AN 835: PAM4 Signaling Fundamentals

ID 683852
Date 3/12/2019
Public
Document Table of Contents

6.3. Board Space

A QSFP-DD module has approximately the same width as a normal QSFP28 but twice the height.

Therefore, a 400-GBps interface using PAM4 and QSFP-DD requires less than ¼ of the same space required for QSFP28, assuming that the height of the modules is not problematic. You can place far more interfaces in the same footprint, assuming that power can be dissipated effectively.