Recently, Credo filed a patent infringement lawsuit, requesting the US International Trade Commission to investigate Amphenol Corporation, Molex LLC, TE Connectivity PLC, and Volex PLC, and prevent the import of products that infringe on Credo's Active Cable (AEC) related patents. In addition, Credo has filed a parallel lawsuit in federal district court, accusing Credo of intentional infringement, as Credo had provided its patent notices to each of the aforementioned companies in September 2023.

The actions taken against these companies demonstrate Credo's commitment to protecting its foundational innovations in AEC technology. Since its establishment in 2008, Credo has developed, created, and delivered various high-speed wired connectivity solutions for the data infrastructure market to American customers, including its unique range of purple HiWire AECs.

Don Barnetson, Senior Vice President of Credo Products, commented on Credo's patent claims, saying, "Credo invented AEC as early as 2017, and we invested millions of dollars in AEC to develop this groundbreaking technology. These manufacturers provide infringing AEC products in the United States, which forces us to take this measure to protect our intellectual property and our ongoing technology investments to ensure that our customers continue to have access to Credo's top-notch AEC technology

Credo stated that the company's mission is to advance high-speed connectivity solutions, providing optimized performance, reliability, energy efficiency, and security for next-generation AI driven applications, cloud computing, and ultra large scale networks. Our solution is optimized for optical and electrical applications, supporting port speeds up to 1.6Tb. The core of our technology is our proprietary SerDes IP. Our diverse solution portfolio includes system level products such as active cables (AEC), a range of integrated circuits including retimers, optical DSPs, SerDes chipsets, and SerDes IP licenses.

Among them, the protagonist Credo's unique purple HiWire active cable (AEC) in this lawsuit is a plug and play copper interconnect cable designed for economical and lossless operation at speeds of 100G, 200G, 400G, and 800G. AEC is equipped with built-in re timer, gearbox, PCS, and FEC terminals. AEC provides a high-performance alternative to short and coarse DACs and high-power, high cost AOC for data centers and telecommunications applications.

It is reported that DDC replaces proprietary high cost chassis with rear panel interconnection, using standard based white box hardware, open-source or third-party software, and front panel interconnection. AEC has a volume 75% smaller than DAC and consumes 50% less power than AOC, achieving unprecedented DDC density.

Among all data center cabling infrastructure, the innovation in server (NIC) to top of rack (TOR) switch links is the most significant. AEC can extend the length of shared TOR, enable transmission of NRZ-PAM4 links, and provide advanced features for network management redundancy and security.