Spectra7 and MultiLane to Demonstrate 112Gbps PAM4 Active Copper Cable Technology at CIOE

Spectra7 Microsystems Inc. (“Spectra7” or the “Company”), a leading provider of high-performance analog semiconductor products for broadband connectivity markets, and MultiLane Inc. (MultiLane), a market leading manufacturer of High-Speed IO and Data Center Interconnect test solutions, announced that they will be demonstrating Spectra7’s new 112G PAM4 GaugeChanger chip intended for next generation 800Gbps data center interconnects at this year’s annual China International Optoelectronic Expo (CIOE) 2021 show at the Shenzhen Convention & Exhibition Center in Shenzhen from September 16-18.

As the industry moves to 800Gbps it will adopt 112Gbps PAM4 per lane signaling over 8 lanes. At these ultra-high signal rates, traditional passive copper cables will struggle to reach beyond 1.5 meters. This creates a huge problem for Hyperscalers that require longer lengths to serve both switch-to-switch and switch-to-server connections, but do not want to incur the power and cost penalty of optics. ACCs enabled with Spectra7’s GC1122 solution will extend copper cable reach 2.5 times, up to 4 meters at a fraction of the cost of optics. Critically, at a time when Hyperscale operators are struggling with power consumption and carbon emissions, ACCs using the Spectra7 technology will consume only 200mW of power per channel, which is up to 12 times lower power than optical solutions.

The GC1122 is the latest addition to the GaugeChangerTM product line and extends the data rate from 56Gbps PAM4 to 112Gbps PAM4 per lane. Since the GC1122 is analog and highly linear, dynamics such as line rate adjustment, multi-level signaling, intermittent line silence, transmit pre-emphasis or amplitude adjustment and receiver adaptivity are fully preserved. The GC1122 is packaged in an ultra-small 2.7mm x 4.2mm chip scale package making it easily embeddable in even the smallest of connectors.

The CIOE demonstration highlights Spectra7’s new GC1122 device as well as MultiLane’s latest high speed test equipment including the ML4015D DSO and the ML4079E 800G BERT.

“Spectra7’s new GC1122 is set to fill a big need in the data center interconnect market,” said MultiLane CEO Fadi Daou. “We are delighted to be working with Spectra7 and their cable partners as they anticipate bringing their 112Gbps products to mass production in 2022.”

“We are seeing tremendous interest from every Hyperscaler to get sample 800Gbps cables that are enabled by our new GC1122 solution”, said Spectra7 CEO Raouf Halim. “Both we and our cable partners believe that 800Gbps will represent a significant acceleration in the growth and adoption of our ACC data center interconnect technology.” PR Newswire