PCIe3 LP 2-Port 40 GbE NIC RoCE QSFP+ Adapter (FC EC3A; CCIN 57BD)

Overview

The PCIe3 LP 2-Port 40 GbE NIC RoCE QSFP+ Adapter is a low-profile, PCIe generation-3 (PCIe3), dual port, 40-Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) adapter with a PCIe 3.0 host bus interface. The adapter acts as a network interface controller (NIC) and uses the IBTA RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) protocols to provide efficient Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) services. The adapter delivers high-bandwidth and low-latency 40 GbE connectivity, reducing the load on the processor and efficiently using the memory access. This action off-loads the processor from networking tasks which improves the performance and scalability of the processor.

The adapter is optimized for enterprise data centers, high-performance computing, transaction databases, cloud computing, virtualization, storage, and other embedded environments. The adapter improves network performance by increasing available bandwidth to the processor and by providing enhanced performance. The adapter provides dedicated adapter resources and protection for virtual machines (VM). The link aggregation and failover features of the adapter are ideal for critical network applications that require redundancy and high availability.

The two 40 Gb quad (4-channel) small form-factor pluggable (QSFP+) transceiver ports are used for connectivity with other servers or switches in the network. Each QSFP+ port provides Ethernet connectivity with a nominal data rate of 40 gigabits per second (Gbps).

The adapter does not include transceivers. Use copper cables with QSFP+ 40G BASE-SR transceivers for short distances. See Cables for more information about the cables.

For details about slot priorities and placement rules, see PCIe adapter placement rules and slot priorities and select the system you are working on.

Figure 1 shows the adapter.

Figure 1. FC EC3A adapter

Specifications

Item

Description

Adapter FRU number

00FW105 (Designed to comply with RoHS requirement)

I/O bus architecture

PCIe3 x8

Slot requirement

For details about slot priorities and placement rules, see PCIe adapter placement rules and slot priorities and select the system you are working on.

Cables

See Cables for details.

Voltage

3.3 V

Form factor

Short

Maximum number

For details about the maximum number of adapters that are supported, see PCIe adapter placement rules and slot priorities and select the system you are working on.

Cables

This adapter feature requires the use of compatible QSFP+, 40 Gbps, copper, twinaxial, active, Ethernet cables for cabling over short distances. See Figure 2 for different views of the QSFP+ copper cable. For distances over 5 meters, use two optical QSFP+ SR transceivers (FC EB27) that attach to optical cables FC EB2J or FC EB2K. See Table 1 for details about the feature codes.

Do not mix copper and optical cables on the same adapter.

Figure 2. Top and bottom view of the cable

Table 1. Feature code and part number for varying lengths of the cable

Cable length	Feature code	CCIN	Part number
Copper cables
1 m (3.28 ft)	EB2B		49Y7934
3 m (9.84 ft)	EB2H		49Y7935
5 m (16.4 ft)	ECBN		00D5809
Optical cables
10 m (32.8 ft)	EB2J		41V2458
30 m (98.4 ft)	EB2K		45D6369
QSFP+ 40G BASE-SR transceiver	EB27		49Y7928

Operating system or partition requirements

If you are installing a new feature, ensure that you have the software that is required to support the new feature and that you determine whether any prerequisites must be met for this feature and attaching devices. To check for the prerequisites, see IBM Prerequisite website.