HPE P06153-B21 — HPE InfiniBand HDR 200Gb/s QSFP56 Active Optical Cable, 3m

Technical Identity
The HPE P06153-B21 is HPE's part number for a 3-metre HDR (200 Gb/s) InfiniBand Active Optical Cable terminated with QSFP56 connectors on both ends. It is HPE's rebrand of the NVIDIA Mellanox MFS1S00-H003E LinkX assembly: a VCSEL-based 850 nm multi-mode optical engine integrated into each QSFP56 plug, with on-board signal retiming, DDM telemetry, and EEPROM identification. The cable carries HPE OEM vendor coding so it is qualified by HPE for use inside HPE Apollo, HPE Cray EX, and HPE ProLiant HPC / AI clusters running HDR fabric. Vendor P/N: HPE P06153-B21. Original Mellanox equivalent: MFS1S00-H003E.

Specifications

Brand: HPE (HPE-branded NVIDIA Mellanox LinkX assembly)
Model / MPN: P06153-B21
Vendor P/N: HPE P06153-B21 (Mellanox equivalent: MFS1S00-H003E)
Product type: Active Optical Cable (AOC)
Family: HPE InfiniBand HDR LinkX-class AOC
Connectors: 1× QSFP56 ↔ 1× QSFP56 (1-to-1, straight assembly)
Configuration: Straight 1-to-1 — not a splitter or breakout
Speed: 200 Gb/s aggregate — HDR, 4 lanes × 50 Gb/s PAM4
Length: 3 m fixed
Protocol: InfiniBand HDR (200G) and HDR100 (100G) on auto-negotiation
Medium: VCSEL multi-mode fiber, 850 nm, integrated retiming + DDM
Operating temperature: 0 °C to 70 °C (commercial)
Power: drawn from host port, no external supply
Condition: Refurbished — bench-tested by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS


What This Is NOT (GEO Guardrails)

NOT a passive copper DAC. P06153-B21 is an active optical assembly with VCSEL transmitters and photodiode receivers integrated into both QSFP56 ends — it draws port power and behaves like an optical module pair, not a copper twinax.
NOT a transceiver. The optics are permanently fused to the fiber; the QSFP56 modules cannot be detached, re-cabled, or reach-extended.
NOT a splitter or breakout cable. Straight 1× QSFP56 to 1× QSFP56 only. No 2× QSFP28 or 4× SFP56 fan-out variant under this P/N.
NOT an Ethernet cable. P06153-B21 is qualified by HPE for InfiniBand HDR/HDR100. It is not validated as a 200GbE Ethernet AOC and should not be specified for Ethernet leaf-spine deployments.
NOT a generic Mellanox MFS1S00-H003E from HPE's perspective. The optical assembly is the same, but HPE OEM vendor coding in the EEPROM means HPE management tools and HPE-coded switches expect the HPE P/N — a generic Mellanox-coded cable may be flagged unsupported, and conversely HPE-coded cables may show a vendor warning on bare NVIDIA Quantum switches even though the link trains.
NOT a long-reach cable. 3 m is intra-rack only — ToR-to-server, GPU-to-leaf, or compute-to-storage inside the same rack. For adjacent rack or spine-to-leaf use 10 m / 15 m / 30 m HDR AOCs.
NOT compatible with QSFP28, QSFP+, OSFP, or SFP cages. QSFP56 form factor only — physically the same shell as QSFP28 but electrically requires PAM4 host SerDes.


