Enter flat modular cords from Siemon.

With Flat Category 6 Compatible UTP Modular Cords from Siemon, designers can stack network cables together allowing multiple cables to run side by side for many applications:

• inside cabinet connectivity
• board to board connections inside enclosures or drawers
• along the side wall of a cabinet

Flat Category 6 Compatible UTP Modular Cords from Siemon

Siemon’s flat UTP modular cords are only 0.090″ (2.34mm) thick and take 50% less volume than standard Category 6 cable, yet the plug geometry is compliant to IEC- 60603-7 specifications.

The snag-less boot features over mold strain relief.  The RoHS compliant flat mod cords are compatible with both T568A and T568B wiring schemes and are designed to terminate 28 AWG conductors.

Learn more about Flat Category 6 Compatible UTP Modular Cords from Siemon and contact Siemon Interconnect Solutions for assistance.

Siemon’s solderless press fit connectors reduce costs by eliminating the need to solder the 110D connecting blocks to a PCB (printed circuit board) and the processing time associated with the soldering process.

Customers have the option to terminate either 22-26AWG (0.64mm-0.40mm) solid or 7-strand conductors using IDC (insulation displacement contact) technology.

Siemon’s Interconnect Solutions business unit (SIS) is a team of experts committed to solving industry and customer-driven interconnect challenges. SIS specializes in the development of copper and fiber high-speed interconnects for the communications, data center, medical, automotive and industrial markets, providing value-added solutions across a variety of markets and customer applications. With over 400 patents, Siemon invests heavily in R&D and development of industry standards, underlining the company’s long-term commitment to its customers and the industry.

Read Press Release: Siemon Announces 40Gb/s Hybrid QSFP+ to SFP+ Fanout Cable Assembly for High-Speed Data Center Interconnects

Responding to Ethernet’s expansion and absorption of rivals, champions and evangelists of other IO interfaces like Fibre Channel have created newer standard interface versions using a convergent tunneling method that preserves the native protocol but uses Ethernet physical transport system. Think of protocols tunneling thru any other faster physical transport layer as a packet spaceship traveling thru wormholes in space, from one datacenter galaxy to another.

Recently, the Ethernet Community has evolved their technology to converge LAN with SAN into one physical network. This was partially accomplished with implementation of the recent Ethernet standard 10GBaseCR. This two pair, serial single lane link was expedited without a detailed connector IEEE standard specification clause but achieved compliance and interoperability thru an Ethernet Alliance PlugFest process.

This has caused the Fibre Channel community to create a FCoE, Fibre Channel over Ethernet specification that helps to preserve the native protocol and its installed base. The InfiniBand community has similarly created their RoCE, RDMA over Converged Ethernet standard specification. RDMA is Remote Direct Memory Access, a low latency and low power technology used with InfiniBand architecture. So now these four interfaces, 10GBaseCR, 10GFCoE, 10GFC and 10GRoCE are implemented using the same SFP+ single lane, passive copper cabling. 10G SFP+ usage as grown dramatically because active copper and active optical SFP+ have enabled increased market segments and longer length applications like Digital Signage and AV systems.

Besides Fibre Channel, other storage interfaces like NAS, iSCSI,  iSATA and ATAoE are tunneled over Ethernet 10GBaseCR. These other storage interfaces are also tunneled over Ethernet 10GBaseT using Category 6a and Catergory7a cabling. There are open and closed Consortia defacto standards using these multi-protocols on so called collapsed architectural fabrics like the Unified Computing System which also use the SFP+ cabling.

Besides UCS, there are several other defacto standard unified style networks which also use the SFP+ but with different encryption in memory mapping of the embedded plug EPROMs. One wonders if all of these IO interfaces will expand and use the newly developing 25/26/28Gb/s QSFP++ module and cabling system which is being standardized thru the SFF-8661/2/3 specification. See www.sffcommittee.org,  www.t11.org and www.fibrechannel.org to learn more or contact me..

