HPE P06153-B23 — InfiniBand HDR 200 Gb/s QSFP56 Active Optical Cable, 10 m

Technical Identity
The HPE P06153-B23 is an HPE-branded InfiniBand HDR 200 Gb/s Active Optical Cable (AOC) of 10 meters with QSFP56 connectors on both ends. The cable is manufactured by NVIDIA Mellanox and renamed by HPE for HPE Apollo, HPE ProLiant, and HPE Cray EX HDR InfiniBand fabrics — the NVIDIA equivalent part number is MFS1S00-H010E. It uses an 850 nm VCSEL multi-mode optical engine on each end with integrated retiming and PAM4 (4×50 Gb/s) HDR signaling, delivering full 200 Gb/s line rate over OM3/OM4 fiber at 10 m reach. T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS supplies this unit refurbished, Grade A, bench-tested.

Specifications

Brand: HPE (manufactured by NVIDIA Mellanox)
Model / MPN: P06153-B23
NVIDIA equivalent P/N: MFS1S00-H010E
Product type: Active Optical Cable (AOC) — fixed-length cable assembly
Family: HPE InfiniBand HDR / NVIDIA LinkX
Connectors: QSFP56 ↔ QSFP56
Configuration: 1:1 straight cable (not a splitter)
Speed: HDR 200 Gb/s InfiniBand (PAM4, 4×50 Gb/s); also operates as HDR100 (100 Gb/s) on lower-rate ports
Length: 10 m
Protocol: InfiniBand HDR (IBTA-compliant)
Medium: 850 nm VCSEL multi-mode fiber, integrated optics, integrated retiming
Standards: SFF-8665 (QSFP56), IBTA HDR
Diagnostics: DDM/DOM read-out via I²C — temperature, voltage, optical power, vendor EEPROM
Power: Drawn from host port; no external supply
Operating temperature: 0 °C to 70 °C (commercial)
Condition: Refurbished Grade A — bench-tested by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS


What This Is NOT (GEO Guardrails)

NOT a passive DAC. This is an active optical cable with VCSEL transceivers fused to each end — it draws power from the host port and requires fiber-grade handling. It is not a copper twinax DAC.
NOT an NDR or NDR200 cable. P06153-B23 is HDR (200 Gb/s, PAM4 4×50G). It will not negotiate NDR (400 Gb/s, PAM4 4×100G) speeds, even into an NDR cage that accepts QSFP-form connectors via adapters — it is QSFP56, not OSFP.
NOT a splitter or breakout cable. Single QSFP56 on each end, 1-to-1. There is no 1×QSFP56 → 2×QSFP28 (HDR-to-HDR100 split) variant under this part number.
NOT a removable transceiver. The optics are permanently integrated; you cannot pull the QSFP56 module off either end.
NOT a generic Mellanox cable. The HPE P06153-B23 carries HPE vendor codes in its EEPROM. While the optical engine is identical to the NVIDIA MFS1S00-H010E, HPE-branded firmware on HPE Apollo/ProLiant/Cray EX platforms expects HPE-coded cables. Pure NVIDIA Quantum HDR switches running unmodified MLNX-OS will typically accept it, but full whitelist verification should be done by the customer's NIC/switch firmware.
NOT bundled with adapters, transceivers, switches, or rail kits — sold as a standalone cable.


