Overview
An Active Copper Cable (ACC) solution extends the reach of Direct Attach Cables (DAC) while offering considerable power savings for active copper interconnect by removing the digital signal processing (DSP) function from the Active Electrical Cable (AECs). This architecture takes advantage of the capabilities in each segment of the link to form a power, cost, and latency optimized connection while maintaining the flexibility of lower cost copper cabling. The focus of the ACC Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) is to specify cable connector and network equipment level interoperability requirements for copper cabling technologies. The ACC-MSA will ensure multi-source solutions necessary for a broad ecosystem and multiple data rates per lane.
ACC Features
- The ACC-MSA develops electrical interoperability specifications for a diversity of high density networking equipment and pluggable connector modules based on linear equalizer technology
- The networking equipment includes switches, NICs, and endpoints that include native Ethernet connectivity (such as GPUs)
- Ideal for high speed, high volume applications such as AI and high performance computing
ACC Benefits
- Significantly lower power consumption
- Meets and exceeds link reliability requirements
- Lower latency (vs. DSP-based solutions)
- Lower module cost (vs. DSP-based solutions)
- Supports multiple data rates
- Enables a broad ecosystem of copper cable manufacturers and ACC-enabled networking equipment
MEMBERS
