Market drivers for Active Electrical Cables

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.

https://youtu.be/Ii2g9Ftt8mQ

Marvell to acquire Tanzanite for Compute Express Link (CXL)

Monday, May 09, 2022  Data Centers, Marvell, Mergers And Acquisitions, Silicon, Start-Ups  

Marvell agreed to acquire privately-held Tanzanite Silicon Solutions, a start-up based in Milpitas, California that is developing advanced Compute Express Link (CXL) technologies. Terms of the all-cash transaction were not disclosed. Marvell said the future cloud data center will be built on fully disaggregated architecture utilizing CXL technology, requiring greater high-speed interconnectivity than ever combined with optimized compute, networking,...

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Marvell intros 400G/800G PAM4 DSPs for Active Electrical Cables

Wednesday, March 02, 2022  #OFC22, 400G, 800G, AEC, Marvell, Silicon  

Marvell introduced its Alaska A PAM4 DSP family for Active Electrical Cables (AECs) designed for data center interconnects by hyperscale customers.The new Alaska 400G/800G DSPs, fabricated in 6nm process, leverages Marvell’s PAM4 DSP technology to improve signal integrity in copper, short reach AECs to address emerging 100G/lane adoption in cloud data center interconnect architectures. The new Alaska 400G/800G DSPs add to Marvell’s comprehensive...

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HiWire Consortium to be absorbed into Open Compute Project

The HiWire Consortium standardization efforts will be absorbed into a new Interconnects Sub-Project inside the Open Compute Project Foundation (OCP). All the Active Electrical Cable Specs were contributed to OCP and can be found on the OCP Contribution Database and the associated products are on display on the OCP Marketplace.

The new Interconnects Sub-Project is led by Don Barnetson, Vice President for AEC Products at Credo. 

As a result of this announcement, OCP will have oversight for the ratified HiWire Specification v1.0, which was originally announced in 2020. The new AEC Project inside OCP will build on this specification by adding additional speeds, capabilities and test specifications as driven by OCP membership.

“The HiWire Consortium leads the inaugural effort to bring standardization to a new category of connectivity products – Active Electrical Cables (AECs),” said Sheng Huang, President of the HiWire Consortium. “As AECs move into the mainstream, we feel the broader umbrella of OCP will continue to accelerate standardization efforts and increase industry adoption.”

“Within the next five years, the 650 Group predicts AECs will take over 75% of server connections and displace chassis in hyperscaler data centers,” said Don Barnetson, Vice President for AEC Products at Credo and the OCP AEC project lead. “Standardization within OCP will further accelerate adoption among the hyperscalers and telecom service provider space.”

"OCP’s members see AECs as a critical technology for their customers which include the world’s largest hyperscalers,” said Steve Helvie, Vice President of Channel Development for OCP. “The Community is excited to continue this standardization work and thanks to the HiWire Consortium for its pioneering effort to bring this revolutionary product to market with such broad industry acceptance. We're also very fortunate to have Credo as a certified OCP Solution Provider showcasing AECs on our OCP Marketplace, providing the Community a more comprehensive set of OCP solutions.

“Active Electrical Cables are key to enabling cloud infrastructure interconnect at the density, scale and ultra-low power required to meet our demands for the coming years,” said Gerald Degrace, Senior Director of Next Gen Technology, Microsoft. “As an active member of both the HiWire Consortium and OCP we’re excited by the synergies of standardizing AECs inside OCP’s broad industry scope.”

https://hiwire.org

Credo ships HiWire Active Electrical Cables

Wednesday, September 04, 2019  Credo, HiWire  

Credo announced the production availability of HiWire Active Electrical Cables (AEC). The company says its AECs provide plug and play, deterministic, persistent in-rack and inter-rack connections at lower cost and lower power of alternative optical approaches. Additionally, the AEC family provides system level, in-cable speedshifting providing seamless connectivity of 50G PAM4 enabled switch ports to widely available 25G NRZ based servers. Credo...

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HiWire aims for standard Active Electrical Cables at 400G and up

Tuesday, September 03, 2019  400G, Standards  

A new HiWire Consortium has been established to pursue the standardization and certification of a new category of Active Electrical Cables (AEC). The group is dedicated to the establishment and ongoing development of an AEC standard that defines a specific implementation of the many industry MSAs and a formal certification process. This will enable an ecosystem of trusted Plug and Play AECs, available from multiple sources, for the hyperscale data...

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Marvell intros 400G/800G PAM4 DSPs for Active Electrical Cables

Marvell introduced its Alaska A PAM4 DSP family for Active Electrical Cables (AECs) designed for data center interconnects by hyperscale customers.

