MCX516A-CCAT Dual-Port 100GbE Ethernet Adapter by NVIDIA

The NVIDIA ConnectX-5 EN MCX516A-CCAT is a dual-port 100GbE Ethernet adapter card designed for the most demanding data center workloads. Built on the ConnectX-5 architecture, this adapter supports multiple speeds including 100GbE, 50GbE, 40GbE, 25GbE, 10GbE, and 1GbE, providing seamless migration paths and infrastructure flexibility. With 750ns latency, up to 200 million messages per second (Mpps), and PCIe 3.0 x16 host interface, the MCX516A-CCAT delivers industry-leading throughput and CPU efficiency. Key capabilities include RoCE (RDMA over Converged Ethernet), SR-IOV virtualization with up to 512 Virtual Functions, ASAP2 accelerated switching and packet processing for vSwitch/vRouter offloads, NVMe over Fabric target offloads, T10-DIF Signature Handover, and comprehensive overlay network offloads (VXLAN, NVGRE, GENEVE). This adapter is available in a low-profile PCIe form factor with enhanced host management features.

The ConnectX-5 EN ASIC delivers record-setting performance with advanced acceleration engines. Key technological innovations include:

• PeerDirect (GPUDirect) – Eliminates unnecessary PCIe data copies between GPU and CPU, accelerating HPC, AI, and machine learning workloads.
• Adaptive Routing on Reliable Transport – Enables out-of-order RDMA and adaptive routing for optimized fabric utilization.
• Tag Matching and Rendezvous Offloads – Hardware offload of MPI tag matching and rendezvous protocol, reducing CPU overhead in HPC clusters.
• Burst Buffer Offloads – Hardware acceleration for background checkpointing in large-scale simulations and ML training.
• Embedded PCIe Switch – Supports up to 8 bifurcations, enabling host chaining and elimination of backend switches in storage racks.
• On-Demand Paging (ODP) – Registration-free RDMA memory access, simplifying application development.
• Extended Reliable Connected (XRC) and Dynamically Connected Transport (DCT) – Scales RDMA to tens of thousands of nodes.
• T10-DIF Signature Handover – Hardware-based data integrity protection for storage workloads at wire speed.

The MCX516A-CCAT is compatible with a wide range of operating systems: RHEL/CentOS, Ubuntu, Windows Server, FreeBSD, VMware ESXi, and Citrix XenServer. It supports standard 100GbE QSFP28 optics, passive DAC cables, active optical cables (AOC), and breakout cables (100GbE to 4x25GbE or 2x50GbE). The adapter integrates seamlessly with NVIDIA Spectrum switches and any standards-based 25GbE/40GbE/50GbE/100GbE infrastructure. Software support includes OFED (OpenFabrics Enterprise Distribution), DPDK, and WinOF-2 for Windows.

Hong Kong Starsurge provides end-to-end support for NVIDIA/Mellanox adapters, including compatibility verification, firmware updates, and technical troubleshooting. Standard warranty aligns with NVIDIA's limited hardware warranty (1 year return-and-repair). Extended support options are available upon request. Our team can assist with driver installation, performance tuning, RoCE configuration, and integration into existing server, storage, and network environments.

• Confirm server has an available PCIe x16 slot – Gen 3.0 or higher (PCIe 3.0 x16 provides adequate bandwidth for dual-port 100GbE).
• Determine required cable type: passive DAC (short distance), active optical (medium distance), or optical transceivers (long distance) for 100GbE operation.
• Verify operating system driver availability from NVIDIA/Mellanox official site (latest OFED or inbox drivers).
• Ensure your switch supports 100GbE QSFP28 ports (most modern spine switches do).
• For RoCE deployments, confirm switch support for DCB (PFC, ETS, ECN) and congestion notification.
• For NVMe-oF target offloads, verify your storage software stack compatibility.
• For BMC integration, verify your motherboard supports NC-SI over SMBus or PCIe.

• RoCE Deployment Guide for ConnectX-5 Series
• ASAP2 Open vSwitch Offload Configuration Guide
• NVMe over Fabric with ConnectX-5 Best Practices
• SR-IOV Configuration on VMware ESXi with Mellanox Adapters
• 100GbE Migration: Planning and Implementation

Hong Kong Starsurge Group Co., Limited is a technology-driven provider of network hardware, IT services, and system integration since 2008. Serving government, healthcare, manufacturing, finance, education, and enterprise clients worldwide. We deliver switches, NICs, wireless solutions, IoT systems, and custom software with multilingual support and global delivery. With a customer-first approach, Starsurge ensures reliable quality, responsive service, and tailored network infrastructure solutions.