LinkX® Cables and Transceivers
The Mellanox LinkX product family of cables and transceivers provides the industry’s most complete line of 10, 25, 40, 50, 100, 200, and 400Gb interconnect products for Cloud, Web 2.0, Enterprise, telco, and storage data centers applications. They are often used to link top-of-rack switches downwards to servers, storage & appliances and upwards in switch-to-switch applications.
Products are available in both Ethernet and InfiniBand protocols and SFP & QSFP form factors.
LinkX certified cables are 100% tested in actual Mellanox systems to ensure optimal signal integrity and the best end-to-end performance. Mellanox DAC cables are designed for use in super computers that have very stringent requirements. IEEE standards require 1E-12 Bit Error Ratio (BER), but all Mellanox cables are tested to 1E-15 which is 1,000 times fewer bit errors than competitors. Mellanox passive copper cables offer trouble free installation, long-term reliable operation and they work with 3rd-party switches and adapters.
Check out our new low-loss LSZH DAC cables supporting the IEEE CA-N and CA-L specifications that when used at <2 meters enables running with no FEC or reduced FEC to save latency.
In addition to meeting or exceeding IEEE standards, LinkX certified products are 100% tested in actual Mellanox systems to ensure optimal signal integrity and the best end-to-end performance. IEEE standards require 1E-12 Bit Error Ratio (BER), but all Mellanox cables are tested to 1E-15 which is 1,000X fewer bit errors than competitors. Mellanox DAC splitters offer trouble free installation, long-term reliable operation and they work with 3rd-party switches and adapters.
Active Optical Cables (AOC) are widely used in HPCs and have more recently became popular in hyperscale, enterprise and storage systems as a high-speed, plug & play solution with longer reaches than Direct Attach Copper (DAC) cables.
Optical transceivers convert electrical data signals into blinking laser light which is then transmitted over an optical fiber. Optical transceivers have a detachable optical connector to disconnect the fiber from the transceiver. AOCs bond the fiber connection inside the transceiver end, creating a complete cable assembly much like a DAC cable, only with a 3-200-meter reach capability. AOCs main benefit is the very long reach of optical technology, while acting like a simple, “plug & play” copper cable. A complete 2 transceiver AOC including fiber cable assembly is usually priced near the price of only a single connectorized transceiver.