NVIDIA Mellanox MCX454A-FCAT ConnectX-4 VPI Dual-Port QSFP28 FDR / 40-56GbE Adapter: This is a dual-port Virtual Protocol Interconnect (VPI) network adapter built on the NVIDIA ConnectX-4 ASIC. Each QSFP28 port can be independently configured as InfiniBand (up to FDR 56Gb/s) or Ethernet (10/40/56GbE). The MCX454A-FCAT is a PCIe 3.0 x8 card shipped with a tall bracket. This is the FDR-class variant; it does NOT operate at EDR 100Gb/s InfiniBand or 100GbE. This is a new unit.
Engineering Context
The ConnectX-4 VPI controller exposes per-port protocol selection via the mlxconfig utility, allowing one port to run InfiniBand while the other runs Ethernet. The card supports RDMA, Send/Receive verbs, and atomics on both protocols, with full hardware offload of MPI tag matching, GPUDirect RDMA, and SR-IOV (up to 256 VFs per port). On Ethernet, RoCE v1/v2, VXLAN/NVGRE/GENEVE encapsulation offload, and DPDK acceleration are supported. The PCIe 3.0 x8 host interface provides ~63 Gb/s of usable bandwidth, which is the practical aggregate ceiling across both ports.
Deployment & Use Cases
FDR InfiniBand HPC clusters running MPI workloads (OpenMPI, MVAPICH2, Intel MPI). Mixed-protocol storage front-ends where one port serves NVMe-oF over RoCE and the other carries IB SRP. GPU compute nodes using GPUDirect RDMA over FDR for distributed training. Lustre and Spectrum Scale (GPFS) parallel filesystem networks. Dual-homed Ethernet uplinks at 40 or 56GbE.
Technical Specifications
OEM: NVIDIA Mellanox
Part Number: MCX454A-FCAT
Controller: ConnectX-4 VPI
Ports: 2x QSFP28
InfiniBand Rates: SDR / DDR / QDR / FDR10 / FDR (up to 56Gb/s)
Ethernet Rates: 1 / 10 / 40 / 56GbE
Host Interface: PCIe 3.0 x8
Bracket: Tall bracket installed
RDMA: Native IB verbs and RoCE v1/v2
Virtualization: SR-IOV (up to 256 VFs per port)
Acceleration: GPUDirect RDMA, MPI tag matching offload
Condition: New — Tested by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS
Compatibility & Hard Constraints
Compatible with NVIDIA Mellanox SwitchIB, Switch-X2, and Spectrum switches in matching protocol modes. Compatible with FDR copper QSFP cables (e.g., MC2207, MC2206) and FDR active optical cables. Drivers via MLNX_OFED for Linux, WinOF-2 for Windows Server, and VMware MLNX-NATIVE-ESX. Does NOT run EDR 100Gb/s InfiniBand or 100GbE — for those rates use MCX455A-ECAT (single-port) or MCX456A-ECAT (dual-port). Does not negotiate above FDR even when paired with EDR-capable switches.
Why Choose T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS
Visit T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS for tested NVIDIA Mellanox VPI adapters. Each card is bench-checked on both ports for IB and Ethernet link-up before shipment. Order handling time is 1–3 business days with global shipping options.