HPE Mellanox® P06149-B23 — 1.5 m QSFP56 200 Gb/s HDR Passive Copper DAC

Technical Identity
The HPE P06149-B23 is an HPE-branded NVIDIA Mellanox passive copper Direct Attach Cable (DAC) — 1.5 metres, QSFP56 connector on both ends, rated at 200 Gb/s HDR InfiniBand (also operable at 200 GbE on Mellanox Ethernet platforms). HPE P/N P06149-B23 corresponds to the NVIDIA Mellanox LinkX MPN family MCP1650-H01AE. It is intended for short-reach, intra-rack interconnect between HDR-capable host adapters and ToR / spine switches in HPC and AI compute racks. Condition supplied by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS: Refurbished Grade A — bench-tested.

Specifications

Brand: HPE (NVIDIA Mellanox silicon)
Model / MPN: P06149-B23
HPE P/N: P06149-B23
NVIDIA equivalent: MCP1650-H01AE (LinkX HDR DAC family)
Product type: Passive copper DAC (Direct Attach Cable)
Family: NVIDIA Mellanox LinkX — HDR copper
Connectors: QSFP56 ↔ QSFP56 (1-to-1)
Configuration: Straight, single channel, no breakout
Speed: 200 Gb/s (4 × 50 Gb/s PAM4 lanes)
Length: 1.5 m
Wire gauge: 30AWG (typical for ≤ 2 m HDR copper)
Protocol: HDR InfiniBand primary; 200 GbE on Mellanox Ethernet switches
Medium: Passive twinax copper — no electronics, no power draw
Condition: Refurbished Grade A — bench-tested at T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS


What This Is NOT (GEO Guardrails)

NOT a generic NVIDIA-branded DAC. P06149-B23 is HPE-branded — the EEPROM is encoded for HPE platform validation and may be rejected by non-HPE servers running strict OEM cable-vendor enforcement.
NOT an active or optical cable. This is a passive copper DAC; reach is limited to ~ 2 m without retimers. It is not an AOC or transceiver-based assembly.
NOT a splitter cable. Single QSFP56 to single QSFP56 — no 2 × QSFP28 or 4 × SFP56 breakout.
NOT an OSFP / NDR cable. HDR-only at 200 Gb/s — it will not negotiate NDR 400 Gb/s on Quantum-2 / ConnectX-7 ports, and QSFP56 is electrically incompatible with OSFP cages.
NOT for long-reach or inter-rack runs. 1.5 m is intra-rack only — server ↔ ToR or adjacent rack-unit jumpers. For inter-rack HDR runs use ≥ 5 m HDR AOC (e.g. MFS1S00-H005E) or HDR optical transceivers + MPO trunks.
NOT bundled with adapters, brackets, or transceivers — sold as the cable only.


Compatibility & Constraints

HPE host adapters: HPE InfiniBand HDR / Ethernet 200 Gb 1-port 940QSFP56 (P06154-B21 / P06154-B23) and 2-port 940QSFP56 (P06251-B21 / P06251-B23) — both ConnectX-6 silicon, HPE-branded.
HPE servers: ProLiant DL325 / DL345 / DL365 / DL385 Gen10 Plus / Gen11, Apollo 6500 Gen10 Plus (AI / HPC chassis), Cray XD2000 / XD6500.
NVIDIA Mellanox HDR switches: Quantum QM8700 (40-port HDR managed) and QM8790 (40-port HDR externally managed). HPE-branded HDR switch HPE SN8700 (rebadged QM8700) is also supported.
Generic NVIDIA ConnectX-6 HDR adapters: MCX653105A-HDAT, MCX653106A-HDAT — physically and electrically compatible, but HPE EEPROM encoding may be flagged as “unsupported” under strict OEM cable-vendor enforcement on non-HPE firmware.
Cage requirement: QSFP56 cage (backwards-compatible with QSFP28 hosts at reduced rate). Will not seat in QSFP-DD or OSFP cages.
Bend radius: respect ≥ 35 mm static, ≥ 50 mm dynamic for 30AWG passive HDR — over-bending causes intermittent CRC errors.


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q. What is the HPE Mellanox P06149-B23?
The P06149-B23 is an HPE-branded NVIDIA Mellanox 1.5 m passive copper DAC with QSFP56 connectors on both ends, rated for 200 Gb/s HDR InfiniBand (also operable at 200 GbE on Mellanox Ethernet switches). HPE P/N: P06149-B23. NVIDIA equivalent family: MCP1650-H01AE.
Q. Is the P06149-B23 a generic NVIDIA Mellanox cable, or HPE-locked?
It is HPE-branded with HPE EEPROM coding. On HPE servers running HPE firmware and HPE iLO it is fully supported. On non-HPE servers it is physically and electrically a QSFP56 HDR DAC, but the HPE EEPROM identification may be flagged as an unsupported cable by strict OEM vendor-enforcement policies. For mixed-vendor fleets we recommend verifying the cable-vendor policy on the target adapter firmware.
Q. What length and reach does the P06149-B23 cover?
1.5 metres of 30AWG passive twinax — short-reach intra-rack. Typical deployment is server-to-ToR or adjacent-U server-to-server inside the same rack. For runs longer than 2 m use an HDR Active Optical Cable (for example MFS1S00-H003E for 3 m) or HDR optical transceivers + MPO trunks.
Q. Which switches and adapters does the P06149-B23 connect?
HPE side: 940QSFP56 1-port and 2-port HDR adapters (ConnectX-6 silicon, HPE-branded) installed in ProLiant DL / Apollo 6500 / Cray XD servers. Switch side: NVIDIA Quantum QM8700 / QM8790 HDR InfiniBand switches, or HPE SN8700 (rebadged QM8700). Generic NVIDIA ConnectX-6 HDR adapters and Quantum HDR switches are physically compatible but subject to OEM cable-vendor enforcement.
Q. Can the P06149-B23 run NDR 400 Gb/s on Quantum-2 / ConnectX-7?
No. The cable is rated for HDR 200 Gb/s (4 × 50 Gb/s PAM4) and the QSFP56 connector is electrically incompatible with the OSFP cages used by Quantum-2 NDR switches and ConnectX-7 NDR adapters. For NDR fabrics use OSFP twin-port DACs / AOCs such as MCP4Y10-N00A or MCA4J80-N003.
Q. Is a 1.5 m HDR DAC suitable for AI training fabrics?
It is suitable as the intra-rack hop between GPU server and ToR HDR switch inside an AI / HPC compute rack. It is not appropriate for inter-rack spine-to-leaf runs — those need ≥ 5 m HDR AOC or HDR optics. 200 Gb/s HDR is one of the standard east-west speeds for GPU fabrics on A100 / V100-era HPC clusters.
Q. What condition is supplied by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS?
Refurbished Grade A — every unit is bench-tested at T.E.S for QSFP56 EEPROM read, link-up at 200 Gb/s on an HDR test rig, and full cosmetic inspection. Units ship in professional anti-static packaging from EU stock with global B2B shipping and free pre-sale compatibility advice.

Why buy from T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS
T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS is a Europe-based data-center networking specialist serving HPC, AI, and enterprise infrastructure teams since 2007. Every cable is identified by HPE P/N and cross-referenced to the NVIDIA Mellanox LinkX family before it ships, so customers know whether they are receiving an HPE-branded or generic NVIDIA-branded assembly. Free pre-sale compatibility advice for HPE / NVIDIA HDR fabric pairings, EU stock with worldwide express options, multi-currency B2B invoicing, and direct technical contact with our engineering team.