Ethernet 40GBaseCR4, 40GFCoE and InfiniBand 40G QDR standards are using the same four lane QSFP+ SFF-8436 connector, module and cabling. The SAS storage interface uses QSFP+ AOC, (Active Optical Cables) for longer reach applications as does the CameraLink-2 video networking standard. Will these various interface communities stay converged using the new SFF-8661 QSFP++ connector system for next generation 100GBaseCR4, 100GFCoE, 100GFC SAN and InfiniBand 100G EDR?

There are many other convergent IO interfaces like FCoIB FibreChannel over InfiniBand, UAS USB attached SCSI, UoSATA USB over SATA and of course SoU SATA over USB which is 3G SATA over 4.8G USB implementation. Watching Ethernet, the other very high volume IO standard, HDMI, has recently released their new revision-1.4 spec. This spec has 1G Ethernet running thru the new microHDMI cabling system. However HDMI and DVI video IO signaling is run thru Ethernet category cabling systems as does the HDBaseT signaling and HomePlugAlliance’s cabling adapters. So one could say that the shielded CAT-6a, CAT-7a, SFP+ and QSFP+ are the three primary multi-protocol interconnects for now and several years. Much more on newer convergence in the second part of this guest blog

Lo, looming ahead is a potential round of interface collisions, convergence and collapsed interconnect. It is starting at the desktop level with DisplayPort, USB, SATA, HDMI and PCI-E converged and transformed to the new multi-protocol LightPeak optical-only single fiber interface. It is rumored that LightPeak would replace short reach SAS as well. It seems that there is a 10G and 28G version of LightPeak. We will hear more about this at the Intel Developers Forum this September.

At the 25/26/28/40G per lane data rate, electrically signaling has very limited copper cable length reach, like 1-3 meters. Active optical cabling seems at this data range to have an equal portion of the forecasted TAM volume versus copper. So it is no wonder that there is also looming another generation beyond, a new optical interface which can be supported by developing chips that currently work in labs at 50G per lane and supporting up to 2km distances. Its next generation of 100G per lane is being co-developed. This optical technology interface is beyond the LightPeak interface and could supplant even Ethernet, InfiniBand, Fibre Channel and other IO interfaces within newer datacenters within five years

Coinciding with this new Optical interface’s emergence is a very new generation of Internal Active Optical Cables that connect from either Printed Circuit Boards or nascent Fiber Circuit Boards to other boards/modules and to optical backplanes These Internal AOCs also are also being driven by the continual port densification evolution as the Internal AOCs connect to the bulkhead with MPO type connectors and achieved double port density versus either SFP+ or QSFP+ AOC connector/cabling ports. But there will be a large part of the market and systems that stay longer using the various small form-factor pluggable media types, the causing the usage of many different hybrid cables like QSFP+ SFF-8436 to QSFP++ SFF-8661 and hydra cables like three SFP++ SFF-xxxx (number is soon to be assigned) cable legs going into one QSFP++  SFF-8661 See www.sffcommittee.org

These Internal AOCs and other new CMOS photonic chips may evolve beyond using the QuickPath, HyperTransport and other chip to chip IO interfaces. As the highest performance and largest size DataCenter systems end-users look at using many thousands of Mobile Phone processor chips like Intel’s Atom, the ARM chip or SmoothStone’s new chip to save on power consumption and cooling needs, they are considering a further collapsed optical interface and interconnect that absorbs the LightPeak interface..

You can have fun trying to overlay all these IO roadmaps into one chart! In a parallel universe, voice communication interfaces are melding into Ethernet. Consider that telephony IO interfaces like SS7, TMDS, Utopia, FrameRelay, ATM, PBT and MPLS, are merging into a VoIP and Ethernet network. Even IB-WAN, EoS Ethernet over SONET, SONET and SDN are being replaced by enhanced Carrier Ethernet. The same is true for all the old 6-8 Industrial IO interfaces converging into Industrial Ethernet cabling. Within Commercial Infrastructures various IO interfaces are also quickly melding into a ConvergeIT interconnect network.

