NVIDIA Mellanox MCX415A-CEAT ConnectX-4 EN, 100GbE Single-Port QSFP28 PCIe Gen3 x16 Adapter: This is a standard PCIe slot network interface card based on the ConnectX-4 EN Ethernet controller. It provides a single QSFP28 port at 100GbE (also 50GbE, 40GbE, 25GbE, 10GbE, 1GbE), with a PCIe Gen3 x16 host interface and a tall (full-height) bracket. This is a single-port card — it is NOT dual-port and does NOT support breakout to 4x25GbE without a breakout cable and switch-side configuration. This is a refurbished unit, tested by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS.
Engineering Context
The ConnectX-4 EN controller delivers full 100GbE line rate (4x 25Gb/s NRZ lanes) over a single QSFP28 cage. PCIe Gen3 x16 provides 128 Gb/s of host bandwidth, which is sufficient for full bidirectional 100GbE throughput. Hardware offloads include RoCE v1/v2, hardware overlay tunneling (VXLAN, NVGRE, GENEVE), Open vSwitch acceleration, SR-IOV (up to 128 VFs), T10-DIF, ASAP² accelerated switching, and stateless TCP/UDP/IP offloads.
Deployment & Use Cases
100GbE server uplinks to spine-leaf data center fabrics. Storage targets in NVMe-oF, Ceph, vSAN, and parallel filesystem deployments. GPU compute nodes feeding distributed training jobs (TensorFlow, PyTorch) over RoCE. Hyper-converged appliances handling VDI and database workloads. Cloud aggregation tiers consolidating multiple 25/50GbE downlinks to a single 100GbE uplink.
Technical Specifications
OEM: NVIDIA Mellanox
Part Number: MCX415A-CEAT
Controller: ConnectX-4 EN
Form Factor: Standard PCIe Card
Ports: Single-Port (1x QSFP28)
Data Rate: 100GbE / 50GbE / 40GbE / 25GbE / 10GbE / 1GbE
Host Interface: PCIe Gen3 x16 (8 GT/s)
Bracket: Tall (Full-Height)
Offloads: RoCE v1/v2, SR-IOV, VXLAN, NVGRE, GENEVE, ASAP²
Compliance: RoHS R6
Condition: Refurbished — Tested by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS
Compatibility & Hard Constraints
Requires a free PCIe Gen3 x16 (or wider) electrical slot to achieve full 100GbE throughput. PCIe Gen3 x8 will limit aggregate throughput. Compatible with NVIDIA Spectrum (SN2000/SN3000/SN4000) and other 100GbE QSFP28 switches using Mellanox-certified DACs, AOCs, and SR4/LR4/CWDM4 transceivers. For 4x25GbE breakout, the switch side must support fan-out and a QSFP28-to-4xSFP28 breakout cable is required. Ethernet only (CEAT is not VPI/InfiniBand). Drivers: NVIDIA MLNX_OFED, MLNX_EN, or in-box Linux/Windows.
Why Choose T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS
T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS tests every refurbished ConnectX-4 EN 100GbE adapter for link-up at 100GbE, PCIe x16 lane training, and port LED indication before shipment. Orders ship within 1–3 business days with global delivery and warranty coverage.