The new Alaska 400G/800G DSPs, fabricated in 6nm process, leverages Marvell’s PAM4 DSP technology to improve signal integrity in copper, short reach AECs to address emerging 100G/lane adoption in cloud data center interconnect architectures. 

The new Alaska 400G/800G DSPs add to Marvell’s comprehensive portfolio of high speed transceivers, including line card retimers, gearboxes and MACsec PHYs supporting rates up to 800G, and active optical cable (AOC) interconnect solutions. 

Marvell said its Alaska A DSPs for AECs can compensate for >40db of loss, which enables longer reach and thinner cables, both of which are key requirements for high density data center deployments. The Marvell AEC platform includes a complete cable reference design for 400G and 800G AECs and software stack with CMIS5.0 support as well as proven interoperability with leading switch and NIC platforms. Marvell’s Alaska A platform brings Marvell’s PAM4 DSP leadership coupled with the state-of-the-art cable manufacturing and assembly expertise of leading cable manufacturers. This combination delivers best-in-class AECs as well as the scalability and supply assurance to meet the critical requirements of cloud customers.

“100G/lane-enabled products are the next inflection point for data centers, as artificial intelligence, machine learning and other data-intensive workloads grow,” said Achyut Shah, senior vice president and general manager of Marvell’s PHY business unit. “Achieving the reach needed for AI accelerators and server to top-of-rack links and switch-to-switch interconnects requires an active electrical cable (AEC) solution because of the reach limitations and cable thickness challenges of passive direct attach offerings at 100G/lane. We are working with all major cable vendors and cloud operators on end-to-end AEC solutions based on our  Alaska A DSPs to enable 100G serial-based next-generation data center deployments.”

Marvell also confirmed that it is working with leading data center cable manufacturers, including Amphenol, Celestica, Luxshare-tech, Molex, TE Connectivity, and Volex.

Marvell samples first 1.6T Ethernet PHY with 100G PAM4 I/Os in 5nm

Monday, June 07, 2021  800G, Marvell  

Marvell has begun sampling the industry's first 1.6T Ethernet PHY with 100G PAM4 electrical input/outputs (I/Os) in 5nm, enabling next-generation 100G serial-based 400G and 800G Ethernet links for high-density switches. The doubling of the signaling rate creates signal integrity challenges, driving the need for retimer devices for high port count switch designs. It's critical that retimer and gearboxes used for these applications are extremely power...

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Marvell samples 50G PAM4 DSP chipset for 5G optical fronthaul

Tuesday, December 07, 2021  5G, Fronthaul, Marvell  

Marvell has begun sampling the industry’s first 50Gbps PAM4 DSP and TIA chipset solution for 5G fronthaul.Key features of the new Marvell AtlasOne chipset:PAM4 digital core for optimal performance across a range of applications.Marvell’s companion IN5662 TIA for linearity while maintaining ultra-low noise and power.The industry’s first PAM4 DSP integrated Direct Modulated Laser driver in mainstream CMOS technology.Industrial temperature range support...

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Astera Labs' module enables copper-based Smart Electrical Cables at up to 800 GbE

Astera Labs introduced its new Taurus Smart Cable Module portfolio to overcome performance bottlenecks in data center Switch-to-Switch and Switch-to-Server interconnects running up to 100G/Lane for 200/400/800 GbE. 

The Taurus SCM enables cloud system integrators and cable assembly vendors to rapidly develop and deploy cost-effective, copper-based Smart Electrical Cables (SEC) with purpose-built intelligence capabilities to reliably address reach, signal integrity, security, fleet management, and bandwidth utilization issues in hyperscale data centers.

“Our new Taurus Smart Cable Module solution tackles hyperscalers’ emerging 50G and 100G/Lane Ethernet design challenges, which impact reach, signal integrity, physical constraints, power budgets and bandwidth utilization,” said Sanjay Gajendra, CBO, Astera Labs.

• Taurus Smart Cable Module Portfolio – key features:
• Supports 100G PAM4 (106.25 Gbps), 50G PAM4 (53.125 Gbps), 25G NRZ (26.5625 Gbps and 25.78125 Gbps), and other Ethernet line rates.
• Resolves rate mismatch between NICs and Switches with 50G-to-100G PAM4 & 25G-NRZ-to-50G-PAM4 Aggregation and Disaggregation with gearbox capabilities.
• Enables 36-dB reach extension for 3-meter reach over thin (up to 34AWG) copper cables, ensuring sufficient cable length and flexibility.
• Ultra-Low-Latency.
• Advanced fleet management capabilities with full CMIS features, security, and deep diagnostics.
• Qualified with leading cable vendors to enable Smart Electrical Cables (SECs) in QSFP-DD and OSFP form factors.

