A new demonstration platform combines 112 Gbps PAM4 silicon from our partner Alphawave, with Samtec’s extreme performance, extreme density NovaRay® I/O front panel interconnect system. In this video from SC21 (Super Computing 2021), Samtec’s Matt Burns walks us through the demonstration and explains that while they have essentially the same channel loss, the Samtec NovaRay I/O system provides twice the cable length and twice the density of QSFP-DD.
Alphawave’s latest SerDes silicon generates 112 Gbps PAM4 signals which travel to a Samtec Bulls Eye®, BE70A test point system, to a Samtec NovaRay® board-to-board and cable-to-board SI evaluation kit. Signals also travel to a Samtec FQSFP-DD SI evaluation kit.
The first part of the demo shows a mid-board NovaRay cable system directing signals to a QSFP-DD MSA front-panel cage and connector. Attached to the QSFP-DD sockets, on the other side of the front panel, is an off-the-shelf, one meter long, 30 AWG DAC.
The second part of the demo features a NovaRay to NovaRay I/O Samtec Flyover® cable assembly. This assembly also includes our NovaRay I/O front panel brackets, and exclusively from Samtec, a NovaRay I/O, front-panel DAC.
Looking at the signals of the NovaRay I/O compared to the QSFP-DD, the channel loss over both systems is essentially the same. However, the off-the shelf DAC connected to the QSFP-DD is one meter long, but the NovaRay I/O DAC, with Eye Speed® ultra-low skew twinax, is two meters long.
The eye diagrams also show the NovaRay I/O has increased signal performance, higher density, and higher speeds, compared to the off-the-shelf QSFP-DD DAC.
NovaRay I/O is the highest-performance, highest-density, smallest form factor front-panel I/O interconnect system in the industry. With the same channel budget of QSFP-DD, Samtec NovaRay I/O provides twice the cable length and twice the density.
If you have questions about the details of this demo, please contact the Samtec Signal Integrity Group.
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