NVIDIA Mellanox® MQM8700-HS2F Quantum™ HDR InfiniBand Switch: This is a managed, non-blocking 40-port HDR (High Data Rate) switch built on the Quantum™ ASIC architecture. Providing an aggregate throughput of 16Tb/s with ultra-low latency, it serves as a critical building block for AI and HPC clusters. The "HS2F" designation indicates a Managed switch equipped with an x86 dual-core processor for running MLNX-OS®, enabling onboard Subnet Management (SM) and advanced telemetry without external appliances. It supports full 200Gb/s bandwidth per port via QSFP56 interfaces.
🔧 Technical Specifications
- OEM: NVIDIA / Mellanox
- Model: MQM8700-HS2F (Managed)
- P/N: 920-9B110-00FH-0MD
- Throughput: 200Gb/s per port (HDR)
- Ports: 40x QSFP56
- Airflow: P2C (Power-to-Connector / Blue Latch / Rear Intake)
- Power Supply: Dual Redundant Hot-Swap AC
🌐 Engineering Context: The MQM8700-HS2F is optimized for specific data center cooling architectures where cold air is supplied from the rear (power supply side) and exhausted out the front (port side). This "Reverse Airflow" or P2C configuration is essential for rear-facing rack deployments often found in hyperscale GPU clusters. It features NVIDIA SHARP™ technology for in-network computing, offloading reduction operations to the switch to accelerate distributed AI training.
🧠 Typical Use Cases
- Spine/Leaf deployments in rear-cooled rack configurations.
- NVIDIA SuperPod™ clusters requiring managed fabric intelligence.
- High-frequency trading (HFT) networks needing deterministic sub-microsecond latency.
- Scalable Storage fabrics utilizing NVMe-oF and RDMA protocols.
✅ Compatible With: NVIDIA ConnectX-6 and ConnectX-7 VPI/HDR Adapter Cards. Supports HDR100 (100Gb/s) via 2x100G splitter cables and legacy EDR (100Gb/s) speeds. Integrates seamlessly with NVIDIA UFM (Unified Fabric Manager) platforms.
❌ NOT Compatible With: Data center aisles configured for standard Front-to-Back (C2P) airflow (unless ducting is used), as this unit exhausts hot air towards the cold aisle in a standard setup. Not compatible with standard Ethernet transceivers without VPI gateway configuration.
⚠️ Airflow Direction (P2C): This unit is "Power-to-Connector" (often marked with Blue latches). It pulls cold air from the power supply side (Rear) and exhausts hot air out the port side (Front). Verify your rack's thermal design before purchase to avoid thermal recirculation loops.
⚠️ Subnet Management: Being a managed switch, the MQM8700-HS2F can act as the Subnet Manager for small to medium clusters (up to 2048 nodes depending on license/firmware), eliminating the need for a dedicated host-based SM.
🤝 Why Choose T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS? We specialize in enterprise-grade NVIDIA Mellanox networking hardware. Every MQM8700-HS2F is strictly validated for thermal stability, PSU redundancy, and switching logic in our engineering lab. We offer expert consultation, fast worldwide shipping, and a comprehensive warranty to ensure your AI and HPC infrastructure runs without compromise.