Marvell has confirmed that that leading cable manufacturers, including Amphenol, Molex, and TE Connectivity, are sampling to cloud data center operators their 100G/lane active electrical cables (AECs) powered by Marvell Alaska A PAM4 DSPs.
At these speeds, the physical reach achievable with passive direct attach cables (DACs) falls short of the distance requirements for server-to-ToR (top of rack) and switch-to-switch interconnects. For cloud operators to continue their routine data center bandwidth doubling, most of these interconnects must transition from DAC to AEC.
Marvell says the new AECs enable next-generation 400G, 800G and 1.6T server-to-switch and switch-to-switch interconnects that require 100G serial I/Os.
Marvell’s Alaska A family further applies advanced DSP equalization techniques and flexible firmware-based implementation to optimally compensate for the impairments introduced by the cable on the high-speed 100G PAM4 signal. This provides the ability to deploy thin cables that address the reach and flexibility needs of next-generation data center architectures.
Here is a over of the market from Venu Balasubramonian, VP of product marketing, High Speed Connectivity and PHY Business Unit, Marvell.