchant Silicon Will Dominate Data Center Ethernet Switching by 2022, IHS Markit Says

Merchant silicon will dominate the data center Ethernet switching market, shipping 63 percent of all chips in 2022, according to a report from IHS Markit.Propriety and custom chips will be more than 30 percent of the market, and programmable chips 7 percent, according to the regional Data Center Network Equipment Market Tracker.Broadcom, IHS Markit said, dominates in merchant silicon with a wide array of chips from general purpose, purpose-built and bare metal products. Port speeds run the gamut from 1GE to 400GE.The business dynamic is that merchant silicon is getting buy-in from white box and traditional switch vendors that traditionally deploy custom silicon. Recent moves from Cisco, Juniper Networks, and Arista Networks all introduced merchant chips into the mix.