NVIDIA Mellanox MCX515A-CCAT ConnectX-5 EN Network Interface Card: This is a single-port 100GbE QSFP28 Ethernet adapter on a PCIe Gen 3.0 x16 host interface. The card uses the ConnectX-5 EN ASIC and ships with a tall (full-height) bracket. This is an Ethernet-only adapter — not a VPI card and not InfiniBand-capable. The official OEM P/N is 900-9X5AD-0016-ST1. This is a refurbished unit tested by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS.
Engineering Context
The MCX515A-CCAT is built on the ConnectX-5 EN silicon, providing hardware-accelerated RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCEv1 and RoCEv2), NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF) target/initiator offloads, and stateless TCP/UDP/IP offloads. The PCIe Gen 3.0 x16 host interface delivers up to 128 Gb/s of usable host bandwidth — sufficient to saturate a single 100GbE port without PCIe contention. The card supports SR-IOV with up to 512 virtual functions, ASAP² accelerated Open vSwitch, and tunneling encapsulation for VXLAN, NVGRE, and GENEVE.
Deployment & Use Cases
Single-port 100GbE server uplink in storage targets, hypervisors, and bare-metal compute. NVMe-oF target with hardware offload for flash arrays. RoCEv2 east-west fabric for HPC and AI nodes that connect to Spectrum or other RoCE-capable Ethernet switches. SR-IOV multi-tenant cloud servers needing line-rate per-VF performance. Open vSwitch acceleration via ASAP².
Technical Specifications
- OEM: NVIDIA Mellanox
- Part Number: MCX515A-CCAT (OEM P/N: 900-9X5AD-0016-ST1)
- Silicon: ConnectX-5 EN
- Data Rate: 100GbE (also supports 1/10/25/40/50GbE)
- Ports: 1x QSFP28
- Host Interface: PCIe Gen 3.0 x16
- Bracket: Tall (full-height)
- RDMA: RoCEv1, RoCEv2
- Storage Offloads: NVMe-oF target/initiator, T10/DIF
- Virtualization: SR-IOV (up to 512 VFs), ASAP² OvS, VXLAN/NVGRE/GENEVE encap/decap
- Condition: Refurbished — Tested by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS
Compatibility & Hard Constraints
Compatible with NVIDIA Spectrum series Ethernet switches (SN2000/SN3000/SN4000) and any standards-compliant 100GbE Ethernet switch. Works with QSFP28 transceivers (SR4, LR4), QSFP28 AOCs, and QSFP28 DACs. Requires a PCIe Gen 3.0 x16 slot — running in a Gen 3.0 x8 slot will halve usable bandwidth and prevent line-rate 100GbE saturation. This is an Ethernet-only EN card — it does not support InfiniBand even though the QSFP28 connector is mechanically compatible with EDR optics. For VPI (Ethernet/InfiniBand selectable) use a ConnectX-5 VPI part (e.g., MCX555A or MCX556A series).
Why Choose T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS
T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS tests every adapter for ASIC health, port link-up at 100GbE, RoCEv2 functional check, and PCIe link training to Gen 3.0 x16. We provide deployment consultation, fast 1-3 day handling, global shipping, and a comprehensive warranty. Visit tes-itsolutions.com for the full enterprise networking catalog.