A new HiWire Consortium has been established to pursue the standardization and certification of a new category of Active Electrical Cables (AEC). The group is dedicated to the establishment and ongoing development of an AEC standard that defines a specific implementation of the many industry MSAs and a formal certification process. This will enable an ecosystem of trusted Plug and Play AECs, available from multiple sources, for the hyperscale data center, telecom and enterprise markets.
HiWire AECs provide a full solution for layer 1 and 2 interconnect to deliver persistent and deterministic connectivity necessary for the next generation of data centers as the industry moves to 400G and beyond.
The founding companies of the HiWire Consortium are: Accton Technology, Alpha Networks, Arrcus, Bizlink, Cameo Communications, Zhejiang Canaan Technology, Centec Networks, Chelsio Communications, Credo, Dell EMC, Delta Electronics, Edom Technology, Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co.(Foxlink), Innovium, Barefoot Networks (an Intel Company), Inventec, Juniper Networks, Keysight Technologies, Quanta, Senao, Spirent Communications, Steligent Information Technologies Co., Wistron, Wistron NeWeb, and Wywinn Corporation.
“We are delighted and humbled by the widespread support for Credo and the HiWire Consortium,” said Bill Brennan, CEO of Credo. “The founding members all share a desire for thinner, longer and more reliable interconnect solutions. The consortium provides the framework to deliver a robust supply of interoperable solutions for 400G and beyond.”
“As new high-performance software workloads hit the network, the availability of reliable, low cost 400G interconnect is crucial,” said Ed Doe, vice president in Intel’s Connectivity Group and General Manager of the Barefoot Division. “The HiWire Consortium will go a step beyond MSAs and deliver to the datacenter what they have demanded from the start – truly interoperable interconnect solutions from a broad vendor base which will accelerate the adoption of our 12.8 Tbps P4-programmable Barefoot Ethernet switch series.”
“400G Ethernet represents a very challenging transition for the networking industry,” said Bob Wheeler, Principal Analyst at The Linley Group. “Creating a specific implementation and formal certification program around the many industry MSAs and standards is key to enabling trusted cables from multiple sources.”
