SAN JOSE, Calif. — October 8, 2025 — Leads & Copy — Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) has introduced the Cisco 8223, a routing system for connecting data centers and powering AI workloads. The 8223 is built for the traffic of AI workloads between data centers and is powered by Cisco’s Silicon One P200 chip.
According to Martin Lund, EVP, Cisco’s Common Hardware Group, the Cisco 8223 delivers the bandwidth, scale and security needed for distributed data center architectures. Hyperscalers can’t scale-up or scale-out any further, and the Cisco 8223 system gives organizations the flexibility and programmability necessary to build these networks, with deep buffering to provide the cross-site security and reliability necessary for crucial workloads.
The 8223 offers switch-like power efficiency and is optimized for fixed deployments. It features 64 ports of 800G, processes over 20 billion packets per second, and scales up to 3 Exabits per second. The 8223 also supports new, emerging network protocols and standards without requiring hardware upgrades and offers protection across hardware, software, and networks.
The Cisco 8223 will initially be available for open-source SONiC deployments, with IOS XR on the horizon. The P200 silicon will be deployable in modular platforms and disaggregated chassis, and the Cisco Nexus portfolio will also support systems running NX-OS based on the P200 in the near future.
According to Dave Maltz, Technical Fellow and Corporate Vice President, Azure Networking, Microsoft, Microsoft was an early adopter of Silicon One, and the common ASIC architecture has made it easier for the company to expand from its initial use cases to multiple roles in DC, WAN, and AI/ML environments.
According to Dennis Cai, Vice President, Head of Network Infrastructure, Alibaba Cloud, the chip aligns with the evolution of Alibaba’s eCore architecture. He added that Alibaba plans to leverage the P200 to build a single chip platform, serving as a foundational building block for expanding their eCore deployment.
According to Dave Ward, Chief Technology Officer and Product Officer, Lumen, Cisco’s 8000 Series, Cisco Silicon One and Cisco’s pluggable optic technology represent key innovations that align with Lumen’s goals for scalable, efficient multi-cloud connectivity.
According to Patrick Moorhead, CEO and Chief Analyst for Moor Insights & Strategy, Cisco’s 8223 marks a significant step forward, delivering the industry’s first 51.2-terabit fixed Ethernet router purpose-built for secure, power efficient scale-across networking.
More information on the Cisco 8000 series can be found here.
Source: Cisco Systems, Inc.