Just think if these dozens of interfaces converged into one optical interface in the fuzzy future, we will have many less acronyms to track of! But will this nascent Camelot interface be called sometime cryptic like the existing IPoDWDM interface? (Internet Protocol over Dense Wave Division Multiplexing)

In the ten years past, the SFF-8470, a primarily dedicated twinaxial copper cabling system was selected and or implemented in many industry and defacto standards like InfiniBand, Ethernet, SAS, RapidIO, Myrinet and in the very many separate NICs and homogenous switch boxes. Then heterogeneous switches and NICs appeared with the common SFF-8470 cabling handling the different interfaces in one box or rack. Then there were high port count multi-protocol chips. Now the protocols run thru one slimmer QSFP+ or SFP+ cable assembly using one transport layer. In some SDD (Solid State Drive) devices the FC and SAS or SATA and USB interfaces are integrated into one chip. I have heard the many wireless interface people are working on their Camelot next generation convergent interface as well.

How fast will the new datacenter power and cooling requirements as well as disruptive CMOS Photonic technologies impact further convergence and wide market acceptance? So what is your convergence view or vision of interfaces and interconnects over this coming decade?

Read Press Release: Siemon Announces Secure Connectivity Options for 40+Gb/s High-Speed Data Center Interconnects

As data rates have increased, we have seen a large growth of active copper cabling usage in order to keep the 30awg preference and maintain needed cable lengths and topologies. We have also seen the fast rise of active optical cabling to deal with data rate performance versus link lengths.

Now we are developing 24-28Gb/s per lane links in various standards bodies like Infiniband. Based on feedback from DataCenter engineers and managers, the new Infiniband EDR spec will not have 24awg in the specification, the maximum passive copper gage is likely 26awg. Some members are saying it should just have 30-28awg. At this data rate and gage size range, passive copper will only reach about .5-2 meters depending on PCB trace versus cable length trade offs.

Even using active copper at this data rate range, the wire gage and length story is not so great as it was in the old days of 2.5Gb/s per lane. So active optical cabling has become a lot more important in achieving optimized cable diameter and link lengths. Many OEMs and active equipment users do not like having so many media types and are strategizing to keep the link types and lengths options simplified.

Ultimately we seem to be heading towards using the smallest media size option, single mode fiber for many and most applications at any length and data rate. This seems like a major inflection point in the history of interconnection media types; just my opinion….

PS. In the old Fibre Channel days we had to use 21-22awg copper to achieve link lengths, but there was room to spare. Back then most of Fibre Channel links were copper which was embarrassing because this technology called itself Fibre Channel. Now there is no copper media being specified in the latest 28/32Gb/s specification so finally Fibre Channel is all about fiber. Got fiber in your diet?

The InfiniBand Trade Association formally introduced their new IO interface roadmap just a few weeks ago and it is quite different from their last revision. The older one had progressed predictability uniform from 2.5G to 5G to 10G data rates which have been implemented thru standards, plugfests and products. But now the next logical data rates of 20G and 40G per pair have disappeared off the new roadmap revision.

14G per pair is now the next generation of InfiniBand and this association is planning for it and their concurrently new 25/28G per pair generation to be both released in 2011. They use the acronyms, HDR and NDR without any date rate number as the two undefined placeholders in their roadmap’s fuzzy “Market Demand 2014” space. I never saw a high speed interface coming out with two data rates platforms at the same time and having no defined next generation data rates or dates going ahead. It seems they are trying to stay a little ahead of Ethernet’s progression, but ready to converge opportunistically.

InfiniBand also recently expanded its architecture by have 1x lane and 8x lane added to the already 4x and 12x lane options as PCI Express already has. PCI-Express also has 16x and 32x lane options.

