NVIDIA Mellanox MSX6001FR 18-Port FDR InfiniBand Leaf Blade for SX6500-Series Chassis — Lot of 3: This listing is a lot of three (3) plug-in InfiniBand leaf blades, each providing 18 × FDR (56Gb/s) QSFP InfiniBand ports. These are line cards designed to install in the NVIDIA Mellanox SX6500-series modular director switches (MSX6512 and MSX6536); they are NOT standalone 1U switches and cannot operate outside a compatible chassis.
Engineering context. Each MSX6001FR blade carries 18 FDR QSFP InfiniBand ports running at 56Gb/s per port (14Gb/s × 4 lanes, FDR encoding), providing roughly 2Tb/s of aggregate per-blade port bandwidth into the chassis fabric. The blade is a fully managed component of the SX6500 chassis switch fabric and is hot-swappable from the front of the director chassis.
Deployment & use cases. Capacity expansion and replacement-spare provisioning for existing SX6512 (216-port) and SX6536 (648-port) FDR director-class InfiniBand fabrics in HPC clusters, AI/ML training clusters using RDMA, large parallel file systems (Lustre, IBM Spectrum Scale/GPFS), and InfiniBand-attached burst-buffer storage tiers.
Technical specifications.

Type: plug-in InfiniBand leaf blade for SX6500-series director chassis
Ports per blade: 18 × QSFP FDR InfiniBand
Per-port speed: 56Gb/s (FDR, 14Gb/s × 4 lanes)
Per-blade aggregate I/O: ~2Tb/s
Form factor: rack-mountable plug-in blade (front-loading, hot-swappable)
Network management: fully managed (managed via host chassis)
Compatible chassis: MSX6512 (216-port) and MSX6536 (648-port) directors
Connector type: QSFP (FDR)
Quantity in this listing: 3 (Lot of 3)
Brand: NVIDIA Mellanox (Mellanox Technologies Ltd)

Compatibility & constraints. Requires an SX6500-series director chassis with available leaf slots, compatible spine/management modules, and a current chassis firmware revision — these blades will NOT operate as standalone switches and have no independent power supplies. Operates at FDR (56Gb/s); for FDR10 (40Gb/s) interoperability the link will negotiate down. EDR/HDR/NDR speeds are NOT supported by SX6500-series hardware.
Why TES. Each blade is bench-tested by experienced technicians for full chassis recognition and port link-up prior to shipment, in refurbished condition with minimal cosmetic wear. Order handling time is 1–3 business days. Browse our full networking catalog at T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the MSX6001FR NOT compatible with?
they are NOT standalone 1U switches and cannot operate outside a compatible chassis. Confirm fitment against your platform before ordering MSX6001FR.
What condition is the MSX6001FR supplied in, and who sells it?
The MSX6001FR is supplied in Refurbished condition by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS from EU stock, with 1-3 business day handling and worldwide B2B shipping. See https://www.tes-itsolutions.com/product-page/lot-of-3-mellanox-msx6001fr-18-port-fdr-leaf-sx6500-series-infiniband.
Are there deployment constraints on the MSX6001FR?
EDR/HDR/NDR speeds are NOT supported by SX6500-series hardware. This applies to MSX6001FR specifically.