Amphenol SF-NND1JH0317-007M 7m (23') 800G OSFP IHS (Finned-Top) to 2 x 400G OSFP RHS (Flat-Top) AEC Breakout Cable (28-AWG) – OSFP to 2 x OSFP Active Electrical Cable (OEM P / N: NND1JH-0317)

Buy Amphenol's newest interconnect innovation, the 800G OSFP (IHS Finned Top) to 2 x 400G OSFP (RHS Flat Top) Breakout Active Electrical Cable (AEC), 7m (23') length, factory-direct at Cables on Demand!  AEC interconnect technology, designed for the latest generation of 400G/800G rated high-speed Ethernet (RoCE) and InfiniBand networks (AI, Machine Learning), eliminates the link distance limit of 2.5 meters (8.2') native to passive Direct Attach Copper (DAC) Cable technology. 

Though passive DAC Cables represent the gold-standard for the lowest-priced, lowest-latency and lowest-power link option, the length restriction limits connections to within the same rack or to the immediate adjacent rack(s) only.  While an Active Optical Cable (AOC) or Optical Transceiver solution could certainly sustain link distances of 3-meters or more, their price tag of nearly $5,000 per cable is far from desirable.

Amphenol 800G OSFP to 2 x 400G OSFP Active Electrical Cable (AEC) solutions occupy the perfect middle-ground by permitting mid-reach (3m, 5m or 7m length) switch, server and Network Interface Card (NIC) link distances well beyond those of Direct Attach Copper (DAC) Cabling.  As a bonus, the active features of the AEC Cable allows for the use of thinner gauge (AWG) wire than would otherwise be required with a passive DAC.

It should be noted that Amphenol's new line-up of "Active" Electrical Cables (AEC's) are not in the same class of "Active Copper Cable" products that have existed for nearly 2 decades known as Linear Active Copper Cables (LACC).  They simply boost (amplify) and equalize the degraded analog waveform on the receive-side channels to better open up the signal's "eye".

Amphenol's Active Electrical Cable (AEC) technology instead feature powerful Digital Signal Processor (DSP) "re-timer" chips by Marvell Semiconductor.  These process both the receive AND transmit channels of the cable in both the analog and digital domain, dramatically extending the maximum link length of twin-ax copper by 3X that of their passive DAC equivalents!  Here's how they work:

Stage 1 is to perform FFE waveform shaping (Feed Forward Equalization) on the transmit side to amplify the high-frequency signal components that are degraded by the copper cabling. 

Stage 2 is to perform the same analog domain signal amplification and equalization found on the older-gen Linear Active Copper Cables on the receive-end channels. 

Stage 3 is to perform an analog to digital conversion (ADC) of the optimized "boosted" analog signal. 

Stage 4 is to perform Multi-stage Digital Equalization to combat severe high-frequency attenuation, crosstalk, and intersymbol interference (ISI). 

Stage 5 is Adaptive Control Loop Tuning, a real-time feedback loop between the cable ends capable of detecting and correcting changes in ambient temperature and cable flexing. 

Stage 6 is the Clock and Data Recovery (CDR) aka "Re-Timer" function that separates the data clock from the incoming raw stream to reconstruct a completely fresh timing signal.

The receive circuitry of each connection (switch, server, NIC) is thus presented with a completely reconstructed pure and "jitter-free" digital signal that is effectively as good as the originating signal itself.  This is the same type of digital signal conditioning performed by optical transceiver module-based cable designs, whereby all of the loss and distance effects of the cable medium itself are effectively tuned out of existence. 

Note that while Active Electrical Cable (AEC) designs do consume more power than their older Active Copper counterparts, they only require roughly half that of an optical-based solution, using only 8-10W per connector end.  A small amount of latency is added to the signal of an AEC, but not as much as optical.  This makes the AEC the superior choice over optical for price, power and latency in 3m-7m length 800G datacenter links. 

Applications:

The 800G OSFP end of our OSFP 800G to 2 x OSFP 400G AEC Breakout (Splitter) Cables feature an aggregate throughput of 800.0 Gbps, consisting of 8 112G-PAM4 channels.  This particular 800G OSFP "finned top" IHS (Integrated Heat Sink) connector type is often referred to as a "Twin-Port" OSFP, with one OSFP connector handling the throughput of 2 separate (twin) 400G rated ports, each hosting 4 of the 112G-PAM4 channels. 

The 800G OSFP connector end of our AEC cable is commonly mated with the 800G "Twin-Port" OSFP IHS receptacles found on Arista 7060X6 series switches, NVIDIA Spectrum-4 SN5000 series switches and Cisco Nexus 9300-GX2 series switches in RoCE (RDMA over Converged Ethernet) applications and NVIDIA Quantum Series Switches for 800G NDR InfiniBand applications.

Each of the two separate 400G OSFP ends of our OSFP 800G to 2 x OSFP 400G AEC Breakout (Splitter) Cables feature an aggregate throughput of 400.0 Gbps, consisting of 4 112G-PAM4 channels.  This particular 400G OSFP connector configuration uses a low-profile flat-top backshell that mates with a Riding Heat Sink (RHS) system built into the mating NIC device.  The "finned top" IHS style OSFP connector is too tall for standard height NIC slot.

The pair of 400G OSFP RHS connector ends of our AEC cable are commonly mated with the 400G OSFP "flat-top" receptacles found on Network Interface Card (NIC) products like NVIDIA's ConnectX-7 NIC, ConnectX-8 NIC and ConnectX-9 NIC.

Length:                         7-meters (23-feet)

Wire Gauge:             28-AWG Spectra-Strip SKEWCLEAR Extended Frequency (EXF)

Protocols:                   800-Gigabit Ethernet, NDR InfiniBand, RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE)

Compliance:              Universal compatibility OSFP IHS and OSFP RHS MSA-compliant cable design 

Part Number:            SF-NND1JH0317-007M (Amphenol Cables on Demand)

Cross Reference:    NND1JH-0317   (Amphenol High-Speed I/O)