FibreChannel Industry Association and the T11 standards group are just about to release their 16G SFP+ single lane interface and are starting to develop a new 32G optical single lane interface The leading FibreChannel 16G spec has been partially borrowed by the new InfiniBand FDR 14G standard group and allegedly, the newer PCI-E 3.0 16G standards group. The FCIA is working on a new roadmap revision due to come out soon and is alleged to go beyond 64G, 100G as single links and aggregated to a 1 Terabit SAN link. Looks like no more Hard Disk Drives at FC 32G, no more Hard Disk Controller Blades and no more Copper SFP cables, just optical SAN switch links and software per FCIA.

FibreChannel 16G and SAS 12G interfaces may be merged into one chip and will likely be used with converged next generation FC/SAS SSDs, (Solid State Drives) which are mounted on blades or modules. FibreChannel and Ethernet 10G interfaces are sometimes merged into one chip with two SFP+ ports and support converged LAN/SAN systems. So one wonders if there will be Unified SFP+ 16G and or SFP+ 28G link next generation Unified systems.

OIF group is leading and co-working thru liaisons on 25/28/32G per lane converged electrical and optical interfaces with FCIA, IBTA and IEEE802.3 groups. OIF is especially focused on a four lane QSFP++ proposal. This supports 4x25G IB server and 4x 28G FC SAN and Ethernet switch links. OIF also has been working on a 40G per lane specification. It is alleged that if PCI-E still exists a couple of years from now and is not replaced by the very new LightPeak interface, it would likely use the OIF/FC 28/32G electrical spec partially for a nascent PCI-E 5.0

Ethernet IEEE-802.3bg 40G optical single lane link specification development is moving right along and is allegedly looking to expand beyond the long reach applications. It appears that the Call of Interest for a new 4x25G=100 electrical spec and QSFP+ copper and active optical PMD will occur at the November 2010 plenary meeting. Ethernet Alliance business leaders are planning to talk about a new roadmap at the October meeting that may include 400G and 1T interfaces. So much for the Ethernet older orderly by ten data rate progress that did 10Mbs, 100Mbs, 1000Mbs 10Gbs …

SAS Trade Association and NCITS-T10 storage community are working on their new 4x12G spec for 2012 release. Some early work is being done on their subsequent 24G per lane spec. The 6-12G HD-MiniSAS connector does not work at 24G. So there is talk about borrowing the soon to be chosen QSFP++25/28G connector for inclusion in the developing SAS 3.0 spec as some OEMs seem to have a preference for using it for 12-24G designed ports in very large storage systems, especially for petascale and exascale DataCenters.

CameraLink2, RapidIO,  Myrinet and many other IO standards are still following with a year or two lag using FC/IB/Ethernet specifications and media options especially QSFP+ AOC.

Although HDMI 3.0, USB 4.0 (25G?), DisplayPort 3.0 standards are said to be developing, the looming Lightpeak 1.0 and 2.0 optical specifications/products may come sooner and supplant those three IOs and maybe CameraLink, PCI-E and FireWire 1394. It would be amazing to see Commodity IO 25G interfaces taking over the lead from High End IO 25G interfaces in a 2013 convergence/collision. Maybe this would be facilitated thru the acceptance of high volume commodity Intel Atom and various ARM microprocessors building blocks being used potentially in some of the largest categories of DataCenter systems that are lowest power and highest density focused.

Has the Great Recession had an impact on acceleration of standards and IO interface convergence? Combined standards/technology resources, fuzzy roadmaps, non-interoperable Unified architectures and lots of co-opetition may be thought as side effects of this recession.

As on the waterways, highways and flyways of the world, there are many more speed options, topologies, lanes and links than ever before. Connecting electronic equipment with these new IO interfaces is supporting the exploding internet universe that is being driven by virtualization and video and LAN/SAN convergence factors.

