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.
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.
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