At OCP 2026, ServeTheHome spotted an open AMD Helios tray at HPE's booth. The HPE Juniper QFX5252 is a double-wide switch tray with side-by-side switches and lots of copper, unlike typical rackmount switches. Long levers are needed because the back panel blind-mates with high insertion force.
Inside are two Broadcom Tomahawk 6 102.6T switch chips. The current Tomahawk Ultra is not used because it is 112G PAM4 SerDes, while Helios uses 224G PAM4 SerDes. The tray is liquid cooled, with manifolds distributing coolant. Retimers sit between rear connectors and switch chips, extending reach; AMD relies on retimers while NVIDIA has worked to remove them.
The design illustrates why co-packaged optics may eventually replace copper: retimers allow reliable scale-up within the rack, but the cable array is enormous. Unlike NVIDIA's push to remove fans from AI racks, AMD Helios still uses fans and airflow guides over heatsinks for some components. The tray is built for rack-scale scale-up rather than front-panel connections.