At DesignCon 2012, FCI and 3M (NYSE: MMM) announced the availability of SFF 8643 Mini Multilane internal cable assemblies for SAS HD connections from FCI, featuring 3M's SL8800 Series twin axial cable. The SFF 8643 assemblies support the SAS 2.1 standard at 6 Gbps data rate, and are expected to be fully compliant with the upcoming SAS 3.0 specification, which will increase the data rate up to 12 Gbps.
The cable assemblies are especially aimed at system applications requiring high density routing in tight spaces, or where restricted air flow is a concern. “The twin axial cable from 3M allows FCI to offer miniSAS HD internal cable assemblies that deliver excellent electrical performance to the defined SAS 2.1 and proposed SAS 3.0 industry standards," notes Jim David, global product manager, FCI. "The cable's mechanical advantages also allow FCI the ability to offer cables that can be bent at a 90 degree angle during routing without any signal degradation."
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FCI’s internal miniSAS HD cables will be offered in both the 4x (4 channel) and 8x (8 channel) versions, and all of the cables include standard sideband signaling. In addition to the internal cables, FCI also offers mating internal miniSAS HD board connectors (also SFF-8643 complaint) as well as a complete line of miniSAS HD external board connector systems and external cable assemblies both of which are fully SFF-8644 compliant.
The Twin Axial Cable SL8800 Series from 3M is well suited for paddle card terminated cable assemblies. Now available in various two, four, and five differential pair 100 ohm 30 AWG versions, the SL8800 Series internal cable is extremely thin, very flexible and can be folded with minimal loss or performance impact. The low profile nature of the cable also presents minimal obstruction to airflow, providing potential power savings to designers, and increased value to the end customer.
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The companies note that the SL8800 Series Cable is extremely high bandwidth, demonstrating virtually no resonance or discontinuities out to 42 GHz. Depending on length, attenuation requirements and termination, applications to 25 Gbps and beyond can be implemented with SL8800 Series cable. Current popular applications supported by SL8800 Series cable are MiniSAS SFF-8087 and SFF-8088, MiniSAS HD SFF 8643, PCI Express implemented on SFF 8087, and SATA assemblies. Samples of the cable assemblies will be available in the 3M (#706) and FCI (#414) booths at DesignCon 2012, which takes place in the Santa Clara Convention Center, Jan. 31 – Feb 1, 2012.
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