Teralynx 7 vs. Falcon CX8500: Which 400G ASIC Is Right for AI & Cloud?

ByClaire

Both switches offer 32×400G ports and 12.8 Tbps capacity — but the ASIC underneath defines everything. A complete comparison of Marvell Teralynx 7 vs. Falcon for AI training, NVMe-oF storage, multi-tenant cloud, and HPC.

12.8T

SWITCHING CAPACITY

32×

400G PORTS

500ns

MIN LATENCY (TERALYNX)

10ns

PTP PRECISION (FALCON)

SONiC

UNIFIED OS PLATFORM

Same Ports. Same Bandwidth. Fundamentally Different Networks.

The explosive growth of AI large models, high-performance computing (HPC), and NVMe-oF distributed storage has driven data center networks rapidly toward 400G. In core (spine) and high-density leaf-spine architectures, 32-port 400G switches with 12.8 Tbps switching capacity have become the standard configuration for serious deployments.

But here’s what the spec sheet doesn’t tell you: two switches can share identical port counts, bandwidth, and even operating software — and still perform fundamentally differently in your environment, depending entirely on the ASIC underneath.

In this guide, we compare two leading 12.8 Tbps Marvell switch ASICs — Teralynx 7 and Falcon (Prestera 98CX8500). Both belong to Marvell’s portfolio. Both power 32×400G platforms. But their design philosophies are strikingly different, and choosing the wrong one for your workload has real consequences: wasted GPU cycles in AI training, storage I/O instability, routing table exhaustion in multi-tenant cloud, or timing drift in financial or media systems.

Teralynx 7 vs. Falcon: Design Philosophy First

Marvell Teralynx 7

CX732Q-N

Performance-First Fabric

“If Falcon is a versatile midfielder, Teralynx is a 100m sprint champion — every architectural decision sacrifices complexity for speed.”

~500ns
End-to-End Latency

7600
MPPS Forwarding

70MB
Packet Buffer

256
LAG Groups

→

Ultra-Low Latency:

~500 ns end-to-end — roughly one-third of Falcon’s ~1,500 ns — with highly consistent performance under load

→

True Lossless Networking:

Optimized for RoCEv2, with strong microburst absorption to ensure zero packet loss under extreme throughput

→

Flashlight™ Hardware Telemetry:

In-band network telemetry (INT) with nanosecond-level visibility, zero forwarding impact

→

Advanced Buffer & Congestion Handling:

70MB buffer handles incast and microbursts — ideal for AI and RDMA-based traffic patterns

→

24 Mirror Sessions:

Comprehensive traffic capture without dedicated monitoring ports

AI TRAINING

HPC / ROCEV2

GPU CLUSTERS

CLOUD FABRIC

Marvell Falcon (CX8500)

CX732Q-N-V2

Intelligence-First Network Core

“Falcon is a versatile midfielder with exceptional tactical intelligence — it orchestrates complex traffic with precision no pure-performance chip can match.”

~1500ns
End-to-End Latency

5600
MPPS Forwarding

128K
MAC Table

4K
VRF Support

→

SAFE Storage-Aware Flow Engine:

Deeply identifies RoCEv2-based RDMA flows, detects which storage node is congested, and ensures storage traffic SLA at the network layer

→

Massive Routing Tables:

288K IPv4 routes, 128K MAC, 92K ARP — fully supports complex VXLAN/EVPN, sophisticated QoS, and multi-tenant environments

→

Class C High-Precision PTP:

Hardware clock synchronization with 10-nanosecond accuracy — the only 12.8T ASIC with this capability

→

Advanced Traffic Shaping & QoS:

Fine-grained bandwidth fairness in networks mixing elephant flows and mouse flows

→

512 BFD Sessions:

4× more than Teralynx, with 3×1ms intervals for faster failure detection

MULTI-TENANT CLOUD

NVME-OF STORAGE

HFT / MEDIA

ENTERPRISE CORE

CX732Q-N vs. CX732Q-N-V2: Full Specification Matrix

Every table entry that matters for real-world network design decisions — with winners called out per category.

