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SFP+ Direct Attach Cable (DAC)
DAC cables are made from copper and are factory terminated copper/twinax cables. DAC cables are used to
connect switches, routers and servers. They're assembled from shielded copper cables with a fixed length and
are fitted with transceivers on either end of the cable with gauges attached. These can be from 24 up to 30
AWG, while 15 meters of interconnection is possible via the copper cable. There are passive and active types
of DAC cables. Active copper wires use electronics to connect via the connections and transmissions are made
via the copper ends. To put it simply, passive DAC cables do not contain any components that are electrical,
minimizing power usage. Active cables benefit from boosted signals and use more power but ensure better
quality transmissions.
The SFP+ Passive DAC cable is a high-performance, cost effective solutions for 10Gb Ethernet and 10G Fiber
Channel applications. SFP+ Passive DAC cable enables hardware manufacturers and data center operators to
achieve high port density, configurability and utilization at a very low cost and with reduced power
requirements.
SFP+ Active Optical Cable (AOC)
AOC is one of the forms of DAC cable. It integrates multimode optical fiber, fiber optic transceivers, and
modules. AOCs have many benefits such as lighter weight, high performance, low power consumption, low
interconnection loss, EMI immunity, and flexibility etc. Primarily, active optical cable (AOC) assemblies were
invented to replace copper technology in data centers and high performance computing (HPC) applications. As
we know, copper passive twinax cable is heavy and bulky, making it difficult to physically manage the
datacenter. And due to the nature of electrical signals, electromagnetic interference (EMI) limits copper's
performance and reliability.
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