[sgjohnson]

Breakout cables typically split to 4.

e.g. QSFP28 (100GbE) splits into 4x SFP28s (25GbE each), because QSFP28 is just 4 lanes of SFP28.

Same goes for QSFP112 (400GbE). Splits into SFP112s.

It’s OSFP that can be split in half, i.e. into QSFPs.

[buildbot]

This is incorrect - they can split however the driving chip supports. (Q|O)SFP(28|56|112|+) can all be split to a single differential lane. All (Q|O)SFP(28|56|112|+) does is provide basically direct, high quality links to whatever you chips SERDES interfaces can do. It doesn't even have to be ethernet/IB data - I have a SFP module that has a SATA port lol.

There's also splitting at the module level, for example I have a PCIe card that is actually a fully self hosted 6 port 100GB switch with it's own onboard Atom management processor. The card only has 2 MPO fiber connectors - but each has 12 fibers, which each can carry 25Gbps. You need a special fiber breakout cable but you can mix anywhere between 6 100GbE ports and 24 25Gbe ports.

https://www.silicom-usa.com/pr/server-adapters/switch-on-nic...

[angoragoats]

Here’s an example of the cables I was referring to that can split a single 400Gbit QSFP56-DD port to two 200Gbit ports:

https://www.fs.com/products/101806.html

But all of this is pretty much irrelevant to my original point.