NVIDIA ConnectX-6 Dx Adapter Cards Firmware Release Notes v22.33.1048
NVIDIA ConnectX-5 Adapter Cards Firmware Release Notes v16.35.3502 LTS

Changes and New Features

Warning

Security Hardening Enhancements: This release contains important reliability improvements and security hardening enhancements. NVIDIA recommends upgrading your devices firmware to this release to improve the devices’ firmware security and reliability.

Warning

SR-IOV - Virtual Functions (VF) per Port - The maximum Virtual Functions (VF) per port is 127. For further information, see RoCE Limitations.

Warning

It is recommended to enable the “above 4G decoding” BIOS setting for features that require large amount of PCIe resources.

Such features are: SR-IOV with numerous VFs, PCIe Emulated Switch, and Large BAR Requests.

Feature/Change

Description

22.33.1048

200Gb/s Throughput on Crypto Capable Devices

Enabled 200Gb/s out-of-the-box throughput on crypto capable devices.

Note: If any crypto offloads is in use, 200Gb/s throughput can be achieved only after the next firmware reset

VF Migration

Added support for VF migration. The hypervisor can now suspend its VF, meaning from that point the VF cannot perform action such as send/receive traffic or run any command. In this firmware version only the suspend resume mode is supported (on the same VM).

MADs

Added a new MAD of class SMP that has the attributes hierarchy_Info as defined in the IB Specification and is used to query the hierarchy information stored on the node and the physical port.

NV Configurations via the Relevant Reset Flow

Added pci_rescan_needed field to the MFRL access register to indicate whether a PCI rescan is needed based on the NV configurations issued by the software.
Note: If the Keep Link Up NV configuration is changed, phyless reset will be blocked.

Precision Time Protocol (PTP)

Added Precision Time Protocol (PTP) support.

In this version, the support includes:

  • 16 PTP SQs only

  • only 2 ports

  • only RT clock mode

In this version, the following are not supported:

  • PTP packet drop

  • PTP SQ on VF

Note: All PTP SQs must be closed before operating LFWP (life fw patch).

Resource Dump Support for HW Steering

Added support for HW Steering objects dump via resource dump interface.
This support includes: STC, RTC, STE, modify argument, and modify pattern.

VF Migration

Added support for VF migration.

ICM Pages

Added a new register (vhca_icm_ctrl access_reg) to enable querying and limiting the ICM pages in use.

Steering Definer

Added support for creating a steering definer with a dword selector using create_match_definer_object and the "SELECT" format.

XRQ QP Errors Enhancements

Enhanced the XRQ QP error information provided to the user in case QP goes into an error state. In such case, QUERY_QP will provide information on the syndrome type and which side caused
the error.

HW Steering: WQE Insertion Rules

[Beta] Added HW Steering support for the following:

  • set, add and copy inline STC action

  • set and copy actions for several fields using modify_pattern object and inline stc modify action

  • FDB mode in HW steering using FDB_RX and FDB_TX flow table types

  • ASO flow meter action via STC

  • flow counter query using ASO WQE

  • allocation of large bulks for the objects: STE, ASO flow meter and modify argument

  • jumbo match RTC

  • count action in STC

Holdover Mode

Added support for holdover mode to comply to SyncE specifications (EEC compliance) to limit the maximum phase transient response upon link loss.

SyncE Enhancements

Added support for noise filtering to comply to the SyncE specifications requirements.

vDPA: Performance

Optimized the performance of virtio including: throughput, QoS, and accuracy of min/max bandwidth when virtio works with the QoS settings.

vDPA: virtio-net Full Emulation

This new capability reduces the switchover time of creating a virtq from scratch during live migration, by creating the virtq beforehand on the target server.

When swithover happens, the pre-created virtq will be used and modified with necessary parameters.

ibstat

Updated the ibstat status reported when the phy link is down. Now QUERY_VPORT_STATE.max_tx_speed of UPLINK will not be reported as 0 anymore.

NetworkPort Schema Replacement

Replaced the deprecated NetworkPort schema with Port schema in NIC RDE implementation.

Firmware Steering

Enabled the option to modify the ip_ecn field in the packet header in firmware steering.

ZTRCC

Added support for advanced ZTR_RTTCC algorithm based on the Programmable CC platform to achieve better congestion control without dependency on the switch ECN marking.

Dynamic Completion Event Moderation for vDPA

DIM is used to tune moderation parameter dynamically using an mlxreg command.

To disable this capability, run:

mlxreg -d /dev/mst/mt41686_pciconf0 --reg_id 0xc00d --reg_len 0x8 -s "0x4.1:1=0x0"

SW Steering Cache

Modified the TX or RX cache invalidation behavior. TX or RX cache invalidation now does not occur automatically but only when the software performs the sync operation using the using sync_steering command.

Mega Allocations in Bulk Allocator Mechanism

Modified the maximum bulk size per single allocation from "log_table_size - log_num_unisizes", to allocate any range size, to remove limitations that HWS objects such as counters and modify arguments might encounter.

Dynamic Flex Parser over a VF

Added support for creating a dynamic flex parser on untrusted function, and changed the flex parser cap for untrusted function to the following:

  • maximum flex parser node = 2

  • maximum dw sample = 4

SNAPI: Comm-Channel

Added support for SNAPI (comm-channel) connection while running on raw ETH link.

Changing all the Crypto Features to Wrapped or Cleartext

Crypto features can be in either wrapped or unwrapped mode. Meaning, the key can be wrapped or in plaintext when running the CREATE_DEK PRM command. To comply with the requirements specified in FIPS publication, all the created DEKs must be wrapped.

This feature adds new NV_CONFIG per device to control this mode, and enables the user to change all the crypto features to wrapped or cleartext.

ICM Direct Access by the Software to write/modify the DEK Objects

[Beta] This new capability enables the software to directly access ICM and write/modify the DEK objects. Such change improves the DEK object update rate by re-using DEK object instead of creating a new one.

In addition, added the following:

  • New for DEK object: bulk allocation, modify_dek cmd, and new mode - sw_wrapped.

  • New general object INT_KEK

Bug Fixes

See Bug Fixes in this Firmware Version section.

© Copyright 2023, NVIDIA. Last updated on May 23, 2023.