NVIDIA Mellanox® MBF2M516A-EEEOT — BlueField-2 DPU (Dual 100GbE / EDR VPI, 16 GB)

Technical Identity
The NVIDIA Mellanox® MBF2M516A-EEEOT is a BlueField-2 Data Processing Unit (DPU) built on the NVIDIA BlueField-2 SoC. It exposes two QSFP56 ports, each independently software-selectable as 100GbE Ethernet or EDR 100Gb/s InfiniBand (VPI dual-protocol), and presents to the host over a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface. The card carries 16 GB of on-board DDR4 memory and an 8-core ARM Cortex-A72 SoC that runs the isolated BlueField OS plus NVIDIA DOCA SDK, enabling true on-card offload of networking, security, and storage workloads.

Specifications

Brand: NVIDIA Mellanox
Model / MPN: MBF2M516A-EEEOT
Product type: Data Processing Unit (DPU / BlueField)
ASIC / Family: NVIDIA BlueField-2 (integrates ConnectX-6 Dx datapath)
Embedded SoC: 8-core ARM Cortex-A72, up to 2.5 GHz
On-board memory: 16 GB DDR4
Network ports: 2× QSFP56
Ethernet speeds (per port): 100 / 50 / 40 / 25 / 10 / 1 GbE
InfiniBand generations (per port): EDR / FDR / QDR / DDR / SDR
Protocol mode: VPI dual-protocol — Ethernet or InfiniBand, software-selectable per port
RDMA: RoCE v1 / v2, InfiniBand verbs
Host bus: PCIe 4.0 x16 (backward compatible with PCIe 3.0)
Out-of-band mgmt: 1GbE BMC + tmfifo / rshim console
Crypto: Enabled (IPsec, TLS, AES-XTS, AES-GCM offload, secure boot)
Software: BlueField OS image + NVIDIA DOCA SDK (host: MLNX_OFED or DOCA-Host)
Form factor: Standard PCIe card with tall bracket (suffix "T")
Condition: New, factory-sealed


What This Is NOT

NOT a stateless NIC. The MBF2M516A-EEEOT is a programmable DPU with its own CPU, memory, and OS — it is functionally different from a ConnectX-6 Dx adapter even though it contains the same datapath silicon.
NOT a switch. The DPU installs into a server PCIe slot; it does not aggregate downstream ports.
NOT plug-and-play. Deployment requires firmware alignment, BlueField OS provisioning, and DOCA host driver installation.
NOT a GPU. The on-board ARM SoC accelerates network, storage, and security paths — not compute / training workloads.
NOT bundled with cables, transceivers, or rail accessories. Sold standalone.


Compatibility & Constraints

Host platform: PCIe 4.0 x16 slot recommended for full bandwidth; PCIe 3.0 x16 supported at reduced throughput.
Host OS / drivers: NVIDIA MLNX_OFED or DOCA-Host on Linux (RHEL / Ubuntu / SLES). Windows host drivers available for selected releases.
DPU OS: NVIDIA BlueField OS (Ubuntu-based) flashed via rshim; DOCA SDK runtime for application offload.
Switch pairing (Ethernet, 100GbE): NVIDIA Spectrum / Spectrum-2 / Spectrum-3 switches (e.g., SN2700, SN3700C, SN4600C) or any standards-compliant 100GbE QSFP28/QSFP56 switch.
Switch pairing (InfiniBand, EDR): NVIDIA Quantum / Switch-IB 2 EDR fabrics (e.g., SB7700, SB7800, MQM8700 in EDR-compatible mode).
Cabling: QSFP56 DAC / AOC or QSFP56 optical transceivers matched to the chosen protocol mode (Ethernet vs InfiniBand families are not interchangeable).
Firmware / driver alignment: BlueField OS version, DOCA SDK version, and host MLNX_OFED / DOCA-Host version must match the NVIDIA release-notes matrix.


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q. What is the NVIDIA Mellanox MBF2M516A-EEEOT?
The MBF2M516A-EEEOT is an NVIDIA BlueField-2 Data Processing Unit (DPU) with two QSFP56 ports running at 100GbE Ethernet or EDR 100Gb/s InfiniBand (VPI dual-protocol, software-selectable per port). It integrates an 8-core ARM A72 SoC, 16 GB on-board DDR4 memory, and a PCIe Gen4 x16 host interface, and runs the BlueField OS plus NVIDIA DOCA SDK for accelerated networking, storage, and security offload.
Q. How is the MBF2M516A-EEEOT different from a ConnectX-6 Dx NIC?
The BlueField-2 silicon embeds a ConnectX-6 Dx datapath, but the MBF2M516A-EEEOT is a full DPU, not a NIC. It adds 8 ARM A72 cores, dedicated 16 GB DDR4 memory, an isolated BlueField OS, and the NVIDIA DOCA SDK so the card runs Linux applications independently of the host — enabling SmartNIC offload, inline security, NVMe-oF emulation, and zero-trust architectures that a stateless ConnectX NIC cannot host on-card.
Q. Which protocols, speeds, and connectors does this DPU support?
Two QSFP56 cages, each independently configurable as 100GbE / 50GbE / 40GbE / 25GbE / 10GbE / 1GbE Ethernet or as EDR (100Gb/s) / FDR (56Gb/s) / QDR / DDR / SDR InfiniBand. Both ports also support RoCE v2 (RDMA over Converged Ethernet) for low-latency storage and HPC workloads.
Q. What software stack is required to deploy the MBF2M516A-EEEOT?
On the host server install NVIDIA MLNX_OFED (or DOCA-Host) drivers. On the DPU itself flash the BlueField OS image (Ubuntu-based) plus the NVIDIA DOCA SDK runtime. Management is via the embedded BMC over OOB 1GbE plus tmfifo or rshim. Firmware, host driver, and BlueField OS versions must be aligned per the NVIDIA release-notes matrix.
Q. What cables and transceivers pair with the MBF2M516A-EEEOT?
Use QSFP56 cables and modules matched to the chosen port mode — for 100GbE: QSFP56 DAC / AOC / SR4 / LR4. For EDR InfiniBand: QSFP56 EDR DAC / AOC. The DPU itself is sold standalone; cables and transceivers are not included. T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS can advise on the correct MFA/MCP/MMA/MMS pairings for your topology.
Q. What condition is supplied by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS?
This unit is supplied New, factory-sealed in original NVIDIA packaging. All units ship from EU stock with professional anti-static packaging and global B2B shipping. Technical consultation for HPC / AI / cloud DPU deployments is included at no extra cost.

Why buy from T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS
T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS is a Europe-based NVIDIA Mellanox specialist serving HPC, AI, cloud, and enterprise data-center procurement teams since 2007. Every BlueField DPU is identified by MPN, NVIDIA P/N, and ASIC generation before it ships, and every customer receives free pre-sale advice on host PCIe slot selection, DOCA / BlueField OS version planning, and switch + cable pairing. Multi-currency B2B invoicing, EU stock with worldwide express options, and direct technical contact with our engineering team — not a call-center.