“Advanced PAM-4 100G/Lane Ethernet connectivity solutions must overcome complex design challenges such as reach, latency and power efficiency while keeping the cost per bit low to accelerate 400GbE and 800GbE deployments in data centers,” said Alan Weckel, Founder and Technology Analyst at the 650 Group. “Astera Labs Taurus Smart Cables™ play an important role in enabling intra rack connectivity based on active copper cables for the 800GbE interconnect ecosystem.”

Furthermore, Taurus SCMs enable a flexible supply chain of Smart Electrical Cables by qualifying with leading cable vendors to support SECs in QSFP-DD and OSFP form factors, allowing any cable OEM to integrate intelligent Taurus capabilities into their 200/400/800GbE solutions.

http://www.AsteraLabs.com

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Credo pushes LP SWITCH Active Electrical Cable to 200G

Credo announced the 200G HiWire LP SWITCH Active Electrical Cable (AEC) for connecting servers to to two Top-of-Rack (TOR) switches for hitless failover. The solution architecture was jointly announced in July 2021 by Credo and Microsoft, whose SONIC Dual TOR Management Container controls the SWITCH AEC.

The HiWire LP SWITCH AEC 200 has QSFP56 (Quad Small Form Factor Pluggable) connectors with integrated Credo PCS termination. The cables support 50G, 100G, and 200G with optional speed-shifting between 56G PAM4 and 28G NRZ lanes on both the NIC and TOR ends. The new 200G AECs join Credo’s diverse HiWire family for 100G, 200G, 400G, and 800G systems.

“Thanks to Credo’s advanced purpose-built SerDes architecture, our 200G LP SWITCH AEC has doubled its speed in the last six months while staying inside the same power envelope.”

Data processing and storage power can be monetized but not the power consumed for data transport. Credo’s low-power LP SWITCH AECs help minimize data transport power and enable data center architectures that eliminate redundant failover server racks.

“Power is the most important and most difficult parameter to control in hyperscale networking,” said Don Barnetson, Vice President of Product, AECs at Credo. “Thanks to Credo’s advanced purpose-built SerDes architecture, our 200G LP SWITCH AEC has doubled its speed in the last six months while staying inside the same power envelope.”

“As NIC speeds increase rapidly in the hyperscale datacenter, reliability must not be compromised,” said Lihua Yuan, Partner Development Manager at Microsoft. “Credo’s 50G and 100G HiWire LP SWITCH AECs are already proven and up-streamed in SONiC with the 200G LP SWITCH AEC creating a path for next-generation NIC speeds in 2022.”

“Emerging trends such as AI and 5G are driving exponential growth in the performance demands of the modern data center,” said David Iles, Senior Director of Ethernet Switches at NVIDIA. “The NVIDIA Networking platform equips innovators as Credo with the network bandwidth and low latency required to supercharge the modern data center with breakthroughs such as the HiWire LP SWITCH AECs.”

"Reliability is more critical for telecommunication service providers than for hyperscalers," said Keyur Patel, Founder and CTO, Arrcus. “Credo’s HiWire LP SWITCH AECs provide 5x9s (99.999%) rack reliability and enable us to ensure autonomous high availability (HA) from the Arrcus Connected Edge (ACE) platform with a sub-microsecond failover."

https://www.credosemi.com/credo-hiwire-lp-switch-aec-active-electrical-cable

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Credo announces 800G HiWire Active Electrical Cables

Credo announced its new 800G HiWire LP CLOS Active Electrical Cable (AEC) for distributed, disaggregated chassis (DDCs) used in hyperscale infrastructure. 

The new 8 x 112G per lane copper cable interconnect is the first member of Credo’s 800G AEC family.

At just 32AWG, 800G AECs are about as thick as standard Cat6e cabling. This narrower gauge reduces cabling volume by up to 75% versus passive copper DACs. LP CLOS AECs are available in lengths up to 2.5m. Credo’s 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 come in QSFP-DD800 (Quad Small Form Factor Pluggable Multi-Source Agreement Group) and OSFP (Octal Small Form Factor Pluggable) types. Integrated Credo retimers enable the cable to achieve high performance without needing additional external components, simplifying the design and lowering system cost and power. The new 800G AECs are identified by their distinctive HiWire purple color sheath. 

Credo is sampling the LP CLOS AEC 800 now with general availability expected in early 2022.

Credo says that  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). 

“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,” said Don Barnetson, Vice President of Product at Credo. “Credo’s new 800G LP CLOS AECs route like Cat6 cables and offer up to 100 times better reliability and half the power of optical cabling solutions. The future of connectivity is clearly purple.”

https://www.credosemi.com/credo-hiwire-lp-clos-aec-active-electrical-cable

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