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Socket Direct Adapters

Maximize Data Center Performance and Increase ROI

An innovative network adapter architecture—NVIDIA^® Mellanox^® Socket Direct^®—enables direct PCIe access to multiple CPU sockets, eliminating the need for network traffic having to traverse the inter-process bus. This optimizes overall system performance and maximum throughput for the most demanding applications and markets.

Eliminate Traffic Bottlenecks

Based on NVIDIA Mellanox Multi-Host^® technology, NVIDIA Mellanox Socket Direct technology enables several CPUs within a multi-socket server to connect directly to the network, each through its own dedicated PCIe interface. Through either a connection harness that splits the PCIe lanes between two cards or by bifurcating a PCIe slot for a single card. This results in eliminating the network traffic traversing over the internal bus between the sockets, significantly reducing overhead and latency, in addition to reducing CPU utilization and increasing network throughput. Mellanox Socket Direct also improves Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning application performance, as it enables native GPU-Direct^® technologies.

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Highlights

LATENCY IMPROVEMENT

80% Reduction

CPU UTILIZATION

50% Less

THROUGHPUT

16-28% improvement

NETWORK PROTOCOLS

Ethernet/InfiniBand

Benefits

Flexible Form Factors Across Multiple Data Speeds

ConnectX-6 Dx Multi-Host OCP 3.0 cards can connect a 200GbE port to up to 4 PCIe Gen4 x4 slots
ConnectX-6 Socket Direct cards provide HDR 200Gb/s or 200GbE ports over two PCIe Gen3 x16 slots
ConnectX-6 OCP3.0 cards provide HDR 200Gb/s or 200GbE ports to up to 4 PCIe Gen4 x4 slots
ConnectX-5 Socket Direct cards provide EDR 100Gb/s or 100GbE transmission rate over two PCIe Gen3 x8 slots

Enhanced Performance That is Easy to Manage

Socket Direct adapters can be connected to a BMC using MCTP over SMBus, or MCTP over PCIe, similar to a standard NVIDIA PCIe stand-up adapter. The chosen management interface facilitates communication between the platform management and subsystem component and the Socket Direct adapters can then be configured transparently by the chosen server management solution.

Socket Direct Removes the Load on the Inter-processor Bus

Socket Direct technology utilizes the same underlying technology that enables Multi-Host, only to different CPUs within the same server. When comparing the servers’ external throughput while applying the inter-processor load compared to when Socket Direct is implemented, throughput is improved by 16%-28% compared to the standard adapter connection to a single CPU.

Multi-Host and Socket Direct Comparison

	MULTI-HOST	SOCKET DIRECT
Motivation	Reduces CAPEX / OPEX	Improve performance
Server Config	Individual servers; each with its own OS instance	Single server running single OS
PCIe Signals	Individual PCIe Reset, Clock, etc.	Common PCIe Reset, Clock, etc.
BMC	Supports individual BMCs	Single BMC
Pre-boot	Individual pre-boot instance	Single pre-boot instance

ConnectX Comparison

	ORDERING PART NO.	MAX. SPEED	PORTS	CONNECTORS	ASIC & PCI DEV ID	PCI	LANES
ConnectX-6 Dx	MCX623435MN-CDAB	100GbE	1	QSFP56	ConnectX-6 Dx	OCP3.0, Multi Host or Socket Direct, PCIe 4.0 x16	1x16/2x8/4x4
	Contact NVIDIA	100GbE	1	DSFP	ConnectX-6 Dx	OCP3.0, Multi Host or Socket Direct, PCIe 4.0 x16	1x16/2x8/4x4
	Contact NVIDIA	100GbE	1	QSFP56	ConnectX-6 Dx	Socket Direct PCIe 4.0 x16, split into two x8	2x8 in a row
	Contact NVIDIA	200GbE	1	QSFP56	ConnectX-6 Dx	OCP3.0, Multi Host or Socket Direct, PCIe 4.0 x16	1x16/2x8/4x4

ConnectX-6 VPI	MCX653105A-EFAT	HDR100, EDR IB (100Gb/s) and 100GbE	1	QSFP56	ConnectX-6	Socket Direct 3.0/4.0 x16, split into two x8	2x8 in a row
	MCX653106A-EFAT	HDR100, EDR IB (100Gb/s) and 100GbE	2	QSFP56	ConnectX-6	Socket Direct 3.0/4.0 x16, split into two x8	2x8 in a row
	MCX653106A-EFAT	HDR IB (200Gb/s) and 200GbE	1	QSFP56	ConnectX-6	Socket Direct PCIe3.0 x16 + PCIe3.0x16 auxiliary card	2x16
	MCX654106A-HCAT	HDR IB (200Gb/s) and 200GbE	2	QSFP56	ConnectX-6	Socket Direct PCIe3.0 x16 + PCIe3.0x16 auxiliary card	2x16

ConnectX-5 VPI	MCX556M-ECAT-S25	EDR IB (100Gb/s) and 100GbE	2	QSFP28	ConnectX-5	Socket Direct PCIe3.0 x8 + PCIe3.0x8 auxiliary card, 25cm harness	2x8
ConnectX-5 VPI	MCX556M-ECAT-S35A	EDR IB (100Gb/s) and 100GbE	2	QSFP28	ConnectX-5	Socket Direct PCIe3.0 x8 + PCIe3.0x8 auxiliary card, 35cm harness	2x8