Molex QSFP+ Active Optical Cable achieves aggregated Data Rates up to 56 Gbps over long reaches

“The QSFP+ 56Gbps AOC solution from Molex provides up to 4km of reach yet uses less than 1 watt of power,” states Brent Hatfield, product manager, Molex. “As data centres and scalable HPC clusters become larger and more distributed, Molex’s single mode solution provides customers with a lower cost alternative that can interconnect at medium range distances at a fraction of long range optics costs. This also provides customers with a clear path to speed upgrades without having to continuously upgrade their structured cabling, and the standard QSFP+ port is an economical, readily available interconnect to support those requirements.”

Featuring four bi-directional optical data links per end, each operating at data rates from 1.0 to 14.0 Gbps, FDR AOC cables from Molex are compatible with multiple protocols including InfiniBand FDR, 10Gb Ethernet, SAS 2.0 and 3.0 (6 and 12 Gbps), Fibre Channel (8 and 10 Gbps). A low bit error rate of 10e-18 errors provides increased data reliability and a robust link compared to standard transceivers with 10e-15 errors per link. The cables are also available in a low loss pigtail version, which allows customers to install the single-mode fibre separately and connect to the pigtail version to avoid constant high-cost cable upgrades as bandwidth increases.

The 56Gbps AOC cables from Molex are available in lengths up to 4km (2.49 miles) for optimal design flexibility. The single-mode fibre technology provides a longer reach than copper and multi-mode fibre solutions in data centre and campus environments. The firmware is field flashable via an I2C bus so cables can be reflashed while in the host system.