PCI-SIG® Announces CopprLink™ Cable Specifications for PCIe® 5.0 and 6.0 Technology

The specifications extend PCIe channel reach for applications including storage, data centers, artificial intelligence, machine learning and disaggregated memory

BEAVERTON, Ore.-- May 01, 2024 -- PCI-SIG^®, the organization responsible for the widely adopted PCI Express^® (PCIe^®) standard, today announced the release of the CopprLink™ Internal and External Cable specifications. The CopprLink Cable specifications provide signaling at 32.0 and 64.0 GT/s and leverage well-established industry standard connector form factors maintained by SNIA.

“The CopprLink Cable specifications integrate PCIe cabling seamlessly with the PCIe electrical base specification, providing longer channel reach and topological flexibility,” said Al Yanes, PCI-SIG President and Chairperson. “The CopprLink Cables are intended to evolve with the same connector form factors, scale for future PCIe technology generations and meet the demands of emerging applications. The Electrical Work Group has already begun pathfinding work on CopprLink Cables for PCIe 7.0 technology at 128.0 GT/s, showcasing PCI-SIG’s commitment to the CopprLink Cable specifications.”

CopprLink Internal Cable Specification

• Supports PCIe 5.0 and 6.0 technology signaling at 32.0 and 64.0 GT/s
• Includes the SNIA SFF-TA-1016 connector form factor
• Maximum of 1m reach within a single system
• Example implementations include motherboard-to-add-in-card, motherboard-to-backplane, chip-to-chip and add-in-card-to-backplane in a self-contained server platform node
• Target applications include storage and data center compute nodes

CopprLink External Cable Specification

• Supports PCIe 5.0 and 6.0 technology signaling at 32.0 and 64.0 GT/s
• Includes the SNIA SFF-TA-1032 connector form factor
• Maximum of up to 2m reach in rack-to-rack connections
• Example implementations include CPU-to-storage, CPU-to-memory, CPU-to-accelerator, and accelerator fabrics in disaggregated server platform nodes
• Target applications include storage and data center AI/ML use cases

The CopprLink Internal and External Cable specifications are now available for PCI-SIG members to download.

To learn more about the history of PCI-SIG cabling efforts, read the “PCIe Cabling – The Journey to CopprLink” blog post.

PCI-SIG members are encouraged to register for the upcoming PCI-SIG Developers Conference 2024, June 12-13, 2024 in Santa Clara, CA to receive specification and compliance updates, learn best practices and more.

The CopprLink cabling specifications are subject to the copyright rights of PCI-SIG and its Member companies and the legal disclaimers contained in such specifications.

To learn more about PCI-SIG, visit www.pcisig.com.

About PCI-SIG

PCI-SIG is the consortium that owns and manages PCI specifications as open industry standards. The organization defines industry standard I/O (input/output) specifications consistent with the needs of its members. Currently, PCI-SIG is comprised of over 900 industry-leading member companies. To join PCI-SIG, and for a list of the Board of Directors, visit www.pcisig.com.