NVIDIA and Cisco announced plans on October 12 for a new pluggable optical format aimed at next-generation AI networks. The Ultra-Dense Small Form Factor Pluggable, or USFP, is designed for 400Gb/s-per-lane electrical signaling and a path to as much as 12.8Tb/s of aggregate capacity. This is a specification effort, not a shipping product announcement.
According to NVIDIA’s announcement, the first planned transceivers would use 16 full-duplex lanes in an OSFP-sized footprint, with future expansion to 32 lanes. NVIDIA and Cisco say the design could deliver 4× the bandwidth density and about 1.3× the power efficiency of 200Gb/s-per-lane pluggables.
The goal is to push more bandwidth through each switch face without forcing operators to add another network tier. BitcoinVersus.Tech has been tracking the same pressure through Astera Labs’ 50-meter PCIe 7 optical links, Cisco’s rack-scale NVIDIA AI infrastructure work, and Ciena’s AI-network upgrade findings.
Cisco says USFP is also designed to preserve the serviceability of pluggable optics and support up to 100W of module power dissipation without a separate dedicated cooling circuit. NVIDIA and Cisco plan to pursue an open industry specification with partners including TE Connectivity and Amphenol.
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