NVIDIA ConnectX-5 InfiniBand/Ethernet Adapter Cards User Manual

About This Manual

This User Manual describes NVIDIA® ConnectX®-5 and ConnectX®-5 Ex InfiniBand/Ethernet Single and Dual QSFP28 port PCI Express x16 adapter cards. It provides details as to the interfaces of the board, specifications, required software and firmware for operating the board, and relevant documentation.

Ordering Part Numbers

The table below provides the ordering part numbers (OPN) for the available ConnectX-5 InfiniBand/Ethernet adapter cards.

IC in Use

NVIDIA SKU

Legacy OPN

Marketing Description

ConnectX®-5

900-9X5AD-0016-ST0

MCX555A-ECAT

ConnectX®-5 InfiniBand/Ethernet adapter card, EDR IB (100Gb/s) and 100GbE, single-port QSFP28, PCIe 3.0 x16, tall bracket

900-9X5AD-0056-ST8

MCX556A-ECAT

ConnectX®-5 InfiniBand/Ethernet adapter card, EDR IB (100Gb/s) and 100GbE, dual-port QSFP28, PCIe 3.0 x16, tall bracket

900-9X5AD-0056-ST9

MCX556A-ECUT

ConnectX®-5 InfiniBand/Ethernet adapter card, EDR IB (100Gb/s) and 100GbE, dual-port QSFP28, PCIe3.0 x16, UEFI enabled, tall bracket

ConnectX®-5 Ex

900-9X5AD-0056-STB

MCX556A-EDAT

ConnectX®-5 Ex InfiniBand/Ethernet adapter card, EDR IB (100Gb/s) and 100GbE, dual-port QSFP28, PCIe 4.0 x16, tall bracket

Intended Audience

This manual is intended for the installer and user of these cards. The manual assumes basic familiarity with InfiniBand and Ethernet network and architecture specifications.

Technical Support

Customers who purchased NVIDIA products directly from NVIDIA are invited to contact us through the following methods:

Customers who purchased NVIDIA Global Support Services, please see your contract for details regarding Technical Support.
Customers who purchased NVIDIA products through an NVIDIA-approved reseller should first seek assistance through their reseller.

Related Documentation

MLNX_OFED for Linux User Manual and Release Notes

User Manual describing OFED features, performance, band diagnostic, tools content, and configuration. See MLNX_OFED for Linux Documentation.

WinOF-2 for Windows User Manual and Release Notes

User Manual describing WinOF-2 features, performance, Ethernet diagnostic, tools content, and configuration. See WinOF-2 for Windows Documentation.

NVIDIA VMware for Ethernet User Manual

User Manual and release notes describing the various components of the NVIDIA ConnectX® NATIVE ESXi stack. See VMware® ESXi Drivers Documentation.

NVIDIA Firmware Utility (mlxup) User Manual and Release Notes

NVIDIA firmware update and query utility used to update the firmware. Refer to Firmware Utility (mlxup) Documentation.

NVIDIA Firmware Tools (MFT) User Manual

User Manual describing the set of MFT firmware management tools for a single node. See MFT User Manual.

InfiniBand Architecture Specification Release 1.2.1, Vol 2 - Release 1.3

InfiniBand Specifications

IEEE Std 802.3 Specification

IEEE Ethernet Specifications

PCI Express Specifications

Industry Standard PCI Express Base and Card Electromechanical Specifications. Refer to PCI-SIG Specifications.

LinkX Interconnect Solutions

LinkX InfiniBand cables and transceivers are designed to maximize the performance of High-Performance Computing networks, requiring high-bandwidth, low-latency connections between compute nodes and switch nodes. NVIDIA offers one of the industry’s broadest portfolio of QDR/FDR10 (40Gb/s), FDR (56Gb/s), EDR/HDR100 (100Gb/s), HDR (200Gb/s) and NDR (400Gb/s) cables, including Direct Attach Copper cables (DACs), copper splitter cables, Active Optical Cables (AOCs) and transceivers in a wide range of lengths from 0.5m to 10km. In addition to meeting IBTA standards, NVIDIA tests every product in an end-to-end environment ensuring a Bit Error Rate of less than 1E-15.Read more at LinkX Cables and Transceivers.

Document Conventions

When discussing memory sizes, MB and MBytes are used in this document to mean size in mega Bytes. The use of Mb or Mbits (small b) indicates size in mega bits. IB is used in this document to mean InfiniBand. In this document PCIe is used to mean PCI Express.

© Copyright 2023, NVIDIA. Last updated on May 22, 2023.