Archive for the 'Networking' Category
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March 16, 2026
Marvell Joins XPO MSA To Accelerate Innovation in AI Optical Modules
By Xi Wang, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Connectivity Business Unit, Marvell
Marvell has become a founding member of the eXtra dense Pluggable Optics (XPO) Multi-Source Agreement (MSA), an industry initiative organized by Arista Networks to define a new optical transceiver form factor purpose-built for AI-scale infrastructure.
The XPO concept is designed to dramatically increase bandwidth density by enabling liquid cooling at the module level. XPO modules are substantially larger in size than octal small form factor pluggable (OFSP) modules commonly deployed in today’s data centers, but they deliver a step-function increase in performance. Each XPO module integrates 64 lanes operating at 200 Gbps, eight times more than current pluggable modules for a total of 12.8 Tbps of bandwidth per module.1
This leap in bandwidth is enabled in part by an integrated cold plate that can deliver up to 400W of cooling per module. The combination of larger modules, significantly higher lane counts, and liquid cooling delivers a four-fold increase in bandwidth density for switches across scale-up, scale-out or scale-across network architecture.
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March 16, 2026
Ara T: Improving AI ROI with DSPs
By Henry Chen, Senior Director, Optical DSP Marketing, Marvell
In AI infrastructure, every electron matters.
That is the underlying principle behind Marvell® Ara T, the industry’s first 1.6T transmit-only (TRO) optical digital signal processor (DSP) for AI and cloud interconnects. Designed for high-bandwidth, mid-length links spanning 5 to 500 meters, Ara T can reduce optical power module power consumption by more than 35%, delivering meaningful savings at scale.
Ara T extends Marvell leadership in 1.6T optics and interconnect technology and advances the company's strategy to raise infrastructure ROI and efficiency through optimized silicon.
Marvell will showcase Ara T at OFC 2026 in Los Angeles, March 17–19.
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February 23, 2026
The Golden Cable Initiative: Enabling the Cable Partner Ecosystem at Hyperscale Speed
By Michael Arsenault, Director of Product Marketing for AEC DSPs, Marvell
Rack connectivity is undergoing a historic transformation. Data center operators are demanding both scale-up and scale-out connectivity that can move more data across longer distances and between more systems, while delivering unprecedented levels of energy efficiency and reliability.
To help cable providers and their customers meet these challenges, Marvell has launched the Golden Cable initiative, designed to accelerate the development of active electrical cables (AECs). AECs are a rapidly growing class of high-bandwidth, enhanced copper interconnects used to link servers, switches, NICs and other assets in the same rack or across adjacent racks (about two to nine meters).
The Golden Cable initiative delivers a validated cable architecture tested across leading platforms and built on industry-leading software, reference designs, technical data, firmware and comprehensive support. Participants can combine these assets with their own technology to develop unique AECs powered by DSPs, optimized for specific customer requirements and use cases.
To further enhance performance and ensure broad compatibility, Golden Cable AECs are rigorously tested in the Marvell Cloud Interoperability Lab. Here, cables are validated across a wide range of customized configuration scenarios involving leading XPUs, CPUs, NICs, servers, switches, optical modules and other critical infrastructure components. This process enables Marvell and its partners to validate AEC firmware before cables reach end-customers, significantly accelerating customer qualification and deployment timelines. The result is greater confidence from the first plug-in.
The Golden Cable initiative is designed to rapidly scale and empower the cable partner ecosystem, enabling Marvell to meet accelerating market demand at true hyperscale speed. By operating in close alignment with key partners, Marvell is achieving many of the benefits of near‑vertical integration, while maintaining the flexibility and scalability of a partner‑driven model.
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January 20, 2026
Co-Packaged Copper Extending Its Reach Inside Scale-Up Networks
By Rohan Gandhi, Director of Product Management for Switching Products, Marvell
Power and space are two of the most critical resources in building AI infrastructure. That’s why Marvell is working with cabling partners and other industry experts to build a framework that enables data center operators to integrate co-packaged copper (CPC) interconnects into scale-up networks.
Unlike traditional printed circuit board (PCB) traces, CPCs aren’t embedded in circuit boards. Instead, CPCs consist of discrete ribbons or bundles of twinax cable that run alongside the board. By taking the connection out of the board, CPCs extend the reach of copper connections without the need for additional components such as equalizers or amplifiers as well as reduce interference, improve signal integrity, and lower the power budget of AI networks.
Being completely passive, CPCs can’t match the reach of active electrical cables (AECs) or optical transceivers. They extend farther than traditional direct attach copper (DAC) cables, making them an optimal solution for XPU-to-XPU connections within a tray or connecting XPUs in a tray to the backplane. Typical 800G CPC connections between processors within the same tray span a few hundred millimeters while XPU-to-backplane connections can reach 1.5 meters. Looking ahead,1.6T CPCs based around 200G lanes are expected within the next two years, followed by 3.2T solutions.
While the vision can be straightforward to describe, it involves painstaking engineering and cooperation across different ecosystems. Marvell has been cultivating partnerships to ensure a smooth transition to CPCs as well as create an environment where the technology can evolve and scale rapidly.
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January 12, 2026
Active Copper Cables: A New Class of Rack Interconnects for Further Optimizing AI
By Nicola Bramante, Senior Principal Engineer, Connectivity Marketing, Marvell
The exponential growth in AI workloads drives new requirements for connectivity in terms of data rate, associated bandwidth and distance, especially for scale-up applications. With direct attach copper (DAC) cables reaching their limits in terms of bandwidth and distance, a new class of cables, active copper cables (ACCs), are coming to market for short-reach links within a data center rack and between racks. Designed for connections up to 2 to 2.5 meters long, ACCs can transmit signals further than traditional passive DAC cables in the 200G/lane fabrics hyperscalers will soon deploy in their rack infrastructures.
At the same time, a 1.6T ACC consumes a relatively miniscule 2.5 watts of power and can be built around fewer and less sophisticated components than longer active electrical cables (AECs) or active optical cables (AOCs). The combination of features gives ACCs a peak mix of bandwidth, power, and cost for server-to-server or server-to-switch connections within the same rack.
Marvell announced its first ACC linear equalizers for producing ACC cables last month.
Inside the Cable
ACCs effectively integrate technology originally developed for the optical realm into copper cables. The idea is to use optical technologies to extend bandwidth, distance and performance while taking advantage of copper’s economics and reliability. Where these ACCs differ is in the components added to them and the way they leverage the technological capabilities of a switch or other device to which they are connected.
ACCs include an equalizer that boosts signals received from the opposite end of the connection. As analog devices, ACC equalizers are relatively inexpensive compared to digital alternatives, consume minimal power and add very little latency.
