Credo today announced the debut offering of its 800G HiWire LP CLOS Active Electrical Cables (AECs), designed for deployment in distributed, disaggregated chassis (DDCs) used in hyperscale data center infrastructure.
Credo notes that DDC architectures enable freedom to mix-and-match servers, switches, and operating systems to suit specific performance, power, and price points.
The 8 x 112G per lane copper cable interconnect launched today is the first member of Credo’s 800G AEC family, optimized for use in next-gen decentralized data center implementations and AI servers.
As contended by the company's product announcement:
At 400G and higher, AECs offer greater signal integrity and break through the physical weight, bend radius, and range limits of passive copper Direct Attached Cables (DACs).
AECs also lower the power and economic barriers of Active Optical Cables (AOCs). The hot-swappable, front-plane cables enable a data center infrastructure shift from homogenous chassis designs with tightly coupled operating systems to DDC implementations.
At just 32 AWG, Credo notes its new 800G AECs are about as thick as standard Cat 6 cabling. The company contends this narrower gauge reduces cabling volume by up to 75% versus passive copper DACs.
Credo says its LP CLOS AECs are available in lengths up to 2.5 m. The company further contends that the new AECs consume half as much power as optical cabling solutions and feature superior reliability with up to 100 million hours of Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF).
The LP CLOS AEC 800 PAM4 cables are availalble in QSFP-DD800 (Quad Small Form Factor Pluggable Multi-Source Agreement Group) and OSFP (Octal Small Form Factor Pluggable) types. The company notes that integrated Credo retimers "enable the cable to achieve high performance without needing additional external components, simplifying the design and lowering system cost and power."
As with all Credo AECs, the new 800G AECs are easily identified by the product's distinctive "HiWire" purple color sheath.
Don Barnetson, Vice President of Product at Credo, commented:
“Credo sees 800G as the point where passive DACs hit the wall – they are far too thick and rigid for many customer applications and impose a high cost and engineering burden on switch manufacturers. Credo’s new 800G LP CLOS AECs route like Cat 6 cables and offer up to 100 times better reliability and half the power of optical cabling solutions. The future of connectivity is clearly purple.”
Credo is sampling the LP CLOS AEC 800 now, with general availability expected in early 2022.
For more information, visit https://www.credosemi.com/credo-hiwire-lp-clos-aec-active-electrical-cable.