Gearing up for next month's 2020 Open Compute Project (OCP) Global Summit in San Jose, CA, Credo, a specialist in serializer-deserializer (SerDes) semiconductor technology used to drive high-performance, low power connectivity for 100G, 400G, and 800G port-enabled networks, has announced a new addition to its 400G HiWire family. Credo's HiWire CLOS AEC [active electrical cable] line, specifically designed for distributed, disaggregated chassis (DDC) implementations in CLOS networks, will be demonstrated live in the OCP Experience Center at the Summit on March 4-5 in the San Jose Convention Center.
Credo notes that its HiWire CLOS AECs offer very low power consumption in DDC implementations. Starting at only 4.5W per end currently and migrating to 2.5W per end by Q4 -2020, the company say the HiWire CLOS AECs consume up to 75% less power than optical solutions.
Further, taking up to 75% less volume than DACs with densities of up to 500 cables per rack, Credo says the compact CLOS AECs can replace the backplane of a chassis to enable the plug-and-play connection of commodity 400G “pizza box” switches and routers.
“As next-generation switching ASICs mature, opportunities arise that leverage the power density to deploy dense disaggregated chassis, or DDC, solutions,” comments Jeff Twombly, VP of Business Development at Credo. “We developed our low power, highly flexible and routable 400G HiWire CLOS AEC interconnect to standardize and proliferate 400G disaggregated chassis configurations at hyperscalers and service providers around the world.”
Speaking on the product, Gerald Degrace, Head PM for Host NIC, Switching, SONiC and WAN, at Microsoft Azure Networking, Microsoft Corp., offers this testimonial: “Low power, high speed interconnects are a critical piece in our goal of enabling open source software and DDC architectures in the hyperscale data center. Credo’s HiWire CLOS AEC solutions allow DDCs to be assembled without the physical routing problems of 400G DACs or the high power of optical interconnects.”
Credo’s HiWire CLOS AECs join the company's existing families of HiWire SPAN AECs, which replace AOCs, and HiWire SHIFT AECs, which provide plug-and-play PAM4-to-NRZ speed shifting in cable. Learn more at www.credosemi.com.