Marvell has added two new high-speed copper-interconnect parts to its Alaska connectivity line: the Alaska E 3.2T protocol-aware retimer and a second-generation Alaska A 1.6T active electrical cable (AEC) DSP. The timing is squarely aimed at 224G/lane scale-up links inside AI racks, where maintaining signal integrity over board traces, backplanes, and copper cables becomes harder as bandwidth climbs.
The Marvell Alaska E 3.2T retimer targets on-board and backplane use cases, delivering 3.2 Tbps aggregate bandwidth via 16 lanes of 224G PAM4 SerDes. Marvell rates it for greater than 45 dB channel reach (insertion loss compensation) and lists protocol support for Ethernet, UALink, and ESUN. The company also calls out reduced latency for latency-sensitive scale-up deployments, along with DSP-based signal processing and equalization, and a “power-efficient design optimized for high-density AI deployments.”
For active copper between servers and switches, the second-generation Alaska A 1.6T AEC DSP moves to a 3 nm process and supports eight lanes of 224G PAM4 for 1.6T throughput. Marvell specifies copper reach exceeding 6 m, which it says doubles the reach of the first-generation product. The DSP is specified at 12.8 W in a 12 mm x 14 mm package, and Marvell says it adds a known good die format for dense AEC assemblies. The part also supports multiple operating modes, including data-rate gear boxing across 1.6T, 800G, 400G, 200G, 100G, and 50G, with protocol support for Ethernet, UALink, and ESUN. Additional features listed include 45 dB+ insertion loss compensation, support for straight, Y, and multiple break-out cable configurations, plus a diagnostic feature set.
For data center engineers, the blunt takeaway is that 224G/lane isn’t just a switch ASIC problem—it’s a physical-layer problem across every copper segment in the rack. Retimers and AEC DSPs are the tools that keep link budgets intact when layouts, connector stacks, and cable lengths collide with power and latency constraints.
Marvell also says Alaska A and E devices integrate with its RELIANT interconnect telemetry platform for “real-time visibility, predictive insight and automated optimization” across its connectivity portfolio.
“AI scale-up networks are moving rapidly to 224G signaling, making signal integrity, low latency and power efficiency critical to connecting increasingly dense infrastructure,” said Xi Wang, senior vice president and general manager, Connectivity Business Group at Marvell.
Both the Alaska E 3.2T protocol-aware retimer and the second-generation Alaska A 1.6T AEC DSP are currently sampling to customers.
Source: Marvell
