- Brian
FiberMall
Answered on 6:19 am
Active Copper Breakout Cables are cables that connect a single high-speed port to multiple lower-speed ports. They are typically used to connect switches, servers, and storage devices in data centers. They use copper wires to transmit electrical signals and have active components in the connectors that boost the signal quality and extend the reach. They can support data rates from 10G to 400G per lane.
The QSFP end of the active breakout cable includes a gearbox chip which converts 2x 50G PAM-4 electrical signals from the 400G port (a 100G-2 interface) into 4x 25G NRZ electrical signals (a 100G-4 interface). The vast majority of the installed base of 100G QSFP switches / routers / NICs use 100G-4 QSFP ports (where the QSFP port has an electrical interface consisting of 4x 25G NRZ electrical signals).
The Arista active copper breakout cables offer a cost-effective way to breakout a 400G port into 4x100G and connect to an installed base of 100G QSFP ports.
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