NVIDIA Mellanox MFA1A00-C020 100GbE QSFP28 Active Optical Cable, 20m LSZH: This is a 20-meter active optical cable (AOC) engineered for 100Gb/s Ethernet (100GbE) point-to-point interconnectivity. The cable uses VCSEL optics over multi-mode fiber with a Low Smoke Zero Halogen (LSZH) jacket and NVIDIA P/N 980-9I13F-00C020. It is not a passive copper DAC, not an InfiniBand HDR cable, and not a breakout/splitter assembly. Condition: New.
Engineering Context: 100GbE signaling is delivered as 4 lanes of 25Gb/s NRZ over multi-mode fiber. At 20 meters, copper DAC is not viable due to insertion loss; AOCs provide stable optical signal integrity, lower weight versus copper, immunity to EMI/crosstalk, and improved airflow in dense racks. The cable draws power directly from the QSFP28 host ports — no external supply or active cooling is required.
Deployment & Use Cases: End-of-Row to Top-of-Rack 100GbE uplinks; switch-to-switch backbone aggregation in NVIDIA Spectrum Ethernet fabrics; ConnectX-4/5/6 host adapter to leaf switch interconnect; cloud and storage spine fabrics; HPC Ethernet plane connectivity where InfiniBand is not in use.
MPN: MFA1A00-C020
NVIDIA P/N: 980-9I13F-00C020
Cable Type: Active Optical Cable (AOC), point-to-point
Connectors: QSFP28 ↔ QSFP28
Data Rate: 100Gb/s (4×25G NRZ)
Protocol: 100Gb Ethernet (100GbE)
Length: 20 meters
Fiber: Multi-mode optical fiber, factory-terminated
Jacket: LSZH (Low Smoke Zero Halogen)
Power: Bus-powered from QSFP28 host ports
Condition: New
Compatibility & Constraints: Compatible with NVIDIA Mellanox Spectrum Ethernet switches and ConnectX-4/5/6 Ethernet adapters. Not compatible with InfiniBand EDR/HDR/NDR fabrics, not compatible with QSFP56 (200G) or QSFP-DD (400G) ports, and not a 4×25G breakout — for 4×SFP28 fan-out, a different breakout AOC is required.
Why TES: Each unit is electrically and optically tested with EEPROM and link integrity verified, professionally packaged, and shipped from T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS with 1–3 business day handling and worldwide tracked delivery.