 This is a copper 10 Gigabit Ethernet cable which comes in either an active or passive Twinax (twinaxial) cable assembly and connects directly into an SFP+ housing.An active Twinax cable has active electronic components in the SFP+ housing to improve the signal quality; a passive Twinax cable is mainly just a straight "wire" and contains few components.Generally, Twinax cables shorter than 7 meters are passive and those longer than 7 meters are active, but this may vary from vendor to vendor.