It seems every major corporation is racing to infuse artificial intelligence (AI) into their IT and software strategies. The question becomes: Can data centers keep up with the resultant accelerated demand on density and bandwidth levels?

There aren’t too many aspects of data center design that is free from the extraordinary burdens of expanded computational complexity and data flow needs. This challenge is experienced perhaps most acutely when it comes to data pipelines.

Fortunately, leading cabling and interconnect solution providers like Amphenol are responding to these demands with innovation at the speed of hyperscale.

Their broad product offering includes a full array of fiber solutions and the latest in new technology offerings. Yet, an equally impressive showcase of their development prowess is their ability to take copper connectivity to performance levels never imagined.

“I’ve been in this space for about 25 years now,” said Brian Kirk, CTO of Amphenol High Speed Products Group. “We’ve said for many years that copper products and cabling were going to peter out against fiber.”

“Still, despite this belief, every two to three years we’ve been able to double the speed of these copper products. It’s continually happened the last few decades and we see it going forward that way.”

Perhaps the most remarkable element of their consistent progress is that Amphenol engineers are constantly being asked to do more… with less.

“We used to build a lot of cables at seven meters,” said Kirk, “and then it’s five meters and slowly the requirements are getting shorter and shorter. At the same time, we’re needing to respond to the huge density and bandwidth increases.”

Somehow you need to achieve much higher levels of performance without taking up any more space in data centers. For copper cabling engineers, the answer has been to add more lanes.

“We started with one lane cables, and then went to quad lanes, then to eight lanes, and now we’re looking at 16 lane products,” Kirk said. “New solutions are coming out with 100 gigs and more per lane. So, now we’re talking about terabytes per second through these cables.”

Kirk explained how increased speed requirements introduced even more sophisticated challenges.

“If you go back a few generations before those 100 gigabyte per second lanes, we were really looking for error free communication across the channels. But, as you get up to this 100 and 200 gig per lane, you actually have to do some error correction.”

It requires sophisticated engineering science to compensate these bandwidth enhancements appropriately.

Fortunately, for the customers they serve, Amphenol products include a complete engineering approach. Their team of experts are on hand to provide a customized, well-configured, and optimized offering.

“Whatever the speed requirements are or the security or power concerns, we’re able to build the right product solution for them,” said Kirk. “About 90% of what we ship actually has some level of customization for each customer.”

Not only is it customized to specifications, but it’s fully tested as well.

“100 percent of every cable that is shipped is high speed tested and the configurations are programmed into the cable,” said Kirk.

The ultimate goal is providing for exceptional performance and simplicity of implementation. This task is completed while staying within each customer’s unique budget parameters. 

This thoughtful and professional approach to providing solutions for data center infrastructure needs is one of the many reasons why Instor is proud to partner with Amphenol.

If you have any questions about Amphenol’s product offerings and how they can assist you in reaching your company’s goals, make sure to contact us today.