Oracle / Mellanox ConnectX-5 VPI 100Gb/s Dual-Port QSFP28 Adapter

Sun P/N: 7359059 | Model: CX556A (MCX556A-EDAT) | PCIe 4.0 x16

The Oracle 7359059 is an ultra-high-performance network interface card (NIC) featuring Mellanox's ConnectX-5 technology. This card is a "VPI" (Virtual Protocol Interconnect) adapter, meaning it can be configured to run either as a 100Gb/s Ethernet card or as an EDR InfiniBand card. It is designed for the most demanding data center environments, including High-Performance Computing (HPC), machine learning clusters, and high-frequency trading platforms where microseconds matter.

• Ports: 🔌 2 x QSFP28 (Quad Small Form-factor Pluggable 28)

• Ethernet Speed: 🏎️ 10/25/40/50/100 GbE

• Interface: ⚡ PCIe 4.0 x16 (Backward compatible with PCIe 3.0)

• Form Factor: 📏 Low Profile (Half-Height, Half-Length)

• Latency: ⏱️ Sub-600 nanoseconds

• Features: RoCE v1/v2, ASAP² (Accelerated Switching and Packet Processing), SR-IOV (up to 512 Virtual Functions)

• Virtual Protocol Interconnect (VPI): The standout feature of this card is its flexibility. A single card can serve as the backbone for an InfiniBand storage fabric or a high-speed Ethernet network, making it a "future-proof" asset for any server.

• Advanced Offloading: ConnectX-5 is famous for its hardware offloading capabilities. It handles RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) and NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF) entirely on the card, freeing up the server's CPU to focus on applications rather than network processing.

• PCIe 4.0 Ready: While it works perfectly in PCIe 3.0 slots, it is a Gen 4 x16 card. In a Gen 4 compatible server (like Oracle X8 or X9), it can provide twice the interface bandwidth, ensuring no bottlenecks at 100Gb/s speeds.

• MPI Tag Matching: Specifically for HPC users, this card supports hardware-based Message Passing Interface (MPI) offloads, which drastically improves the performance of clustered scientific and engineering applications.

• Target Systems:

  • Oracle Servers: Primary adapter for Oracle X8-2, X9-2, and ZFS Storage Appliance ZS9-2.

  • HPC Clusters: Ideal for researchers using InfiniBand for low-latency node communication.

  • NVMe Storage Arrays: Perfect for building high-speed storage targets that require massive throughput.

• Ideal Workloads:

  • Machine Learning/AI: Supports GPUDirect RDMA for direct data transfers between GPUs across the network.

  • Cloud Infrastructure: High density of Virtual Functions (SR-IOV) makes it a beast for multi-tenant environments.

  • Big Data: Accelerates Hadoop and Spark clusters by reducing data transfer Installation Note

    💡 Transceiver Tip: Since this is a 100Gb/s card, it requires QSFP28 transceivers or DAC (Direct Attach Copper) cables. Note that while QSFP+ (40G) cables will physically fit, they will limit the speed to 40Gb. To get the full 100Gb, you must use 100G-rated cabling.

    💡 Firmware: As an Oracle-branded part, it may come with Oracle-specific firmware. If you plan to use this in a non-Oracle server (like Dell or HP), you can typically "cross-flash" it to standard Mellanox/NVIDIA firmware, though this is for advanced users only.

    The Oracle Mellanox 7359059 is a top-tier networking tool. It is one of the fastest interface cards on the market, blending massive 100Gb bandwidth with industry-leading low latency.