Active Copper Cables for 40GE and 100GE

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• Active Copper Cables for 40GE and 100GE
• Gourgen Oganessyan
• Staff Product Marketing Engineer, Intersil
  Corporation

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Copper Twinax Connectivity in Data Centers

• Why Copper Twinax
• Simple, economical interconnect within racks and
  between adjacent racks
• Plug and play with optics using same connectors
• Improved signal integrity compared to structured
  cabling
• Allows use of serial NRZ transmission
• Leverage ASIC technology used for fiber and
  backplanes

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Active Cable Advantage Extended Reach

• Current passive twinax cable reach in 40GE/100GE
  is limited to
• 7 meters (24 AWG wire)
• Active copper cables can extend the reach to 20
  meters
• Serve a vast majority of data center connection
  needs (see A. Flatman)
• Uses same ports as passive copper and fiber no
  need for special port type.

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Active Cable Advantage Thinner Cable Gauge

• Current passive twinax cable maximum reaches
  achievable only in
• 24 AWG wire.
• This complicates cable management, causes airflow
  problems, etc
• Active cables allow the use of thinner (32 AWG!)
  cables in longer copper interconnects.

Cross-Sections of 48 Port Interconnect
Bundles 24AWG Passive (Left) and 32AWG Active
(Right)
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Active Cable Advantage Low Power Consumption

• Energy Efficiency becoming an important issue in
  Data Centers
• Active copper cables consume less power than
  optical transceivers
• Active copper cables require less signal
  conditioning by the host than is needed for
  passive cabling.

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Active Cable Options for 40GE/100GE

• 40GE/100GE specified in IEEE 802.3ba
• 40GE connector options 1) QSFP 2) CX4
• 100GE connector options CXP
• All three are amenable to active
• cable designs

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Active Cable Options for 40GE/100GE (cont.)

• 40GE/100GE port types and applicable active cables

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Future Developments

• Analog technology in active cables continues to
  improve
• extends reach
• reduces cable gauge
• drives down power consumption.
• More unconventional designs (Linear Equalizer and
  CDR-based) likely to appear on the market.
• MUX technologies converting 10x10G interface into
  4x25G stream over copper cable may be feasible
  2X reduction in cable bundle size.

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