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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.

16 of 235 comments (clear)

  1. Flatwire by Jjeff1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm not sure if it's out yet or not, but Flatwire has talked about this at least a year ago.

    1. 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.

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

    Google Translation of press release.

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  3. Useful by DarkSarin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If the pics are accurate, and you can really shut the window (sorry I don't read Japanese), then this is some cool stuff. I can see it being used to hide cabling and make it less obtrusive.

    Other than that, they had better be selling it for close to normal cable prices, or I can't think of anyone who would buy very much of it.

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  4. All fine and good by PDA_Boy · · Score: 5, Funny

    But surely a large file will not fit through such a small cable? You'd need to hammer them down first, which is an unwanted chore. Easier than making them small enough to transmit wirelessly, I guess.

    1. Re:All fine and good by dances+with+elks · · Score: 5, Funny

      the ones should be ok, they're quite thin but I'm just not sure about the zeros

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    2. Re:All fine and good by corngrower · · Score: 4, Funny

      Just thread the wire through the zeros and slide them along the outside of the wire. They can't fall off. That's what I've been doing for some time now.

  5. Re:Shielding? by gl4ss · · Score: 4, Interesting

    the whole point of making such announcement would be that you would have solved that shielding problem.

    the real novelty of this thing(if you watch the pics) is that you can run it through thin places(like windowstills.. no need to bore a hole to the wall).

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  6. Translation of press release by sczimme · · Score: 5, Funny


    "We are disrespectful to cable of girth. Can you see that we are serious? Join me or die. Can you do any less? For special lucky data, use Elecom LD-VAPF/SV05 network cabling."

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  7. 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

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  8. 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.

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    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.

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  9. Re:Shielding? by Broiler · · Score: 4, Insightful

    OK first off what is an Ethernet cable? You can not buy one at a store. You can buy a CAT5, CAT5E, CAT6...cable at nay computer store.
    Second twisted pair UTP)is not shielded. http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/sDefinition /0,,sid7_gci213234,00.html/

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  10. Wow! by RicochetRita · · Score: 4, Funny
    Now I'll be able to cram even more cables between rack'd components! Oh happy day!

    R3

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  11. Re:Shielding? by afidel · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well, if you are going to use STP you need to be using equipment designed for it. Equipment designed for STP needs to have a good ground plane and needs to bring that plane out to each port. Between the grounding of the jacket and the twisted pair STP cabling should not be worse performing that UTP, and in some environments is MUCH better. Of course in any invironment with enough RF noise to warrant STP I would just use fibre and not have to worry about the RF at all =)

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