Today · October 14

Marvell samples 224G copper chips; no customer is named

Marvell starts sampling two 224G-per-lane scale-up copper connectivity chips: a 3.2T retimer and a second-generation active-copper-cable DSP. The DSP is built on 3 nm and draws 12.8 W. The press release says both "are currently sampling to customers" (Marvell press release, 2026-10-14). A retimer is a chip that cleans up the signal on a long trace. The release says the second-generation active copper cable reaches more than 6 meters, twice the first generation, and supports UALink and ESUN, two open interconnect protocols. Sampling means customers get parts to try, and nothing has shipped. The release names no customer. Our reading: as interconnects inside the GPU rack move to 224G, Marvell is betting on copper plus signal chips. That lines up with the judgment our October 10 issue looked back on: optics will be late and copper wins in the near term. Sampling doesn't yet count as evidence for that judgment. How we checked →

Concept illustration: on the left, a building facade carries a sign lettered MARVELL with a square geometric emblem beside it and an open doorway leading into a lit corridor; in front, a person in a collared shirt with a badge on a lanyard stands behind a long table, holding a red cable stretched horizontally across the picture, each end fitted with a bulky connector showing a square chip on its face. On the tabletop lies a green circuit board with a black chip and several small components.

Source and checks

This item ran in the brief of Oct 15, 2026, alongside 18 other items. How we checked it, the quote checks and what was still missing that day are on that issue's How we checked page.

Cite this item

SecondSource (2026). "Marvell samples 224G copper chips; no customer is named." https://secondsource.io/en/news/2026-10-15-6/. Accessed access date.