Small Form Factor

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What Does Small Form Factor Mean?

A small form factor (SFF) technology is a design that is smaller than other similar designs in its field. A small form factor device can be a computer that’s smaller than conventional desktop mini-towers, a mobile phone that’s smaller than the average smartphone, or a compact fiber-optic system that incorporates more connections or pieces on smaller plugs or connections.

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Techopedia Explains Small Form Factor

Some examples of small form factor technology include items like the Raspberry Pi, a computer with a smaller physical footprint that also comes at a very small price. Other devices with smaller display screens or other features can also be called small form factor models.

In networking hardware, some of the smaller devices known as small form factor devices are referred to as small form factor pluggable (SFP) devices. These devices replace conventional technologies like gigabit interface converters or MT-RJ plugs. SFPs have become popular in some types of physical networking systems. Some of these connectors have been endorsed by standards organizations like TIA/EIA and ISO/IEC. Researchers are looking at SFF connectors to see whether they can improve metrics on data loss and other elements of design.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.