Which ASIC for Which Workload? 5 Real-World Scenarios

Specs don’t deploy networks — architects do. Here’s the decision mapped to five of the most common 400G deployment scenarios in production data centers today.

01

AI / ML Training Clusters

✓ Recommend: Teralynx 7 (CX732Q-N)

When training AI models with hundreds of billions of parameters, GPU-to-GPU communication (All-Reduce operations) is extremely latency-sensitive. Even an extra microsecond of network delay wastes expensive GPU compute cycles. Teralynx 7’s 500 ns latency combined with perfect RoCEv2 support maximizes AI cluster job completion time (JCT). Its 70MB packet buffer handles the incast patterns inherent in all-reduce collectives without packet loss. For large-scale GPU compute islands, Teralynx 7 is the architecture-first choice.

02

Live Streaming, Media & High-Frequency Trading

✓ Recommend: Falcon (CX732Q-N-V2)

These scenarios demand near-perfect timing accuracy. Teralynx 7 does not support high-precision PTP. Falcon’s Class C PTP with 10-nanosecond hardware clock accuracy is the only viable option for live broadcast synchronization, multi-site media production, and HFT co-location environments. It combines open-network flexibility with a level of timing precision previously only available in purpose-built telecom hardware.

03

NVMe-oF High-Performance All-Flash Storage Networks

✓ Recommend: Falcon (CX732Q-N-V2)

In storage networks, absolute latency matters less than congestion control and long-term I/O stability. When multiple compute nodes simultaneously perform large-scale reads/writes to a single all-flash array (Incast congestion), Falcon’s SAFE Storage-Aware Flow Engine accurately identifies and throttles “rogue hosts” at the network layer — ensuring smooth storage I/O and preventing the performance cliffs caused by network jitter. No other 12.8T ASIC offers this level of storage-layer awareness.

04

Large Enterprise Core & Multi-Service Data Centers

✓ Recommend: Falcon (CX732Q-N-V2)

Enterprise core networks mix office applications, video conferencing, ERP systems, and VM clusters simultaneously. Falcon’s massive routing/ARP tables (288K IPv4, 92K ARP), 4K VRF support, 10 ACL tables with 1,500 ingress rules, and full VXLAN/EVPN allow it to efficiently orchestrate complex enterprise traffic at scale. Teralynx’s 1K VRF and 72K IPv4 prefix table will exhaust quickly in large multi-tenant environments.

05

Large-Scale Multi-Tenant Cloud Spine Networks

⇄ Choose Based on Your Priority

Cloud spine is the most nuanced scenario. Choose Teralynx 7 if your cloud uses a highly flat, standardized topology, relies heavily on SONiC for automated operations, and prioritizes maximum performance per watt — this is currently the mainstream choice for hyperscale-style flat fabrics where routing complexity is pushed to software. Choose Falcon if your network supports thousands of complex VPCs with massive VXLAN tunnel requirements, complex BGP routing tables that approach or exceed 100K prefixes, or if the switch hardware needs to act as an EVPN edge gateway. Falcon’s 4× larger routing table headroom and 4K VRF support provide significantly more room to grow before your next hardware refresh.

The One-Page Decision Matrix

For architects who need to justify the choice in a design document or vendor evaluation:

Workload / ScenarioRecommended ASICPrimary Reason
AI / ML GPU Training (RoCEv2)Teralynx 7500ns latency, 70MB buffer, zero-loss RoCEv2
HPC Clusters (All-Reduce / MPI)Teralynx 7Lowest consistent latency under collective communication
NVMe-oF All-Flash StorageFalconSAFE engine prevents storage incast collapse
Live Streaming / BroadcastFalconClass C PTP (10 ns) — Teralynx has no PTP support
High-Frequency Trading (HFT)Falcon10 ns clock precision + nanosecond-stable forwarding
Multi-Tenant Enterprise CoreFalcon4K VRF, 288K IPv4, 10 ACL tables for complex routing
Large-Scale VXLAN / EVPN FabricFalcon128K MAC, 4× more routes, 4K VRF headroom
Hyperscale-Style Flat Cloud FabricTeralynx 7Max throughput, minimal routing complexity, SONiC-native
Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI)FalconMix of storage, compute, and VM traffic needs SAFE + QoS
Traffic Monitoring / Full SPANTeralynx 724 mirror sessions vs. Falcon’s 6

