Nvidia and Cisco launch USFP optical module specifications to expand AI network scale

NVIDIA and Cisco have jointly launched a new pluggable optical module form factor, USFP (Ultra Small Form-factor Pluggable), aimed at expanding the network scale of AI factories. USFP is the first module to support 400Gb/s electrical signals per channel, with a single module capacity of up to 12.8Tb/s. This allows AI builders to connect more computing systems without increasing network layers, while also reducing per-bit data transmission power consumption. Compared to existing 200Gb/s-per-lane optical modules, USFP offers four times the bandwidth density and 1.3 times the energy efficiency. NVIDIA and Cisco are partnering with TE Connectivity and Amphenol to build a multi-source hardware ecosystem around USFP.