Introduction
Rev 1.5
9
Mellanox Technologies
1
Introduction
This is the User Guide for Mellanox Technologies VPI adapter cards based on the ConnectX®-5
integrated circuit device. These adapters connectivity provide the highest performing and most
flexible interconnect solution for PCI Express Gen 3.0/4.0 servers used in Enterprise Data Cen-
ters, High-Performance Computing, and Embedded environments.
This chapter covers the following topics:
•
Section 1.1, “Product Overview”, on page 9
•
Section 1.2, “Features and Benefits”, on page 10
•
Section 1.3, “Operating Systems/Distributions”, on page 11
•
Section 1.4, “Connectivity”, on page 12
1.1
Product Overview
The following section provides the ordering part number, port speed, number of ports, and PCI
Express speed.Each adapter comes with two bracket heights - short and tall.
Table 3 - Single and Dual-port VPI Adapter Cards
Ordering Part Number (OPN)
Single-port card: MCX555A-ECAT
Dual-port cards: MCX556A-ECAT, MCX556A-EDAT
Data Transmission Rate
InfiniBand: SDR/DDR/QDR/FDR/EDR
Ethernet: 1/10/25/40/50/100 Gb/s
Network Connector Types
Single and dual-port QSFP28
PCI Express (PCIe)
SerDes Speed
MCX555A-ECAT, MCX556A-ECAT:
PCIe 3.0 x16 8GT/s
Note: PCIe 3.0 x16 bus can supply a maximum bandwidth of
128Gb/s only (=16 * 8GT/s, including overhead), and therefore
cannot support 200Gb/s when both network ports of MCX556A-
ECAT run at 100Gb/s.
MCX556A-EDAT:
PCIe 4.0 x16 16GT/s
Note: This card has been tested and certified with PCIe 3.0 serv-
ers. PCIe 4.0 interface will be tested when servers with Gen 4.0
support become available.
Note: PCIe 4.0 x16 bus can supply a maximum bandwidth of
256Gb/s (=16 * 16GT/s, including overhead), and can support
200Gb/s when both network ports of MCX556A-EDAT run at
100Gb/s.
RoHS
R6
Adapter IC Part Number
MCX555A-ECAT, MCX556A-ECAT:
MT27808A0-FCCF-EV
MCX556A-EDAT:
MT28808A0-FCCF-EV
Device ID (decimal)
MCX555A-ECAT, MCX556A-ECAT:
4119 for Physical Func-
tion (PF) and 4120 for Virtual Function (VF)
MCX556A-EDAT:
4121 for Physical Function (PF) and 4122 for
Virtual Function (VF)
