Nvidia and Cisco announced the joint development of the Ultra-Dense Small Form Factor Pluggable (USFP) optical module on October 12, 2026. The technology is designed to increase bandwidth density in AI data centers while improving energy efficiency by approximately 30% compared to current 200Gbps-per-channel solutions.
The USFP module supports a per-channel transmission rate of 400Gbps. The initial version will feature 16 full-duplex channels, providing a total capacity of 6.4Tbps. Future iterations are planned to scale to 32 channels, reaching a total bandwidth of 12.8Tbps.
The design utilizes a two-stage insertion mechanism to enhance signal integrity and mechanical reliability. It is engineered to support up to 100 watts of power consumption without requiring dedicated internal cooling loops, facilitating high-density deployments in existing network architectures.
Nvidia and Cisco are collaborating with suppliers such as TE Connectivity and Amphenol to build a hardware ecosystem for the new interface. The technology aims to allow data center operators to upgrade network performance while maintaining established maintenance and deployment workflows.