Asterfusion Enterprise SONiC: One OS, Both ASICs

Despite their hardware differences, both the CX732Q-N and CX732Q-N-V2 run Asterfusion Enterprise SONiC — a production-hardened evolution of open-source SONiC purpose-built for data center deployments. This means consistent operations, tooling, and automation regardless of which ASIC you deploy.

01

Virtualization

VXLAN & BGP EVPN

Full VXLAN overlay support with BGP EVPN control plane, EVPN Multihoming, and Type-2/Type-5 route advertisement. Seamless multi-site fabric extension.

02

Lossless Fabric

Zero Packet Loss

RoCEv2, Priority Flow Control (PFC), ECN, QCN/DCQCN, and DCTCP fully supported for lossless RDMA fabrics in AI and storage environments.

03

Reliability

High Availability

ECMP load balancing, MC-LAG for multi-chassis redundancy, BFD for BGP and OSPF fast failure detection (3ms intervals on Falcon).

04

Automation

Full Programmability

gNMI, REST, OpenConfig, Python APIs, Ansible playbooks, and Zero-Touch Provisioning (ZTP) for fully automated deployment pipelines.

05

Observability

Real-Time Telemetry

Prometheus/Grafana integration for real-time monitoring, historical analysis, and INT (In-band Network Telemetry) with nanosecond-level visibility on Teralynx hardware.

06

Traffic

Advanced Monitoring

SPAN and ERSPAN for traffic analysis, comprehensive QoS queue management for mixed traffic types, and sFlow for high-frequency sampling across all ports.

Choose Your 12.8 Tbps Platform

CX732Q-N

Marvell Teralynx 7

Performance-First

The go-to platform for AI training fabrics, HPC clusters, and high-performance cloud spines. Built for environments where every nanosecond of latency translates directly to GPU utilization and job completion time.

Switching Capacity

12.8 Tbps

Port Configuration

32× 400GbE QSFP-DD

Packet Forwarding

7,600 Mpps

Forwarding Latency

~500 ns

Packet Buffer

70 MB

MAC Table

44K

IPv4 Routes

72K Prefix

VRF

1K

LAG

256 Groups × 128 Members

Mirror Sessions

24

PTP Support

Not Supported

Operating System

Enterprise SONiC

CX732Q-N→

CX732Q-N-V2

Marvell Falcon (CX8500)

Intelligence-First

The platform of choice for multi-tenant cloud, NVMe-oF storage networks, enterprise core, media platforms, and any environment requiring Class C PTP precision or large-scale routing table capacity.

Switching Capacity

12.8 Tbps

Port Configuration

32× 400GbE QSFP-DD

Packet Forwarding

5,600 Mpps

Forwarding Latency

~1,500 ns

Packet Buffer

48 MB

MAC Table

128K

IPv4 Routes

288K Prefix

VRF

4K

LAG

128 Groups × 64 Members

BFD Sessions

512 @ 3×1ms

PTP Support

Class C / 10ns

Operating System

Enterprise SONiC

CX732Q-N-v2→

400G Switch Silicon — Common Questions

The latency difference reflects a fundamental architectural trade-off made at the ASIC design level. Teralynx 7 is optimized as a pure-throughput forwarding engine: it minimizes pipeline stages, reduces feature processing overhead, and prioritizes cut-through forwarding to achieve its ~500ns figure. Falcon supports a much richer feature set — deep packet inspection for SAFE, PTP timestamp processing, larger routing table lookups, advanced QoS queue management — each of which adds processing stages and pipeline depth, resulting in the ~1,500ns figure. Neither number is “better” in the abstract: for AI training, the 1,000ns difference across millions of all-reduce collectives compounds into meaningful GPU cycle waste. For NVMe-oF storage or enterprise routing, 1,500ns is imperceptible and Falcon’s feature advantage is far more valuable.

