TE Connectivity to showcase at DesignCon 2024

TE is addressing 224G and PCIe Gen 6 signal integrity challenges for the next generation of artificial intelligence (AI) systems, continuing to extend the value of copper, with a combination of passive and active copper cabling solutions.

TE’s next-generation 224G products and PCIe/CXL portfolio are backed by an extensive range of power and cooling cables and connectors that provide faster, cooler, and more agile solutions. TE’s product displays and partnerships at DesignCon will demonstrate how TE is driving the future of AI and ML, providing cutting-edge solutions to meet today’s processing needs and anticipate tomorrow’s forward-thinking designs.

TE’s demos and displays at DesignCon 2024 will include:

• 224G architectures enabling AI & networking – Increases in bandwidth density and adoption of higher speed protocols are putting constraints on switch and AI accelerator architectures. Cabling high-speed signals from I/O ports or backplane to near-chip can help relieve some of those constraints. TE’s 224 Gbps AdrenaLINE Catapult near-chip connector enables such architectures for over-the-board (OTB) pluggable I/O ports, as well as AdrenaLINE Slingshot cabled backplane systems. This new interconnect technology is specifically developed for the challenging 224 Gbps requirements, providing optimised performance in terms of insertion loss, return loss, common mode and crosstalk, as well as providing an aggressive interconnect density and component envelope. In this live demo, TE is showcasing a cabled backplane architecture plus OTB and near-chip connectivity, utilising AdrenaLINE Catapult near-chip connector and AdrenaLINE Slingshot cabled backplane connector (cable-to-cable and cable-to-R/A-PCB connector systems). The demo is driven by Marvell’s 224 Gbps DSP SerDes silicon.
• PCIe Gen 6 CDFP passive copper solutions – AI and ML are accelerating the demand for high-performance, high-density, and low-latency interconnect solutions. Disaggregated architectures increase the demand for external copper cabling that can run next-gen PCIe Gen 6 and CXL protocols. TE will demonstrate a CDFP 4m+ passive copper coble running at 64GT/s (PCIe Gen 6), driven by Marvell’s PCIe Gen 6 silicon. Along with our joint demonstration at DesignCon, TE and Marvell have released a whitepaper, “Disaggregated and Composable Solutions for Data Centres,” which addresses the benefits of CDFP and external PCIe technologies.
• QSFP-DD 112 active 800G AEC – The 800G QSFP-DD active copper cable demonstrates the latest in TE’s bulk cable and termination technology. TE utilises cutting edge clock data recover technology along with digital signal processing embedded within the module to extend the reach of copper cables, while consuming less power than equivalent optical cables. AEC technology also enables fine wire gauges for short links, to ease routing challenges in dense next-gen racks. This live demo showcases eight lanes of 112G PAM4 data running through TE’s QSFP-DD/OSFP AEC with an IEEE standard MCB and a MultiLane BERT on either side. This demo utilises a 3.5 m 32AWG QSFP-DD 112 AEC cable assembly.
• Advanced thermal solutions – Today’s data communication applications have increasingly demanding system requirements, which often require better ways to dissipate heat. The thermal bridge demo presents an innovative technology for efficiently transferring heat across a gap of variable size, while maintaining the force applied to surrounding components. TE’s demo displays thermal bridge and thermal interface materials (TIM) thermal resistances in real time, while allowing adjustment of the thermal bridge height as heat is transferred between a heat source and a cooling solution.
• Smart busbar connector for server racks – Power connectors inside server racks may undergo temperature-related failures, causing service disruption. Outfitting power connectors with sensors enables real-time monitoring of their condition, allowing for careful overdriving and planned repairs. Through thermal characterisation of busbar power connectors and measurements of the RF communication channels, a smart busbar connector was developed. TE’s smart busbar connectors can be used to measure air pressure, humidity, voltage/current, and transient conditions, and are powered from the busbar, requiring no additional power source.
• Liquid cooled power busbar assembly – In partnership with Cooler Master, TE is enabling the next-gen power busbar solutions helping to empower the AI evolution. As rack level power requirements continue to increase, power busbar capabilities need to follow suit. The use of liquid cooled infrastructures to cool the power busbars allows for high current capacities, while maintaining lower temperatures.
• 112G SideStack mezzanine – TE’s stackable, hermaphroditic BGA SideStack mezzanine connectors offer a high density and high-speed connection to address the needs of increased bandwidth and power delivery for a variety of applications. With superior signal integrity performance, the SideStack connector supports 112G PAM4 and PCIe Gen 5/6, with extremely low crosstalk and resonance suppression. A dedicated power contact integration enables high current delivery for 12V architectures. TE offers a variety of stack heights, featuring scalable and modular options with flexible column counts.
• PCIe Gen 6 architectures enabling cabled solutions – With the growing need for channel margin and overall channel flexibility, TE’s PCIe Gen 6 cabled receptacles can offer improved SI performance with traditional surface mount type or direct to lead frame cable alternatives, which won’t be impacted by motherboard thickness. TE’s portfolio of mechanically robust interfaces can help enable modular design options for the end user to simplify their design. TE’s solutions can adapt to interface with a variety of industry-wide form factors (PCIe-CEM, EDSFF, OCP NIC 3.0, DC-SCM) and can leverage our continuously growing portfolio (Sliver, MCIO, M-XIO, LPSS connectors and cable assemblies).
• External PCIe cabling: next-generation architectures for CXL switching and disaggregated memory – Next-generation system architectures demand improvements in efficiency to help drive cost and performance optimisations. Disaggregated and composable architectures enable the use of pooled resources like compute, memory, hardware acceleration and storage, and allow these resources to be utilised dynamically when they are needed. These disaggregated architectures leverage external PCIe cabling in the industry standard form factor CDFP. TE’s system mockups on display demonstrate applications like CXL switching, disaggregated memory modules, and PCIe retimer cards enabled by CDFP connectors and cables.
• Sockets for data centres and AI – TE’s sockets offer high performance and scalability, playing a crucial role in enabling efficient and reliable data processing and contributing to the seamless functioning of data centres and the effectiveness of AI systems.
• Power distribution for data centre rack – TE’s solutions address 12V systems and 48V next-gen system architectures’ demand for high power distribution solutions to support effectiveness, safety, high/low volume production, and reliability. TE will showcase the latest power distribution products, featuring input/output interconnect solutions, integrated busbar assemblies, custom power cable assemblies, quick connect and disconnect high power RAPID LOCK cable assemblies, CROWN CLIP Jr. busbar clip, ELCON Mini connector solutions, high current card edge products, and MULTI-BEAM Plus power connectors.