Gore Introduces Limiting Port Copper SFP+ Cables

LANDENBERG, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. has developed “Limiting Port” SFP+ assemblies that are fully compliant with the SFF-8431 Revision 4.1 specification, Chapter 3, specification for limiting modules. Gore has developed this low cost, low power, passively equalized cable through the use of its patented GORE™ EYE-OPENER+® Conductor Technology and an extremely low loss expanded PTFE cable dielectric.

“Gore’s offering is unique in the industry. Our customers recognize the savings and the flexibility that our offering brings to the marketplace. We have spent a great deal of time in our customers’ laboratories testing our cables for interoperability and bit errors. The reception has been very, very positive.”

Gore’s SFP+ offering provides a lower cost alternative to active copper technology and expensive optical transceiver modules. This product satisfies the limiting port specification up to 7 meters, without using active technology.

SFP+ limiting (or limited) ports are not required to provide EDC (Electrical Dispersion Compensation) on the receive side. Eliminating this chip or function has been projected to save $15 per port. Linear port technology is currently more popular with the first generation of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) switch vendors, but manufacturers of network interface cards (NIC) have been moving toward and introducing more limiting ports. Switch vendors are also incorporating limiting ports in more of their designs.

Unfortunately, the loss of the EDC function severely limits the distance over which traditional passive copper solutions can interoperate to less than 1 meter. Integrators have been required to purchase active copper or optical transceivers to satisfy the standard. GORE™ Limiting Port SFP+ Assemblies are specification compliant up to 7 meters. This 7-meter length spans a significant portion of the total interconnect-space required for typical high-performance computing environments.

The core/skin design of GORE™ EYE-OPENER+® Conductors provides a distributed or “per unit length” equalization without resistor-inductor-capacitor (RLC) circuitry required on the connector paddle card. Jitter is well known to be the limiting factor for maximum signal transmission length in modern systems. Jitter is reduced in equalized cables because the transfer function (frequency response) of the cable is “flattened” in the appropriate frequency band.

Russ Hornung, Product Manager at Gore, comments, “Our superior material set delivers the higher performance and reliability that is demanded by mission-critical users. Gore continues to differentiate our interconnects from inferior cables by providing more value to our customers. We do this with our materials and our meticulous regard for quality. With GORE™ Limiting Port SFP+ Cables, customers can continue to use lower cost, passively equalized cables with L-P switches and adapter cards.”

Chris Ericksen, Application Engineer at Gore, adds, “Gore’s offering is unique in the industry. Our customers recognize the savings and the flexibility that our offering brings to the marketplace. We have spent a great deal of time in our customers’ laboratories testing our cables for interoperability and bit errors. The reception has been very, very positive.”

With more than $2.5 billion in annual sales and 9,000 employees in over 50 facilities worldwide, W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc., provides diverse, high-performance solutions in consumer, industrial, electronic, medical, and surgical markets. As well-known for its unique corporate culture as for its products, Gore's 50-year success story rests equally on product and organizational innovation. Perhaps best known as the inventors of expanded PTFE (ePTFE) and the makers of GORE-TEX® fabric, Gore is a leading manufacturer of thousands of advanced technology products that comprise a breadth of capabilities.

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