Interfaces

The below figure show the component side of the NVIDIA ConnectX-6 Lx adapter card. Each numbered interface that is referenced in the figures is described in the following table with a link to detailed information.

Warning

The below figures are for illustration purposes only and might not reflect the current revision of the adapter card.

image2020-10-19_19-32-11.png

Callout

Item

Description

1

“ConnectX-6 Lx IC”

NVIDIA ConnectX-6 Lx IC on the board.

2

“PCI Express Interface"

PCIe Gen 3.0/4.0 through an x8 edge connector.

3

“Ethernet SFP28/QSFP28 Interface”

Ethernet traffic is transmitted through the adapter's SFP28/QSFP28 connectors. The networking connectors allow for the use of modules, optical and passive cable interconnect solutions.

4

“Networking Ports LEDs Interface”

There are two I/O LEDs per port to indicate speed and link status.

“SMBus Interface”

Allows BMC connectivity using MCTP over SMBus or MCTP over PCIe protocols.

“Voltage Regulators”

Voltage supply pins that feed onboard regulators.

The ConnectX®-6 Lx EN family of adapter IC devices delivers two ports of 10/25 or a single-port of 50Gb/s Ethernet connectivity paired with best-in-class hardware capabilities that accelerate and secure cloud and data-center workloads.

Encryption

Warning

Applies to Crypto OPNs only.

ConnectX-6 Lx brings security to every end-point, including:

  • Purpose-built inline acceleration engines that offload IPsec and TLS data-in-motion and XTS-AES data-at-rest cryptographic operations.

  • Stateful firewall solution acceleration, powered by Open vSwitch connection tracking and NVIDIA’s ASAP2 technology.

  • Embedded hardware root-of-trust and support for RSA-based secure firmware update and secure boot, providing guaranteed integrity of the network adapter.

Ethernet SFP28 / QSFP28 Interfaces

The network ports of the ConnectX-6 Lx adapter card are compliant with the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standards listed in Features and Benefits. Ethernet traffic is transmitted through the SFP28 / QSFP28 connector on the adapter card.

Warning

The adapter card includes special circuits to protect from ESD shocks to the card/server when plugging copper cables.


ConnectX-6 Lx adapter cards support PCI Express Gen 3.0/4.0 (1.1 and 2.0 compatible) through x8 edge connectors. The device can be either a master initiating the PCI Express bus operations, or a subordinate responding to PCI bus operations.
The following lists PCIe interface features:

  • PCIe Gen 4.0 and 3.0 compliant, 2.0 and 1.1 compatible

  • 2.5, 5.0, 8.0, or 16.0 GT/s link rate x8 lanes

  • Auto-negotiates to x8, x4, x2, or x1

  • Support for MSI/MSI-X mechanisms

There is one bicolor (Yellow and Green) I/O LED per port to indicate speed and link status.

Link Indications

State

Bi-color LED (Yellow/Green) - Link speed

Beacon command for locating the adapter card

1Hz blinking Yellow

Error

4Hz blinking Yellow Indicates an error with the link. The error can be one of the following:

Error Type

Description

LED Behavior

I2C

I2C access to the networking ports fails

Blinks until error is fixed

Over-current

Over-current condition of the networking ports

Blinks until error is fixed

Link Activity

The Green LED will blink.

Link Up

The Green LED will be solid.

SMBus Interface

ConnectX-6 Lx technology maintains support for manageability through a BMC. ConnectX-6 Lx PCIe stand-up adapter can be connected to a BMC using MCTP over SMBus or MCTP over PCIe protocols as if it is a standard NVIDIA PCIe stand-up adapter. For configuring the adapter for the specific manageability solution in use by the server, please contact NVIDIA Support.

The voltage regulator power is derived from the PCI Express edge connector 12V supply pins. These voltage supply pins feed on-board regulators that provide the necessary power to the various components on the card.

© Copyright 2023, NVIDIA. Last updated on Aug 31, 2023.