NVIDIA Mellanox MCX653106A-ECAT ConnectX-6 VPI Adapter, HDR100 / 100GbE, Dual QSFP56, PCIe Gen4 x16, Tall Bracket: The MCX653106A-ECAT is a dual-port ConnectX-6 Virtual Protocol Interconnect (VPI) host channel adapter that supports HDR100 100Gb/s InfiniBand and 100Gb Ethernet on each QSFP56 port. This is a VPI NIC with per-port protocol selection — it is not a single-protocol Ethernet-only adapter, and it is not the 200Gb HDR-class card. Crypto acceleration is disabled on this -ECAT SKU. This is a refurbished unit, tested by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS.
Engineering Context
The card runs over a PCIe 4.0 x16 host interface (backward compatible with PCIe 3.0), providing approximately 31.5 GB/s of usable host bandwidth — enough to feed both 100Gb ports concurrently without PCIe oversubscription. ConnectX-6 silicon implements RDMA, RoCE v2, NVMe-oF target and initiator, GPUDirect RDMA, hardware-accelerated VXLAN and NVGRE encapsulation, and OVS offload via ASAP² Direct. On the InfiniBand side, adaptive routing and SHARP collective offload are supported when paired with NVIDIA Quantum HDR switches. Each QSFP56 port autonegotiates protocol and lane rate independently of the other.
Deployment & Use Cases
Host adapter in HDR100 fat-tree InfiniBand fabrics; mid-scale HPC clusters running MPI workloads (OpenMPI, Intel MPI, MVAPICH2); AI/ML training nodes interfacing with parameter servers; NVMe-oF storage initiators in compute racks; and dual-homed VPI deployments where one port runs InfiniBand to a compute fabric and the other runs Ethernet to a management or storage network. Common in clusters built around Quantum QM8700/QM8790 InfiniBand switches and Spectrum SN3000-series Ethernet switches.
Technical Specifications
OEM: NVIDIA Mellanox
Part Number: MCX653106A-ECAT
Product Family: ConnectX-6 VPI
Ports: 2 × QSFP56
InfiniBand Speeds: HDR100 (100Gb/s), EDR (100Gb/s), FDR (56Gb/s)
Ethernet Speeds: 100GbE, 50GbE, 40GbE, 25GbE, 10GbE, 1GbE
Maximum Per-Port Rate: 100Gb/s
Host Interface: PCIe 4.0 x16 (PCIe 3.0 x16 compatible)
Bracket: Tall / Full-Height
Crypto Engine: Disabled
RoHS: Compliant
Condition: Refurbished — Tested by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS
Compatibility & Constraints
Compatible with NVIDIA Quantum HDR InfiniBand switches (QM8700, QM8790) in InfiniBand mode and with Spectrum-2 / Spectrum-3 Ethernet switches in Ethernet mode. Supports HDR100 DACs, AOCs, and QSFP56 transceivers, and is mechanically backward compatible with QSFP28 100Gb cables and optics (PAM4 lanes negotiate appropriately). Not compatible with OSFP or QSFP-DD cages. Does NOT include hardware crypto offload — for IPsec/TLS acceleration, the -ECAB (crypto-enabled) or -ECAR (crypto + secure boot) variants are required. Does NOT support 200Gb/s HDR per port; for HDR 200G the corresponding -ICAT/-IDAT family is needed. Requires MLNX_OFED or the in-tree mlx5 driver; supported on Linux, Windows Server, and VMware ESXi.
Why Choose T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS
T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS bench-tests every MCX653106A-ECAT for link training on both QSFP56 ports, PCIe x16 link width and speed, firmware integrity, and thermal sensor health before shipment. Handling time is 1–3 business days. Visit our product page or tes-itsolutions.com for our full ConnectX inventory and integration consulting.