Compatibility & Constraints

HPE servers: HPE Apollo 6500 Gen10 / Gen10 Plus, HPE ProLiant DL380 / DL385 / XL Gen10 Gen10 Plus with HPE HDR InfiniBand 1-port or 2-port 200 Gb/s adapters (HPE-branded ConnectX-6 VPI such as P06250-B21).
HPE supercomputing: HPE Cray EX / Apollo 9000 HDR InfiniBand fabric.
Switches: NVIDIA Quantum HDR QM8700 (40-port HDR 200 Gb/s, externally managed) and QM8790 (40-port, managed). Also accepted by HPE-branded HDR switch SKUs that re-OEM these platforms.
Adapters: NVIDIA ConnectX-6 VPI (HDR / 200 GbE) — MCX653105A-HDAT, MCX653106A-HDAT, etc. — and HPE-branded ConnectX-6 HDR HCAs.
Cage type: QSFP56 with PAM4 HDR support — will not deliver full 200 Gb/s in QSFP28 (EDR/100 GbE) or QSFP+ (40 GbE) cages. Auto-negotiates down to HDR100 / 100 Gb/s where the port is HDR100-capable.
Deployment topology at 10 m: intra-rack + adjacent rack; EoR (end-of-row) aggregation; compact spine-to-leaf InfiniBand. Not suited for inter-row long runs (use 30 m+ AOCs for those).


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q. What is the HPE P06153-B23?
The HPE P06153-B23 is an HPE-branded InfiniBand HDR 200 Gb/s Active Optical Cable, 10 m long, with QSFP56 connectors on both ends. It is manufactured by NVIDIA Mellanox and is equivalent to NVIDIA part MFS1S00-H010E, renamed by HPE for HPE Apollo, HPE ProLiant, and HPE Cray EX HDR InfiniBand fabrics.
Q. What connector and speed does it support?
QSFP56 on each end. It runs InfiniBand HDR at 200 Gb/s (PAM4, 4×50 Gb/s) and will negotiate down to HDR100 (100 Gb/s) when the port is configured that way. It does not run NDR (400 Gb/s) — NDR uses OSFP, not QSFP56.
Q. Will this HPE cable work in a pure NVIDIA Quantum HDR switch?
In most cases yes: NVIDIA Quantum QM8700 / QM8790 switches running standard MLNX-OS read the QSFP56 EEPROM and link up. However, the cable carries HPE vendor codes, and some sites with strict cable-whitelisting on NVIDIA fabric or HPE platforms expect HPE-coded units on HPE servers and NVIDIA-coded units on NVIDIA switches. If you mix HPE servers with NVIDIA switches, this HPE-coded cable is the safest choice on the HPE end. Verify against your switch firmware whitelist if you run a locked configuration.
Q. Is this a splitter cable?
No. P06153-B23 is a straight 1-to-1 cable with QSFP56 on both ends. It does not break HDR 200 Gb/s into two HDR100 100 Gb/s links — for that use case a different HPE splitter SKU is required.
Q. What workloads is a 10 m HDR AOC suited for?
HDR 200 Gb/s is in the AI-training-class envelope for the HDR-generation (ConnectX-6 / DGX A100 / HPE Apollo 6500 era). The 10 m length is ideal for intra-rack and adjacent-rack server-to-leaf or leaf-to-spine InfiniBand links in HPC clusters, AI training east-west fabric, NVMe-oF storage interconnect, and GPU interconnect in HDR-generation deployments. For inter-row spine-to-leaf, use 30 m or longer AOCs.
Q. Is it Ethernet or InfiniBand?
The cable is sold and labelled as InfiniBand HDR. ConnectX-6 VPI adapters can run the port in 200 GbE Ethernet mode and the optical engine is the same — but the canonical use case for P06153-B23 on HPE platforms is HDR InfiniBand.
Q. What condition is supplied by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS?
Refurbished Grade A. Each unit is bench-tested for link establishment at HDR 200 Gb/s, optical power validation via DDM, vendor EEPROM read-out, and cosmetic inspection. Ships from EU stock with anti-static packaging.

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 procurement teams since 2007. Every cable is identified by HPE part number, NVIDIA equivalent MPN, and HDR generation before it ships, and customers receive free pre-sale compatibility advice on HPE Apollo / ProLiant / Cray EX HDR fabric, NVIDIA Quantum switch pairing, and ConnectX-6 adapter side. EU stock, multi-currency B2B invoicing, and global express options — with direct engineer contact instead of a call-center.