Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd (NASDAQ: CRDO) has announced its 1.6T ZeroFlap active light cable (ALC), which the company claims is the first row-scale, wide-parallel optical interconnect solution for AI scale-out and front-end networks.

According to a company statement, the ZeroFlap ALC is based on a dense array of micro-emitters and photodetectors coupled with flexible, lightweight fiber bundles. The cable is designed to draw 12W per cable-end in a pluggable form factor, which the company says is roughly 30% less power than comparable active electrical cables (AECs). The product is also described as 10 times lighter than AECs, with a targeted reach of up to 50 meters.

The cable architecture splits 200G lanes into multiple low-rate optical channels using NRZ modulation, avoiding DSP-based signal processing. Credo states the design targets a mean time between failures (MTBF) of 100 million hours, with built-in channel redundancy enabling hitless failover.

"For decades, optical transceivers have prioritized data rate per fiber. Our 1.6T ZeroFlap ALCs are engineered with reliability as the first-order concern," said L.K. Bhupathi, Associate Vice President of Product at Credo.

Scott Wilkinson, Lead Analyst at Cignal AI, commented that the product "addresses this gap with a unique approach that provides row-scale reach while maintaining the reliability and low-cost benefits of AECs."

Credo said the ZeroFlap ALC is scheduled to begin shipping in 2027. The company is demonstrating the technology at the Open Compute Project Global Summit in San Jose, with an expo presence at booth B2 from October 13–15, 2026.