June 20 (Reuters) - Cisco Systems (CSCO.O) on Tuesday launched networking chips for AI supercomputers that would compete with offerings from Broadcom (AVGO.O) and Marvell Technology (MRVL.O). The chips are being tested by five of the six major cloud providers, Cisco said, without naming the firms. Cisco is a major supplier of networking equipment including ethernet switches, which connect devices such as computers, laptops, routers, servers and printers to a local area network. "G200 & G202 are going to be the most powerful networking chips in the market fueling AI/ML workloads enabling the most power-efficient network," Cisco fellow and formerly principal engineer Rakesh Chopra said. Cisco said the chips could help in carrying out AI and machine learning tasks with 40% fewer switches and a lesser lag, while being more power efficient.

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Persons: Rakesh Chopra, Chavi Mehta, Stephen Nellis, Anil D'Silva Organizations: Cisco Systems, Broadcom, Marvell Technology, Cisco, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google, Bofa Global Research, Thomson Locations: Bengaluru