NVIDIA Mellanox® MNV101511A-BCAT — Innova Flex 4 Lx EN Programmable SmartNIC (Kintex UltraScale KU060 FPGA, 10/40GbE QSFP+, PCIe 3.0 x8)
Technical Identity
The NVIDIA Mellanox® MNV101511A-BCAT is an Innova Flex 4 Lx EN open programmable SmartNIC that pairs a Mellanox ConnectX-4 Lx Ethernet ASIC with a Xilinx Kintex UltraScale XCKU060 FPGA on a single PCIe 3.0 x8 half-height, half-length adapter. It is purpose-built for bump-in-the-wire workloads where the FPGA processes traffic inline between the network port and the host: IPsec/TLS bulk crypto offload, signature inspection, low-latency electronic trading, NVMe-oF/RoCE storage acceleration, and custom 5G/vRAN packet pipelines. Network-side: one QSFP+ port operating natively at 40GbE, configurable to 4×10GbE breakout via a splitter cable. Host-side: PCIe 3.0 x8 (8 GT/s). On-board DDR4 (4 GB) is wired to the FPGA fabric, and the Kintex UltraScale provides 725K logic cells with multi-gigabit transceivers (GTH) that connect the FPGA directly to the ConnectX-4 Lx via an internal 40GbE link. The card is supplied with both Mellanox OFED/MLNX_EN drivers and Xilinx Vivado-compatible reference designs (Innova Flex SDK), so customers can compile their own bitstreams and deploy as standard PCIe NICs in Linux servers.
Specifications
Brand / OEM: NVIDIA Mellanox
Manufacturer P/N (MPN): MNV101511A-BCAT
Product family: Innova™ Flex 4 Lx EN — Open Programmable SmartNIC
Network ASIC: Mellanox ConnectX-4 Lx (Ethernet only — no InfiniBand on Lx silicon)
FPGA: Xilinx Kintex UltraScale XCKU060 (FFVA1156 package, 725K logic cells, 2,760 DSP slices)
FPGA memory: 4 GB DDR4 SODIMM attached to the FPGA
Ports: 1× QSFP+ cage, single-port
Ethernet speeds supported: 40GbE (native), 4×10GbE (breakout via QSFP+ → 4× SFP+ splitter)
Host interface: PCIe 3.0 x8 (8 GT/s per lane)
Form factor: Half-Height, Half-Length (HHHL) PCIe adapter
Bracket: Tall bracket installed; short (low-profile) bracket included
Cooling: Active heatsink with on-board fan
Programmability: Xilinx Vivado HLx + Mellanox Innova Flex SDK (reference designs for IPsec, TLS, OVS, packet capture)
Stateless offloads (ConnectX-4 Lx side): TCP/UDP/IP checksum, TSO, LSO, LRO, VXLAN/NVGRE/Geneve encap/decap, RSS, SR-IOV (up to 64 VFs)
RDMA: RoCEv1 and RoCEv2 over Ethernet
Software stack: MLNX_OFED / MLNX_EN, DPDK, OVS-DPDK, kernel inbox driver (mlx5_core)
Operating systems: RHEL/CentOS/Rocky 7–9, Ubuntu LTS, SLES, Windows Server, VMware ESXi
Condition: New, factory-sealed
Warranty: T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS 1-year limited B2B warranty
What This Is NOT
NOT an InfiniBand card. Innova Flex 4 Lx uses ConnectX-4 Lx silicon, which is Ethernet-only — no IB SDR/QDR/FDR/EDR/HDR support.
NOT a 25 / 50 / 100GbE NIC. Maximum line rate is 40GbE; do not confuse with Innova-2 Flex (MNV303xxx) which is ConnectX-5 + 25/40/100GbE capable.
NOT a BlueField DPU. Innova Flex uses an FPGA accelerator, not Arm cores; there is no on-card OS.
NOT a dual-port card. One QSFP+ cage only. 4×10GbE breakout still uses that single cage.
NOT shipped with QSFP+ transceivers, AOC/DAC cables, or breakout splitter cables — adapter only.