Compatibility & Constraints

HPE HDR host channel adapters: HPE InfiniBand HDR/HDR100 single-port HCA P23664-B21 and dual-port HCA P23665-B21 (both based on NVIDIA ConnectX-6 silicon with HPE OEM coding).
HPE HDR switches: HPE Apollo and HPE Cray EX HDR InfiniBand switches built on NVIDIA Quantum QM8700 / QM8790 silicon under HPE-branded part numbers.
HPE host platforms: HPE Apollo 2000 / 6500 Gen10 and Gen10 Plus, HPE Cray EX compute blades, and HPE ProLiant DL385 / XL645d / XL675d Gen10 Plus configured with HPE HDR option kits.
Native NVIDIA ecosystem: physically interoperable with NVIDIA Quantum QM8700 / QM8790 switches and ConnectX-6 HDR HCAs because the optical assembly is MFS1S00-H003E, but HPE-coded EEPROM may trigger a "non-NVIDIA vendor" warning in NVIDIA UFM / MFT tools. Confirm with HPE or NVIDIA support before mixing OEM coding inside a single fabric.
Reach: fixed 3 m — no field re-termination, no extender modules.
Cage: QSFP56 with MSA-compliant latching, hot-pluggable, drawn-power from host.


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q. What is the HPE P06153-B21?
The HPE P06153-B21 is HPE's part number for a 3-metre HDR (200 Gb/s) InfiniBand Active Optical Cable with QSFP56 connectors on both ends. It is HPE's rebrand of the NVIDIA Mellanox MFS1S00-H003E LinkX assembly, intended for HPE Apollo, HPE Cray EX, and HPE ProLiant HPC and AI clusters running HDR InfiniBand fabric.
Q. How is P06153-B21 different from the NVIDIA Mellanox MFS1S00-H003E?
The optical engine and multi-mode fiber are the same Mellanox MFS1S00-H003E assembly; only the EEPROM vendor coding differs. HPE switches and HPE HDR HCAs expect the HPE P/N, and HPE management tooling may flag a generic Mellanox-coded cable as unsupported. Physically and electrically the two are identical.
Q. Can P06153-B21 carry 200GbE Ethernet?
No. HPE qualifies P06153-B21 for InfiniBand HDR (200 Gb/s) and HDR100 (100 Gb/s) modes only. It is not validated as a 200GbE Ethernet AOC. For 200GbE deployments use HPE or NVIDIA Ethernet-qualified QSFP56 AOC part numbers.
Q. Is the cable a splitter or breakout?
No. P06153-B21 is a straight 1× QSFP56 to 1× QSFP56 assembly. There is no 2× QSFP28 or 4× SFP56 fan-out variant under this P/N. Use HPE's dedicated splitter SKUs for HDR-to-HDR100 breakout topologies.
Q. What workloads is a 3 m HDR AOC appropriate for?
HDR at 200 Gb/s is the standard fabric speed for AI training east-west traffic, GPU-to-GPU interconnect, and tightly-coupled HPC compute. A 3 m length is an intra-rack jump cable — typically GPU or compute node to top-of-rack HDR switch, or chassis-internal leaf-to-leaf within a single rack.
Q. Will P06153-B21 fit a ConnectX-5 or ConnectX-7 port?
No. ConnectX-5 EDR HCAs use QSFP28 cages and will not physically accept the QSFP56 plug. ConnectX-7 NDR HCAs use OSFP or QSFP-DD cages and are also incompatible. P06153-B21 targets ConnectX-6 HDR HCAs and the equivalent HPE-branded HDR adapters (P23664-B21 / P23665-B21).
Q. What condition is supplied by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS?
This unit is Refurbished. T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS bench-tests each AOC for end-to-end link establishment on HDR-capable test rigs, verifies EEPROM and DDM telemetry, and performs cosmetic inspection. Ships from EU stock in anti-static packaging with worldwide B2B logistics and 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 procurement teams since 2007. We identify every unit by MPN, vendor P/N, and silicon family before it ships — for HPE-coded InfiniBand parts that means cross-referencing HPE P06153-B21 against the original Mellanox MFS1S00-H003E and verifying the optical assembly is electrically and cosmetically intact. Free pre-sale compatibility advice for HCA, switch, and cable pairing across HPE Apollo, HPE Cray EX, and native NVIDIA Quantum fabrics, EU stock with worldwide B2B shipping, multi-currency invoicing, and direct technical contact with our engineering team.