Cisco Expands Validated SONiC Support Across Nexus ASIC Platforms; Silicon One Integration Planned

Cisco announced expanded Cisco Validated SONiC support for Nexus 9000 switches based on Cloud Scale ASICs and Nexus 9100 platforms using NVIDIA Spectrum-X ASICs. The company also plans to extend support to Nexus 9000 systems based on Silicon One ASICs; that integration has not been confirmed as complete.

The expansion brings SONiC validation to multiple ASIC families within Cisco’s Nexus portfolio. Cisco describes its SONiC architecture as targeting AI infrastructure providers scaling GPU clusters from 8,000 to more than 32,000 GPUs. This is an architectural scalability target, not evidence of an operational deployment at that scale.

Microsoft and Nokia used the OCP Global Summit to present work on route-programming performance, focused on accelerating updates and recovery in large SONiC networks after configuration changes and failures. Faster route programming and recovery are material operational considerations for AI and cloud fabrics, where network convergence affects the availability and effective utilization of distributed compute clusters.

The SONiC Foundation, hosted by the Linux Foundation, said Lenovo, NADDOD and NEXAI had joined the organization. The source indicates that the foundation had more than 43 members before these additions.

The developments reinforce the separation of network software from switching hardware in data-center environments. For AI and hyperscale operators, wider SONiC availability across ASIC platforms could broaden hardware choice and reduce reliance on closed networking stacks. The practical effect, however, will depend on the maturity of interoperability, vendor support and operational reliability across those platforms.

Separately, 650 Group forecasts that revenue from SONiC-based data-center switches will exceed $5 billion by 2026. This is a market forecast rather than a measure of achieved market revenue.