NVIDIA MCX631102AN-ADAT ConnectX-6 Lx 25GbE SmartNIC for Cloud, Enterprise & NFV

The NVIDIA ConnectX-6 Lx SmartNIC is engineered for modern enterprise and cloud data centers requiring scalable, secure, and accelerated 25GbE networking. The MCX631102AN-ADAT is an OCP 3.0 small form factor (SFF) adapter featuring two SFP28 ports supporting 10/25GbE each, or a single 50GbE port, with a maximum total bandwidth of 50Gb/s. Host connectivity is provided through a PCIe Gen 4.0 compatible x8 interface, which is also backward compatible with PCIe Gen3 x8.

The adapter accelerates software-defined networking by offloading the SDN data plane to the SmartNIC using NVIDIA ASAP² (Accelerated Switch and Packet Processing) technology. This reduces CPU load in virtualized and containerized environments while allowing customers to keep their existing SDN solution and operate through SR-IOV or VirtIO interfaces. ASAP² supports cloud overlays such as VXLAN, GENEVE, and NVGRE, as well as service provider encapsulations such as MPLS and GTP, making it suitable for both enterprise cloud and NFV transitions.

Security is built in at the endpoint. The MCX631102AN-ADAT offers inline hardware IPsec encryption and decryption acceleration with AES-XTS 256/512-bit keys, and supports IPsec over RoCE. ASAP² connection-tracking hardware offload accelerates Layer 4 firewall performance. Supply chain protection is provided by a hardware root-of-trust with secure boot and firmware updates using RSA cryptography and device-unique key cloning protection.

• Up to two ports of 10/25GbE, or one port of 50GbE
• Up to 50Gb/s total bandwidth
• OCP 3.0 small form factor (SFF)
• PCIe Gen 4.0 compatible, x8 lanes (also supports PCIe Gen3 x8)
• Line-speed message rate of 75Mpps
• Advanced RoCE with Zero-Touch RoCE (ZTR)
• ASAP² Accelerated Switch and Packet Processing for SDN and VNF acceleration
• Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) and VirtIO acceleration
• Overlay network acceleration: VXLAN, GENEVE, NVGRE
• Programmable flexible parser
• Connection tracking for L4 firewall offload
• Flow mirroring, sampling, and statistics
• Header rewrite and hierarchical QoS
• Stateless TCP offloads
• Inline hardware IPsec encryption and decryption with AES-XTS 256/512-bit keys
• IPsec over RoCE
• Hardware root-of-trust and secure firmware update

NVIDIA ASAP² technology offloads the software-defined networking data plane to the SmartNIC. This accelerates performance and frees up CPU resources in virtualized or containerized cloud data centers. Customers can accelerate their data centers with an SR-IOV or VirtIO interface while continuing to use their preferred SDN solution. ASAP² supports both cloud encapsulations such as VXLAN, GENEVE, and NVGRE, and communication service provider encapsulations such as MPLS and GTP, helping CSPs transition to network function virtualization (NFV).

ConnectX-6 Lx continues the ConnectX tradition of industry-leading RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE). With Zero-Touch RoCE (ZTR), RoCE payloads can run seamlessly on existing networks without special configuration for priority flow control (PFC) or explicit congestion notification (ECN), simplifying RoCE deployment. This makes the adapter suitable for scalable, resilient, and easy-to-deploy RoCE solutions.

The MCX631102AN-ADAT brings security down to the endpoints with inline hardware IPsec encryption and decryption acceleration. It uses AES-XTS 256/512-bit keys and supports IPsec over RoCE. ASAP² connection-tracking hardware offload accelerates Layer 4 firewall performance. The adapter also provides supply chain protection with a hardware root-of-trust for secure boot and firmware updates using RSA cryptography, plus cloning protection via a device-unique key to guarantee firmware authenticity.

Management features include NC-SI, MCTP over SMBus and MCTP over PCIe, Baseboard Management Controller interface, and NCSI over RBT on OCP cards. The adapter supports PLDM for Monitor and Control (DSP0248) and PLDM for Firmware Update (DSP0267).

Remote boot options include remote boot over Ethernet and remote boot over iSCSI, with Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) support for x86 and Arm servers, as well as Pre-execution Environment (PXE) boot.

• OCP 3.0 servers in cloud and enterprise data centers deploying 25GbE connectivity
• Virtualized and containerized environments using SR-IOV or VirtIO
• Software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV)
• Communication service provider (CSP) infrastructures transitioning to NFV
• Secure multi-tenant environments requiring inline IPsec
• Storage and compute fabrics relying on RoCE and Zero-Touch RoCE
• OCP servers requiring remote boot over Ethernet or iSCSI with UEFI/PXE support

The MCX631102AN-ADAT uses standard SFP28 connectivity for 10/25GbE and supports 50GbE on a single port. It is an OCP 3.0 small form factor card and is compatible with PCIe Gen4 x8 and PCIe Gen3 x8 host interfaces. UEFI support covers both x86 and Arm servers, and remote boot supports Ethernet, iSCSI, and PXE.

The ConnectX-6 Lx portfolio includes PCIe low-profile and OCP 3.0 small form factor (SFF) cards, with SFP28 and QSFP28 connectivity options, in crypto and non-crypto versions. Because system-level compatibility can depend on the OCP server platform, firmware, and OS/driver versions, please confirm the exact host configuration before ordering.

The ConnectX-6 Lx portfolio includes multiple form factors and connectivity options. The table below summarizes the main portfolio options described in the product datasheet. For a complete list of orderable part numbers, please contact your NVIDIA sales representative.

• Best TCO for 25GbE: Designed to deliver scalability, high performance, and advanced security at the best total cost of ownership for 25GbE deployments.
• OCP 3.0 SFF design: Fits OCP 3.0 small form factor server slots, enabling dense and standardized server deployment.
• CPU offload: ASAP² offloads the SDN data plane, reducing CPU load in virtualized and containerized environments.
• Simplified RoCE: Zero-Touch RoCE allows RoCE payloads to run on existing networks without special PFC or ECN configuration.
• Endpoint security: Inline IPsec, L4 firewall connection tracking, hardware root-of-trust, and secure firmware update.
• Flexible deployment: SR-IOV and VirtIO support lets customers keep their preferred SDN solution.
• Service provider ready: Supports MPLS and GTP encapsulations alongside cloud overlays such as VXLAN, GENEVE, and NVGRE.
• Broad server support: UEFI support for x86 and Arm, plus remote boot over Ethernet, iSCSI, and PXE.
• Flexible host connectivity: PCIe Gen4 x8 with backward compatibility to PCIe Gen3 x8.

Starsurge Group provides pre-sales configuration support, compatibility checks, and post-sales technical assistance for NVIDIA networking products. Our team can help confirm whether the MCX631102AN-ADAT is suitable for your OCP server platform, operating system, and SDN or NFV stack, and can advise on alternative ConnectX-6 Lx form factors or port configurations.