Cinch and Meritec announce the release of NX+, a new PCB SMT receptacle connector offering 20Gbps per lane performance, in accordance with the footprint and performance requirements of the SFF-8473 specification. Crosstalk is said to be less than two per cent throughout the entire connector cabling interconnect and the receptacle is backward compatible with SFF-8470 cable assemblies. The NX+ connector system has been selected for the Ethernet IEEE-802.3ba CR-4 baseline draft for 40Gbps ten meter copper links. The device is backward compatible with the existing Ethernet IEEE-802.3ak CX-4 specification and exceeds the performance requirements of the IEEE- 802.3ap KR specification. This 8 differential pair and 24 differential pair connector system is also used for various Link Aggregation or Backbone cable assemblies and multi-legged fan-out cable assemblies using CAT-6a and CAT-7a STP cable types with RJ-45 or ARJ-45 connectors that exceed Ethernet IEEE-802.3an specifications.
This dual-sourced product continues the technology license covering Meritec’s NX InfiniBand architecture, under which both companies will independently manufacture and market this connector under the name NX+.