How to read the radar comparison
This radar chart is not meant to declare a universal winner. It is designed to offer a broader view of how DAC, ACC, AEC, and AOC differ across several practical dimensions at once. Rather than asking which cable is best overall, the more useful question is which operating profile best matches the real constraints of the link being designed.
A short-reach decision is multi-dimensional
A more useful way to think about short-reach interconnect selection is to treat it as a multi-dimensional decision rather than a one-dimensional one.
Distance is one variable, but so are power and thermals. A cable that looks attractive because of its low active power can still become a practical constraint if its physical bulk and bundling interfere with airflow in a dense rack. By contrast, a cleaner cable profile may improve routing and serviceability, but do so at higher cost or with more active power at each end. In much the same way, a link that appears acceptable from a pure reach standpoint may still require additional equalization or retiming if the real channel proves less controlled than expected.
Seen this way, the more useful question is no longer just how far the cable needs to go. It becomes a broader question about which architecture best fits the real link environment, including its electrical difficulty, physical routing path, operational constraints, and scaling requirements.