For many years, having active chips embedded inside electronic connectors and cable assemblies was a niche application solving unique electrical distance issues. Fast forward to 2010 and it appears that half of the SFP+ interconnect volume are Active Copper and Active Optical cables. QSFP+ and other next generation cables seem to have near future unit volume forecasting of 50% Active Optical versus Copper as a whole.

The current variety of embedded chip usage includes signal conditioners, EEPROMs, repeaters and optical/electrical converters. Next generation higher speed active embedded chip possibilities seem to be expanding due to solving electrical PCB trace distance degradation. Some developers are exploring whether to take retimer and four lanes times 10 lanes gearbox chips off the blade or box boards and put them on the usually higher performance embedded PCB cable plug. Others are looking at moving even the PHY controller chip on to the cable plug PCB. O/E chip developers are looking at bringing other primary functions within their new chips.

So for a few years we may see a boom of Very Smart Cabling. But is this active cabling complexity and cost increase going to be acceptable further in the future or are all these functions going inboard as two or one chip instead. Will optical performance and interconnects be necessary for as high as 75% of networking cabling shipped in 2013-2014? Will all optical systems including optical PHY chips be necessary by 2015 or sooner? If the optical interconnect becomes pervasive in the near future, then most cables may use some type of MPO photonic connectors that will provide further miniaturization, densification and increased port counts on blades and boxes compare to today’s connectors and cables.

I guess seeing where the chips may fall this week in Las Vegas may likely be different from where they might land at the same location in 2012 and especially 2014. So watch these chips carefully and be ready for more change.


A painful example of this phenomenon is when an end-user DataCenter manager needs to quickly add more server or storage and switching equipment and buys it from a different and new OEM source, maybe based on fastest delivery. As the DataCenter network engineers are readying to connect their new equipment they find that they need to very quickly buy more cables from their primary Infrastructure wiring supplier who had been qualified and involved in the original cabling installation and other upgrades.

The DataCenter manager buys high speed SFP+ cables from their primary supplier and they arrive within a few days per typical turn around time. These cable products have already passed Industry Plugfest interoperability testing with flying colors and yet, woefully, they will not work between the original equipment and the new sourced equipment due to encryption no-go code. At this point, the DataCenter manager finds out that certain Tier 1 OEM devices connected to another source Tier 1 OEM devices will not handshake and operate. Then he or she contacts the OEM and finds out the same cables will cost up to ten times more compared to their primary supplier and will not be available for several weeks. They sometimes find out that certain OEM supplied cables will not handshake with other sourced OEM equipment. These kinds of incidents do not generate End-User satisfaction.

Leading edge data rate products use very complex technologies and components which are even challenging to have working well within a single source OEM’s product family. We have heard of this problem occurring at recent Industry plugfests. Being empathic that tuning components, circuits, systems and maintaining signal integrity is increasingly byzantine, it is understandable why some major OEMs try to control the whole environment of their products including cable assemblies. It is understandable that OEMs offer lifetime warranties to ensure operability and optimum performance of their equipment only.   However if every OEM product did only proprietary handshaking, the market would dramatically slow down causing much bigger issues for every business in the DataCenter and Networking market as a whole.

Many key members of the Ethernet Alliance and IEEE 802.3 community leadership have been expressing their growing concerns of the adverse effects of cable link encryption and even the viability of their organizations and standards. They seem most importantly concerned about open system interoperability and the maximum expansion of Ethernet within new market segments, especially the DataCenter market. Trying to coming out of this great recession quicker as a community, it seems that we need more clever ways of working together and solving issues that could cause a more serious dragging anchor effect and market crystallization if unaddressed.

I suggest that some open dialog about this issue within the key communities occurs soon. It seems that members of these industry organizations should be persistent with requiring open handshaking of multiple sourced cables as a part of plugfest certification that would solve quick, cost sensitive cable link installation problems within heterogeneous DataCenter installations.

The alternative may lead us back to 1970’s when OEMs mostly had their own captive cable assembly divisions for supplying links and very few OEM devices worked with other OEM devices.