NOT a PCIe 4.0 / 5.0 card. Host link is PCIe 3.0 x8 — install in an x8 or wider Gen3-capable slot.
Compatibility & Constraints
Switch pairing (40GbE): any 40GbE QSFP+ switch — Mellanox SX1012/SX1036/SN2100/SN2410 (Spectrum), Cisco Nexus 3K/9K, Arista 7050QX/7060X, Juniper QFX5100, Dell S6010/Z9100.
Switch pairing (10GbE breakout): requires a switch port that supports QSFP+ → 4× SFP+ channelization (most 40GbE ToR switches do).
Cable / transceiver options: Mellanox MC2210xxx (40GbE QSFP+ DAC), MFA1A00-Exxx (40GbE QSFP+ AOC), MC6709309-xxx (40G→4×10G DAC splitter), MAM1Q00A-QSA28 (QSFP+ → SFP+ adapter).
PCIe slot: requires PCIe 3.0 x8 or wider mechanical slot; verify BIOS exposes bifurcation if installing in a bifurcated x16.
Driver: MLNX_OFED 4.x/5.x for the network path; FPGA bitstream loaded via Xilinx tools or pre-shipped Mellanox reference image.
Power & cooling: typical 25–35 W; the active fan must remain unobstructed — do not deploy in passive-cooled 1U chassis without verifying airflow direction.
Firmware: ConnectX-4 Lx firmware managed via mlxfwmanager; FPGA bitstream managed separately via Innova Flex tools.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q. What is the NVIDIA Mellanox MNV101511A-BCAT?
It is a Mellanox Innova Flex 4 Lx EN programmable SmartNIC: a single-port 10/40GbE QSFP+ PCIe 3.0 x8 adapter that combines a ConnectX-4 Lx Ethernet ASIC with a Xilinx Kintex UltraScale XCKU060 FPGA and 4 GB of FPGA-attached DDR4, designed for inline traffic acceleration such as IPsec, TLS, low-latency trading, and custom packet processing.
Q. Does the MNV101511A-BCAT support InfiniBand?
No. Innova Flex 4 Lx is built on ConnectX-4 Lx silicon, which is Ethernet only. For InfiniBand-capable Innova platforms, see the Innova-2 Flex VPI parts (ConnectX-5 based, MNV303xxx series).
Q. Can the card run at 25GbE or 100GbE?
No. The QSFP+ cage and ConnectX-4 Lx implementation on this card cap at 40GbE native (or 4×10GbE breakout). 25/50/100GbE require ConnectX-4/-5 EN/VPI cards with QSFP28 cages.
Q. What development tools do I need to program the FPGA?
Xilinx Vivado HLx (matching the Kintex UltraScale device) plus the Mellanox Innova Flex SDK, which includes the PCIe and ConnectX-4 Lx interfaces as encrypted IP cores along with reference designs (IPsec, OVS offload, packet capture).
Q. Is the MNV101511A-BCAT compatible with non-NVIDIA equipment?
Yes — the QSFP+ port is MSA-compliant and interoperates with 40GbE switches from Cisco, Arista, Juniper, Dell, HPE, and others. On the host side it presents as a standard Mellanox mlx5_core NIC under Linux/Windows/ESXi.
Q. What condition is supplied by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS?
New, factory-sealed unit in original NVIDIA Mellanox packaging where available. Every card is visually inspected and the bracket / heatsink / fan assembly is verified prior to dispatch. EU stock, professional anti-static packaging, global B2B shipping.
Why buy from T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS
T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS is a Europe-based NVIDIA Mellanox specialist serving HPC, AI, FinTech, and enterprise data-center procurement teams since 2007. Innova Flex SmartNICs are a niche, FPGA-based platform — we identify each card by MPN, FPGA part number, ConnectX ASIC revision, and bracket configuration before shipping, and we offer free pre-sale consultation on Vivado tool-chain compatibility and reference-design selection. Multi-currency B2B invoicing, EU stock with worldwide express options, and direct technical contact with our engineering team — not a call-center.