At DesignCon 2017, Jim Nadolny, Samtec's Principle SI and EMI Engineer, presented(1) a technical paper entitled “Design of Flyover QSFP28 (FQSFP Series) for 56+ Gbps Applications.” This white paper discusses the Flyover QSFP (FQSFP) approach for 56+ Gbps applications to overcome the limitations from the large loss on typical QSFP ports with surface mount to PCB traces. By replacing the PCB traces to twinax cables, they achieved 7 dB lower insertion loss at 40 GHz -- compared to … [Read more...]
7 Reasons To Visit Samtec At DesignCon (Number 5 Will Blow Your Mind)
DesignCon 2017 is next week in San Jose, California. If you're going to be there, here are 7 reasons to visit us at booth 717. They're all good reasons, and #5 is really cool, but it may not actually blow your mind. Sorry. Like me, you've probably seen the "sponsored articles" at the bottom of other websites. I read some research that people like to read lists, and making some kind of outlandish prediction about one of the items further improves SEO. So I … [Read more...]
Flyover QSFP28 Technical Paper and PCIe®-Over-FireFly™ Product Demonstration at DesignCon 2017
DesignCon 2017 is right around the corner. As in past years, Samtec will have a large presence throughout the event. Our SI experts will present technical papers. Our application engineers will demonstrate new system-level solutions. Our product experts will discuss various new and emerging products that will be released throughout 2017. And if I'm there I'll be at the food court ... TECHNICAL PAPER Jim Nadolny, Samtec’s Director of Signal Integrity, will … [Read more...]
Samtec FireFly™ Enables Cascading of Guzik DP 7000 Digital Processors
The computing demands of high-performance applications like HPC, machine learning and high-speed communications are driven by the CPU architectures championed by Moore's Law. As that has slowed, additional processing architectures such as GPUs, DSPs and FPGAs have become commonplace in data center acceleration applications. Discrete DSPs offer compelling solutions for many unique applications, but FPGAs offer massive DSP performance capabilities. This has become more … [Read more...]
New ETUO Series Extends FireFly™ Temperature Range
Samtec's FireFly™ Micro Flyover System™ continues to gain industry acceptance in mid-board copper and optical cable assembly systems. The ECUO series can be found in a number of applications requiring standard temperature ranges. The popularity of ECUO has established a need for an extended temperature version of the FireFly™ Active Optical Cable Assemblies. In response, Samtec recently released the ETUO series. Key ETUO Features The ETUO series shares the core … [Read more...]
Samtec FireFly™ PCIe® Optical Flyover Cable Assembly Fully Supports PCIe 4.0
PCIe 4.0 is just around the corner in 2017, at least according to the leading computer processor vendors. In recent months, both Intel and AMD have hinted at plans for PCIe 4.0 in future platforms. This promotes the advantages of the new standard with hopes of a wider range of applications. Here is a quick review of some of PCIe 4.0 advantages: Double the bandwidth over PCIe 3.0 from 8 GTps to 16 GTpsEnhanced power efficiencyFull backwards compatibility with previous … [Read more...]
Solving Signal Integrity Problems At Very High Data Rates
Our friends at EDN recently published Solving Signal Integrity Problems At Very High Data Rates. The article - written by Lee Ritchey and Kella Knack from Speeding Edge and Teraspeed's own Scott McMorrow - discusses the challenges of achieving high data rates given parasitics in PCBs. It presents a novel, alternative design approach to the problem. To elaborate a bit ... Advances in semiconductor technology are making it possible to connect components in … [Read more...]
Samtec – A Custom Cable Assembly Solution Provider?
"Cable assemblies!" What usually enters someone's head when they hear that phrase? Ethernet patch cable assemblies? Standard video cables assemblies like HDMI, DVI, miniDP or even VGA that link a laptop or tablet to an LCD Projector or wall-mount TV? Probably. In the world of high-speed cable assemblies, Samtec has found a unique nitch for itself. While most Samtec competitors focus on industry-standard or high-volume application-specific cable assemblies, Samtec focuses on … [Read more...]
FireFly™ Finds a Home in PCIe Expansion Cards
PCI Express continues to grow as the de facto I/O expansion bus in a number of embedded computing applications. The flexibility of the PCIe interface and the data rates it supports have spawned a number of standard PCB form factors adopted in many different applications. A common functionality added to many PCIe form factor expansion cards is optical networking. While industry standard active optical cables target typical datacom and telecom applications, a variety of high-speed I/O … [Read more...]
A Friend Features FireFly™ Micro Flyover System™
Where do engineers turn when they need unbiased, truthful and updated information to solve their problem of the day? An internet search? Social media? A video? While those are all popular and have their merits, engineers often trust friends and colleagues the latest technology trends. One of Samtec's "friends" is Avnet Abacus , one of our pan-European distributors. The highly specialized technologists at Avnet Abacus consistently provide technical insight into the markets and … [Read more...]