Broadcom PEX90144 In Dell PowerEdge XE7745 Chassis At SC25 Internal Switches 2 Large
At SC25, Broadcom showed off its PCIe Gen6 switch chips for the 2026 generation of servers. Not only was the PEX90144, a big 144 lane/ 72 port PCIe Gen6 on display, but it was also integrated into a Dell PowerEdge XE7745 style PCIe board.
Broadcom Shows the PEX90144 144 lane PCIe Gen6 Switch at SC25
This was one easy to miss and walk by at SC25, but Broadcom had a PEX90144 switch platform on display. You can see that this is actually a Dell PowerEdge XE7745 platform outfitted with a red board that usually indicates a pre-release board, although PCIe Gen6 would be more focused on the next-generation of NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra GPUs and ConnectX-8 NICs.
Broadcom PEX90144 In Dell PowerEdge XE7745 Chassis At SC25 Large
We can see inside the chassis so we can focus on the PCIe switch board. Here we can see two PCIe switches. 144 lanes is “only” 9x PCIe x16 slots, and this chassis has eight accelerators.
Broadcom PEX90144 In Dell PowerEdge XE7745 Chassis At SC25 Internal Switches Large
Beyond the accelerator slots (the PowerEdge XE7745 is a bit of a funky design since they are all internal) the accelerators also need NICs, often in a 1:1 or 1:2 ratio of NICs to GPUs. The switches also need a x16 link to the CPU, so 144 lanes goes very quickly.
Broadcom PEX90144 In Dell PowerEdge XE7745 Chassis At SC25 Internal Slots Large
Here are the rear NIC I/O slots as another example of all the I/O required in even CEM slot AI systems.
Broadcom PEX90144 In Dell PowerEdge XE7745 Chassis At SC25 IO Slots Large
Broadcom’s Avago and PLX switch chip legacy has become the dominant force in PCIe switches today. Broadcom also has the PLX91144 (144 lane PCIe Gen7) on tap for 2027 and the PLX 92144 (144 lane PCIe Gen8) set for 2029.
Broadcom PEX Leadership At SC25 Large
The roadmap here is strong.
Final Words
Broadcom is pushing back with an aggressive roadmap just as competitors such as Astera Labs, XConn, and others are pushing into the space as Microchip’s line of switches have become far less seen in servers. This is important for future generations of AI and storage servers (as well as CXL switches, which come from this line as well.) It is important that Broadcom executes on this roadmap because NVIDIA is pushing Broadcom out of both high-speed NIC and PCIe switch opportunities in NVIDIA B300 servers, as we discussed in our Substack.
NVIDIA Just Ended Broadcom’s Chances in a Traditional AI Segment with This by Patrick Kennedy
$4000+ of BOM Opportunity Locked Out