Detailed Specifications
HPE 778509-B21 ConnectX-3 Pro FDR IB/Ethernet Adapter
Overview
The HPE 778509-B21 is a high-performance Converged Network Adapter (CNA) designed to deliver robust connectivity for demanding server and storage environments. Built upon Mellanox ConnectX-3 Pro technology, this adapter provides versatile InfiniBand and Ethernet capabilities, making it ideal for high-performance computing (HPC) clusters, enterprise data centers, and virtualized infrastructures. It addresses the critical need for low-latency, high-bandwidth I/O, ensuring that applications run efficiently and data moves swiftly across the network. This dual-port adapter supports InfiniBand Four Data Rate (FDR) speeds up to 56 Gbps and Ethernet speeds of 10 Gigabit, 40 Gigabit, and up to 56 Gigabit. This flexibility allows IT architects to consolidate multiple network fabrics onto a single adapter, simplifying server configurations and reducing cabling complexity. Leveraging Virtual Protocol Interconnect (VPI) technology, the adapter can dynamically configure its ports for either InfiniBand or Ethernet, optimizing resource utilization based on workload requirements. It offloads network processing tasks from the CPU, freeing up valuable processing power for core applications. Designed as a plug-in PCI Express 3.0 x8 card, the 778509-B21 seamlessly integrates into compatible HPE ProLiant and other standard servers. Its low-profile form factor enables deployment in various server chassis. With hardware offloads for virtualization technologies like NVGRE and VXLAN, alongside support for RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) and SR-IOV, the adapter enhances virtual machine performance and improves overall data center efficiency by reducing overhead and ensuring predictable network performance.
