Intelligent CIO North America Issue 17 | Page 64

INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Cabling

Credo announces first offering of 800G HiWire Active Electrical Cables

800G HiWire AECs decrease cabling volume by up to 75 % less over traditional direct-attached copper cables while improving reliability and consuming 50 % less power than optical cabling .

Credo , a global leader in connectivity solutions for 100G , 200G , 400G and 800G portenabled networks , has announced the new 800G HiWire LP CLOS Active Electrical Cable ( AEC ) designed for Distributed , Disaggregated Chassis ( DDCs ) used in hyperscale infrastructure .

This 8 x 112G per lane copper cable interconnect is the first member of Credo ’ s 800G AEC family . better reliability and half the power of optical cabling solutions . The future of connectivity is clearly purple .”
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 .
As with all Credo AECs , the new 800G AECs are easily identified by their distinctive HiWire purple color sheath . Credo is sampling the LP CLOS AEC 800 now with general availability expected in early 2022 . p
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 . DDC architectures deliver the freedom to mix-and-match servers , switches and operating systems to suit specific performance , power and price points .
“ 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
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