Marvell introduced a high-performance, 1.6T PAM4 DSP for active electrical cables (AECs) designed for the greater connectivity bandwidth requirements between AI accelerators, server to top-of-rack links and switch-to-switch interconnects within data center racks.
The new Marvell Alaska A 1.6T DSP, which leverages 5nm process technology and over a decade of Marvell PAM4 leadership, features eight 200 Gbps SerDes lanes to the host device and eight 200 Gbps SerDes lanes to the copper cable. The industry-leading equalization engine built into the Alaska A 1.6T DSP enables cable reaches of greater than three meters, addressing the reach requirements for inside-the-rack copper connections. The Alaska A 1.6T DSP is designed for next-generation accelerated infrastructure with 200 Gbps I/O interfaces on AI accelerators, GPUs, NICs and switches.
Key features of the Alaska A 1.6T AEC DSP include:
- Proven DSP-based 200G PAM4 SerDes
- Advanced digital equalizer with Feed Forward (FFE), Decision Feedback (DFE) and Maximum Likelihood Sequence Detection (MLSD)
- Greater than 3-meter reach at 200G/lane
- 200 Gbps per lane electrical line-side interface
- Optimized for QSFP-DD and OSFP form factors
- Retiming and gearboxing support
- Cable reference design for 1.6T AECs
- SDK support for advanced telemetry and diagnostics
The new device has gained support from leading copper cable manufacturers, including Amphenol, Molex, and TE Connectivity.
Marvell says the traditional method of using direct attached cable (DAC) for short-reach copper connections between AI accelerators and other components in server racks is facing limitations as data speeds increase to 200G/lane. The use of passive DACs is becoming less viable due to the declining distance over which they can effectively operate. To address this, Active Electrical Cables (AECs) are emerging as a critical solution. AECs leverage PAM4 DSPs to retime signals, thereby extending the reach of copper interconnects and allowing for the use of thinner cables in high-density data center environments.
“The next wave of AI clusters will need 200 Gbps signaling to handle the bandwidth requirements of generative AI and large language models,” said Venu Balasubramonian, vice president of product marketing, Connectivity Business Unit, at Marvell. “The newest addition to our Alaska A product line extends our leadership in delivering PAM4 DSP technology for short-reach copper connectivity for cloud AI clusters.”