Both run Enterprise SONiC, so the vast majority of configuration — OSPF/BGP peers, VXLAN tunnels, ACLs, QoS policies, LLDP, syslog — is identical. Migration is straightforward for standard datacenter workloads. Where they diverge: Falcon-specific features like SAFE, Class C PTP, and expanded ACL tables are hardware-dependent and will not function on a Teralynx unit. Similarly, Teralynx’s 24-session mirroring and INT telemetry features are ASIC-specific. If you’re running a multi-site or phased deployment with a mix of both ASICs, Asterfusion’s SONiC management plane handles them from a unified control surface — you simply see different feature availability per unit.

RDMA over Converged Ethernet v2 (RoCEv2) is a protocol that allows server network interfaces to access remote memory directly without involving the CPU — dramatically reducing latency and CPU overhead for inter-node communication. It’s the dominant protocol for GPU-to-GPU communication in AI training (All-Reduce operations) and NVMe-oF storage access. RoCEv2 is extremely sensitive to packet loss: a single dropped packet triggers a retransmission that can stall an entire All-Reduce operation, wasting thousands of GPU cycles. This is why switch ASICs for AI fabrics must provide lossless forwarding through Priority Flow Control (PFC), ECN-based congestion notification (DCQCN), and sufficient packet buffer (70MB in Teralynx) to absorb microbursts without dropping. Both Teralynx and Falcon support lossless RoCEv2, but Teralynx’s lower latency and larger buffer give it an edge in pure AI training scenarios.

SAFE (Storage-Aware Flow Engine) is Falcon’s exclusive hardware capability that goes beyond standard network-layer congestion control. It can identify individual RoCEv2-based RDMA flows at wire speed and, critically, determine which specific storage node is the destination of a congested flow. When multiple compute nodes simultaneously write to the same storage target (incast), SAFE throttles at the initiator side — preventing the network from being overwhelmed before congestion occurs, rather than reacting after. Standard PFC/ECN mechanisms manage congestion reactively; SAFE manages it proactively and with storage-topology awareness. In all-flash NVMe-oF deployments where tail latency consistency is critical for database and AI checkpoint workloads, this distinction translates directly into measurable I/O performance stability.

BFD (Bidirectional Forwarding Detection) provides fast link failure detection for routing protocols. Standard routing protocol failover (BGP, OSPF) can take seconds; BFD triggers convergence in milliseconds. Falcon supports 512 BFD sessions at 3×1ms intervals — meaning a link failure is detected in as little as 3ms, triggering BGP or OSPF reconvergence almost instantly. Teralynx supports 128 sessions at 3×300ms — a 300ms failure window, which while fast for traditional networks, is too slow for latency-sensitive workloads where even 300ms of traffic loss is unacceptable. For enterprise core networks with SLA commitments, the Falcon’s faster BFD is a meaningful operational advantage. For AI training fabrics, most operators rely on hardware link state rather than BFD for fast failure detection.

Open-source SONiC, as used by hyperscalers, is production-ready but requires significant engineering investment to operationalize at enterprise scale. Asterfusion Enterprise SONiC addresses this by adding a hardened management layer, tested upgrade paths, vendor support SLAs, and pre-validated feature configurations for common deployment patterns (VXLAN/EVPN, RoCEv2, ECMP, MC-LAG). The result is the operational simplicity of a vendor NOS with the flexibility and cost structure of open networking. Both the CX732Q-N and CX732Q-N-V2 ship with Enterprise SONiC certified and tested for their respective ASICs — you’re not responsible for integration between ASIC drivers and the SONiC platform. For organizations moving from proprietary NOS platforms like Cisco NX-OS or Arista EOS, Asterfusion provides migration tooling and support for the transition.

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *