Channel Insertion Loss

NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPU Controller User Manual

Channel insertion loss is the loss of signal power resulting from the insertion of a device in a transmission line or optical fiber and is usually expressed in decibels (dB).

The following table describes the BlueField-3 DPU channel insertion loss budget for PCIe Gen 5.0 architecture (32 GT/s).

The total PCIe channel insertion loss approved by PCI-SIG Gen5.0 spec is 36dB @16GHz.

The total BlueField-3 DPU board insertion loss of the PCIe lanes (PCORE1) routed to the Cabline CA-II Plus is 6dB (@16GHz).

The Passive PCIe Auxiliary Card Loss is 1.5dB (@16Ghz).

The Cabline CA-II Plus harness loss at 16GHz:

Harness Length

Channel Loss at Gen 5.0

15cm

3.8dB

35cm

7.6dB

55cm

11.4dB

The above is measured data; it is recommended to add 0.5dB margins for your system (some loss variations are possible).

The Cabline CA-II Plus harnesses loss = 0.24dB/cm for Gen 5.0.

The above loss includes the Cabline CA-II Plus harnesses and connectors on both sides.

The PCI-SIG Gen5 SPEC also defines the total loss for AIC (bump to Golden-Fingers) to be 9.5dB @16Ghz.

The BlueField-3 AIC, together with a 15cm Cabline CA-II Plus harnesses and the Passive PCIe Auxiliary Card loss is: 3dB+2dB+3.8dB+1.5dB=10.3dB > 9.5dB

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