Chelsio announced its seventh-generation AI Interconnect Platform (T7) featuring 400Gb native Ethernet SmartNICs, Storag

Chelsio Communications today introduced its seventh-generation AI Interconnect Platform, a comprehensive solution comprising SmartNICs, Storage Controllers, and Data Processing Units built on Unified Wire architecture. The platform delivers native 400Gb Ethernet connectivity with unified RDMA support for both iWARP and RoCEv2 protocols, designed to optimize AI training and inference clusters, disaggregated storage systems, and high-performance networking across cloud, enterprise, and hyperscale deployments.

The SmartNICs and Storage Controllers are available immediately, while the T7 DPU is currently available as an evaluation platform, with full production availability targeted for December 2026. The platform extends Chelsio's leadership built on the proven T5 and T6 families, delivering higher throughput, lower latency, improved efficiency, and software continuity across all device classes.

The seventh-generation Unified Wire architecture introduces unified data paths that integrate networking, storage, and compute acceleration for AI-optimized data movement. Each adapter supports comprehensive protocol offloads including TCP/IP, UDP/IP, Unified RDMA, iSCSI, NVMe-oF, NVMe/TCP, NVGRE, VXLAN, and security protocols like TLS, IPsec, kTLS, QUIC, and RSA. The platform maintains full software compatibility from T4 through T6 generations, protecting existing customer investments while enabling seamless migration to next-generation Ethernet and PCIe speeds.

For AI training and inference workloads, the T7 DPU leverages 400Gb RDMA to enable high-bandwidth, low-latency distributed training with reduced synchronization overhead and improved GPU utilization. By combining lossless Ethernet, advanced congestion management, and full protocol offload, the platform positions itself as a scalable, standards-based alternative to proprietary AI interconnects at 400Gb speeds.

Kianoosh Naghshineh, CEO of Chelsio Communications, stated: "Chelsio seventh-generation AI Interconnect Platform represents a milestone in Ethernet evolution, combining programmable flexibility with the proven performance our customers depend on. With T7, we are positioning Ethernet as a scalable, standards-based AI interconnect—delivering the performance required for large-scale AI training while preserving the flexibility and cost advantages of open networking."