MaxLinear Leverages Samsung Foundry for 1.6T DSP, Targets AI Data Center Growth
Event summary
- MaxLinear will showcase its next-generation 1.6T Rushmore PHY chipset at OFC 2026 (March 17-19).
- The Rushmore DSP family is the first major high-speed DSP built entirely on Samsung technology, providing a second-source foundry option.
- Demonstrations will highlight performance for 224Gb/s-per-lane optical and electrical interfaces, supporting data center applications.
- MaxLinear will also showcase customer optical modules featuring its Keystone and Rushmore DSPs.
The big picture
MaxLinear's strategic shift to Samsung's foundry represents a move to mitigate supply chain risks and potentially lower costs, a critical factor in the fiercely competitive data center interconnect market. The Rushmore DSP’s performance will be a key differentiator as hyperscale data centers aggressively expand AI infrastructure, requiring higher bandwidth and lower latency interconnects. This move positions MaxLinear to capitalize on the projected multi-billion dollar growth in AI-optimized data center networking.
What we're watching
- Foundry Risk
- The reliance on Samsung for Rushmore's manufacturing introduces a new dependency, and the long-term stability of this partnership will be critical for MaxLinear's supply chain resilience.
- Standard Adoption
- The success of Rushmore hinges on widespread adoption of 224G Ethernet standards and compatibility with existing infrastructure, which could be impacted by competing technologies.
- Power Efficiency
- Given the focus on sub-25W optical modules, MaxLinear must demonstrate a clear power efficiency advantage over competing solutions to gain market share in the increasingly power-constrained data center environment.
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