Gore QSFP cable provides reliable HPC interconnect

Gore Low-Profile Copper Cable, which the company claims is fibre-like in size, fulfils the needs of dense, higher port-count switch installations while providing an even more reliable interconnect for high-performance computing (HPC).

This cable was provided to major switch vendors and computing OEMs for testing over the past six-to-eight months and was tested for compliance and interoperability in spring 2009.

Gore Low-Profile Copper Cable was developed for Gore QSFP assemblies and Infiniband QDR applications.

With a diameter of 0.170in for a four-channel, eight-pair cable, the cross-section saving is 37 per cent compared with alternative Gore cables and 58 per cent compared with typical industry offerings.

This low-profile cable is targeted at high-performance computing applications, where a large percentage of high-density port-count interconnects are two-metres or less (for example in top-of-the-rack switching installations).

The reduced bend radius and smaller diameter of Gore Low-Profile Cable allow for more aggressive routing as well as cleaner dressing of the cables in high-performance computing (HPC) environments.

This new cable is also less prone to interfere with the closing of cabinet doors in dense environments.

Gore has taken advantage of the superior electrical properties of its proprietary low-loss expanded PTFE, known by the Gore-Tex brand in the fabrics market.

The extremely low dielectric constant (1.3) of ePTFE allows Gore to provide smaller diameter cables with the same 10Gbps electrical performance of larger OD cables.