PAM4 chips for 800G active cables
Semtech has launched the first in a family of PAM4 devices for 800G active copper cables in data centres.
The CopperEdge range is aimed at next generation 400G (4x100G) and 800G (8x100G) interconnects using copper cable and backplane interconnects. The CopperEdge GN8112 is a quad channel 112Gbit/s PAM4 linear equalizer and is the first product sampling in the portfolio.
As next generation data centre interconnects move to PAM4 coding per lane to meet higher bandwidth and throughput demands, passive copper cables can only enable reaches of up to 1.5m. This severely limits the use cases of passive copper cables and has created a strong demand for active copper cables (ACCs) that extend the copper cable reaches to allow for the high-volume switch-to-server connections.
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The CopperEdge GN8112 quad channel linear equalizer is designed to enable low cost, manufacturable ACCs that can deliver reaches of up to five meters over a copper twinaxial (Twinax) cable assembly. This enables ACCs to provide 400G and 800G data centre interconnects while offering ultra-low power (<0.75 Watt per 400G) and ultra-low latency (<10ps).
“Building upon Semtech’s outstanding high-speed signal integrity expertise, the new CopperEdge product portfolio continues to offer valuable solutions that our customers need to meet current and future market demands, starting with the sampling release of the CopperEdge GN8112 quad linear equalizer,” said Julius Yam, market manager data center products for Semtech’s Signal Integrity Products Group.
“The GN8112 can extend copper cable reaches up to five meters at 112Gbps PAM4 data rates with ultra-low power and latency, as needed in Cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) applications. In addition, the GN8112 can also be used in backplane and onboard applications to extend the trace lengths of interconnects for reliable high-speed communication between two end points.”
This builds on the existing Tri-Edge family of PAM4 56G devices, including CDR + VCSEL Driver, CDR + TIA, CDR + DML Driver and CDR + Low Power TIA.
The CopperEdge GN8112 is now available for sampling. Semtech also offers ACC Reference Design Kits (RDKs) for the GN8112.
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