CIE Components in Electronics
TE Connectivity (TE), a world leader in connectivity and sensors, has announced that it will showcase Sliver interconnects at DesignCon 2018 that have been adopted as the SNIA SFF TWG Technology Affiliate’s SFF-TA-1002 specification multi-lane high speed connector. Multiple groups within the industry including the Consortium for On-Board Optics (COBO), the Gen-Z Consortium (Gen-Z), Open Compute Project (OCP) and Enterprise & Data Centre SSD Working Group (EDSFF) have adopted TE’s Sliver internal cabled and card edge interconnects as the standardised connector solutions in their server, storage and networking designs. Sliver interconnects provide one of the most flexible, high-performance solutions in the market for making internal input/output (I/O) connections on the board.
In addition, Sliver interconnects simplify design and help lower overall costs by eliminating the need for re-timers and costlier, lower-loss printed circuit board (PCB) materials while reaching speeds greater than 50 gigabits per second (Gbps). Sliver interconnects are available as cable to board connections, card edge connections, with straddle mount and orthogonal additions in the works. Sliver is an ideal solution for many different applications, including high-speed I/O, optical connectivity, PCIe cabled extension, PCIe high-speed card edge, storage connectivity and general-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU) internal/external cabling.
COBO is developing a series of specifications to permit the use of embedded optical modules in the manufacturing of networked equipment (i.e. switches, servers, etc.). The organisation references industry specifications where possible and develops specifications where required with attention to electrical interfaces, pin-outs, connectors, and thermals, to name a few, for the development of connectable, interchangeable and interoperable embedded optical modules that can be mounted onto motherboards and daughter cards.
“Sliver’s ability to deliver greater than 50 Gbps performance made it the ideal connector to standardise the high-speed data interface,” said Brad Booth, president of COBO. “Sliver interconnects are a critical component in COBO’s data centre networking specification to facilitate the use of embedded optical modules in network equipment across multiple generations of Ethernet data rates.”
Gen-Z was developed to enhance existing and enable new solution architectures while delivering new levels of performance (high bandwidth, low latency), software efficiency, power optimisations and industry agility.
“Products like Sliver interconnects allow us to drive higher performance and greater flexibility in our designs,” said Kurtis Bowman, president of the Gen-Z Consortium. “TE Connectivity products are a key element to our scalable connector strategy and forthcoming specification release, helping our open standards forum achieve its technology goals.”
“At TE we aim to support our customers through products that are higher performing and have greater flexibility,” said Barbara Grzegorzewska, director of product management, I/O TE Connectivity. “Sliver interconnects excel in providing these benefits, and we are very pleased that the SFF-TA-1002 standard has named it as the connector of choice.”
Visit TE at DesignCon 2018, booth #817 to see a live demo of Sliver interconnects.
