SFF-8431 Specifications for Enhanced 8.5 and 10 Gigabit Small Form Factor Pluggable Module “SFP+”

(Revision 2.0 26 April 2007)

This specification defines the electrical interfaces between the SFP+ module and host board for operation up to 11.1 GBd. The high speed electrical interface between the host and SFP+ module is called “SFI”. SFI simplifies the module and leverages host based transmit pre-emphasis and host based receive equalization to overcome PCB and external media impairments.

SFI typically operates over 200mm of improved FR4 material or up to about 150mm of standard FR4 with one connector. The electrical interface is based on high speed, low voltage AC coupled logic with a nominal differential impedance of 100 Ω.

The SFP+ specification includes management, connector, mechanical, low speed signaling, high speed signaling, and appendices providing implementation and measurement suggestions.

The SFP+ module could be an Electrical-to-Optical or an Electrical-to- Electrical device.

SFP+ modules common implementation are single mode fiber, multimodefiber, or transmission on copper media.
SFP+ compliant hosts are permitted to support just linear modules, just limiting modules, or both linear and limiting modules.