Designers continue to push the performance envelope with faster chips, but these are useless if they can’t communicate at such speeds with other components in the system. This often means moving data through connectors and across cables. Connection design is critical these days because a poor design can mean a degradation of throughput or systems that don’t work at all.
Some of the latest technologies were on display at this year’s DesignCon and Embedded Tech Trends conferences. They span the gamut from copper-based solutions to optical interconnects with bandwidths pushing 56 Gb/s and beyond.