Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

1.4mm Thick Gigabit Ethernet Cable

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the only-geeks-care-about-this-crap dept.

TheIonix writes "Flat network cables aren't anything new, but I'm pretty sure ones like this are. Japanese accessory king Elecom today announced the "LD-VAPF/SV05" network cabling, coming in at 1.4mm thick." Also here's their press release if you can read Japanese.

8 of 235 comments (clear)

  1. Translated Page by bigtallmofo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Google Translation of press release.

    --
    I'm a big tall mofo.
  2. Re:Optical Fiber by Minupla · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's interesting because fiber is pretty damned sensitive to things like going around corners and being run over with office chairs and a whole lot of other things can make it a challenge to deploy to the desktop. That's why gig over cat 5e is way more popular these days then over fibre. Outside of the machine room fibre isn't a popular solution. And definatly if you're going to run it around window tracks or under carpet with roller chairs, you don't want to use fib...

    Min

    --
    On the whole, I find that I prefer Slashdot posts to twitter ones because I don't get limited to 140 chars before
  3. UTP doesn't have shielding! by PornMaster · · Score: 5, Informative

    The U in UTP is Unshielded. Standard Ethernet doesn't use shielding. But it does use the twists in the cabling to combat interference.

    It looks like this flat cable is only for very small sections, for which you can probably get away without the twists if you've got another way to handle the interference.

    --
    500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
    1. Re:UTP doesn't have shielding! by aaronl · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's not just to combat interference. The twists are done in such a way to also limit crosstalk, and use the reflections in the pairs to speed up data flow, limit the effect of external interferance, and allowing higher line bandwidth and better SNRs. Shielding might even mess this up by reflecting signal back into the strands.

    2. Re:UTP doesn't have shielding! by anethema · · Score: 4, Informative

      The reason the twists are done, is because on the Rx end of the cable, each pair goes into a differential amplifier. This amplifies the difference in voltages on the two lines. Any noise/crosstalk/etc common to the two lines doesnt get amplified. It actually gets nulled out by the Common Mode Rejection Ratio(CMRR) of the amp (60db or more usually).

      So, when you twist the wires together, you are ensuring that any noise that hits the wire, his both wires, in phase. This allows for very long runs. MANY techs work in this way. Nearly all serial techs, altough, some are implemented better than others.

      I have no idea what you're talking about with the 'reflections in the pairs speeding up data flow'. AFAIK that makes no sense at all. You never want reflections in a transmission line.

      --


      It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
  4. Re:Wait a minute... by Enigma_Man · · Score: 3, Informative

    The twistedness actually is there to cancel out crosstalk. There isn't really any shielding for RF (either receiving or sending). The twistedness attempts to create pairs of wires that always appear to be 90 degrees in reference to the other wire. Any PCB designer knows that to get the least interference from lines, you try to cross them at 90 degrees, so they only "overlap" at a very small point. Parallel lines act like capacitors to eachother, and that's why we get crosstalk.

    -Jesse

    --
    Nothing says "unprofessional job" like wrinkles in your duct tape.
  5. Re:Flatwire by megaversal · · Score: 5, Informative

    Last year (during summer) when I was in Japan, I bought a bunch of Elecom cables (CAT6 though, but the same thin design). They also sold CAT5 (10/100) cable at the same store I got my CAT6, so I'm assuming the real "news" is that they now have gigabit-capable CAT5 cable in the thin variety, not that flat cable is something new, or that even gigabit varieties of flat cable are new.

    --
    Sig!
  6. Where you can get these cables by Shinzaburo · · Score: 3, Informative

    Just in case you are wondering where you can get these cables, they should be available for pre-order from our site within 24 hours:

    http://shinza.com/

    Availability is expected within 3-4 weeks.