20 GBit/s connector for InfiniBand and Ethernet CX-4

Meritec and Cinch have announced the release of NX+, their new PCB SMT receptacle connector offering 20Gbps per lane performance (80Gbps for entire 4x connector), which meets the footprint and associated performance requirements of the newly released SFF-8473 specification and its originating SFF-8470 specification. Electrical system performance is enhanced by having less than 2% total crosstalk through-out the entire connector/cabling interconnect. This receptacle is backward compatible with the widely used SFF-8470 cable assemblies and its mechanical mating interfaces. The NX+ Connector System was recently selected for the newly developing Ethernet IEEE-802.3ba CR-4 baseline draft for 40Gbps (4 lanes x 10Gbps = 40Gb) ten meter copper links.

The NX+ receptacle is backward compatible with the existing Ethernet IEEE-802.3ak CX-4 specification and exceeds the performance requirements of the IEEE- 802.3ap KR specification. This 8 differential pair and 24 differential pair connector system is also used for various Link Aggregation or Backbone cable assemblies and multi-legged fan-out cable assemblies using CAT-6a and CAT-7a STP cable types with RJ-45 or ARJ-45 connectors that exceed Ethernet IEEE-802.3an specifications. See www.ieee802.org for Ethernet specs. The new NX+ enhanced PCB receptacle connector is used with its SFF-8470 cables that have been thoroughly tested during InfiniBand trade association’s PlugFests and exceed the DDR 5G and QDR 10G per lane specifications.

This connector has been proposed in support of the developing QDR (10Gb) and EDR (20Gb) per lane specification. The SFF-8473 and SFF-8470 standards are based on the MicroGiGaCN interface. Other applications and implementations include SAS-2, SATA-2, RapidIO, Aurora, RocketIO, Myrinet, PCI-Express, HyperTransport, XAUI and OIF-CEI copper ports connected with high end performance cable assemblies. Each company will independently manufacture and market this connector under the name, NX+.