Is DAC Copper Or Fiber?

Is DAC Copper or Fiber?
DAC cables are made from shielded Twinax copper coaxial and are factory equipped with modules on either end connected to fixed ports. The modules cannot be removed from the cable. Therefore, all DAC cables are produced at a fixed length. The high-speed copper cable has excellent attenuation performance, low latency, and anti-interference in high-frequency broadband transmission.

What is Twinax Cable Used For?
Direct attached Twinax cable can be widely used in data center interconnection such as SATA storage devices, RADI systems, core routers, core switches, servers for 10G/40G/100G Ethernet, and InfiniBand. Generally speaking, this direct attach copper cable provides a cost-effective and high-performance solution for the following situations:
• Top of Rack(ToR)/Adjacent Rack – Either passive or active DAC cable is perfect for shorter ToR or rack-to-rack operations with cost-effective budgets.
• Middle of Row – Active DACs may be a better solution in this application, as long as the transmission distance is less than 15m.
• End of Row – DAC cables are ideal for the end of row architectures as long as the distance is within the 15 meters limit.

What Is The Difference Between Active And Passive DAC Cables?
The main difference between an active DAC cable and a passive DAC cable is whether the signal processing is done or not. If there is an electrical component for signal conditioning in the cable, it is an “Active DAC”. If not, it is a “Passive DAC”, since it does not apply electronics for signal conditioning. Apart from the inner component, active and passive DAC cables also differ from each other in link length. A passive DAC Twinax cable transmits an Ethernet signal over a short length (0.5 m-5 m), while an active DAC Twinax cable supports a transmission distance of 5 m-10 m for an Ethernet signal.

9 Most Common DAC Cables:

1. 10G SFP+ to SFP+ DAC
2.25G SFP28 to SFP28 DAC
3. 40G QSFP+ to QSFP+ DAC
4.40G QSFP+ to 4×SFP+ DAC
5.100G QSFP28 to QSFP28 DAC
6.400G QSFP-DD DAC Cable
7.400G QSFP-DD To 8 X SFP56 DAC Cable
8.400G QSFP-DD To 4xQSFP56 DAC Cable
9.400G QSFP-DD To 2xQSFP56 DAC Cable