Wednesday, May 1st 2024
PCI-SIG Announces CopprLink Cable Specifications for PCIe 5.0 and 6.0 Technology
PCI-SIG, the organization responsible for the widely adopted PCI Express (PCIe) standard, today announced the release of the CopprLink Internal and External Cable specifications. The CopprLink Cable specifications provide signaling at 32.0 and 64.0 GT/s and leverage well-established industry standard connector form factors maintained by SNIA.
"The CopprLink Cable specifications integrate PCIe cabling seamlessly with the PCIe electrical base specification, providing longer channel reach and topological flexibility," said Al Yanes, PCI-SIG President and Chairperson. "The CopprLink Cables are intended to evolve with the same connector form factors, scale for future PCIe technology generations and meet the demands of emerging applications. The Electrical Work Group has already begun pathfinding work on CopprLink Cables for PCIe 7.0 technology at 128.0 GT/s, showcasing PCI-SIG's commitment to the CopprLink Cable specifications."
CopprLink Internal Cable Specification
Source:
PCI-SIG
"The CopprLink Cable specifications integrate PCIe cabling seamlessly with the PCIe electrical base specification, providing longer channel reach and topological flexibility," said Al Yanes, PCI-SIG President and Chairperson. "The CopprLink Cables are intended to evolve with the same connector form factors, scale for future PCIe technology generations and meet the demands of emerging applications. The Electrical Work Group has already begun pathfinding work on CopprLink Cables for PCIe 7.0 technology at 128.0 GT/s, showcasing PCI-SIG's commitment to the CopprLink Cable specifications."
- Supports PCIe 5.0 and 6.0 technology signaling at 32.0 and 64.0 GT/s
- Includes the SNIA SFF-TA-1016 connector form factor
- Maximum of 1 m reach within a single system
- Example implementations include motherboard-to-add-in-card, motherboard-to-backplane, chip-to-chip and add-in-card-to-backplane in a self-contained server platform node
- Target applications include storage and data center compute nodes
- Supports PCIe 5.0 and 6.0 technology signaling at 32.0 and 64.0 GT/s
- Includes the SNIA SFF-TA-1032 connector form factor
- Maximum of up to 2 m reach in rack-to-rack connections
- Example implementations include CPU-to-storage, CPU-to-memory, CPU-to-accelerator, and accelerator fabrics in disaggregated server platform nodes
- Target applications include storage and data center AI/ML use cases
16 Comments on PCI-SIG Announces CopprLink Cable Specifications for PCIe 5.0 and 6.0 Technology
The cables will also need redrivers/retimers, so it will not be cheaper.
But that's not the way the milk & silk game is played, so we'll just have to spend god knows how much $$ on this stuff for while, then suddenly, the optical version will be the next "latest & greatest thing", and then we get to do it all over again :(
Found some info here: pcisig.com/retimers-rescue-webinar-pci-sig%C2%AE-qa
I can't be alone in getting tired of low-quality flex risers, and being largely stuck with Gen2 speeds (for reliability).
There doesn't seem to be a cool marketing name for it yet.
This is the CopprLink connector
This is the SFF-8614 connector.
www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmembers.snia.org%2Fdocument%2Fdl%2F37618&psig=AOvVaw1fNFRAtYNeW6pbdTVav0M-&ust=1714759055514000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBQQjhxqFwoTCPCE27nF74UDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE
PDF spec/design doc for the external CopprLink PHY.
I like the heavy shielding and robust termination.
The x4 variety looks small enough to be viable in the Consumer space.
Would be nice to see more ePCIe options besides (variable) USB4 or Proprietary specs like TB.