540-BDQB Dell Emulex 1-Port PCI-E 4.0 32G/64G Host Bus Adapter

Dell 540-BDQB Emulex Single-Port HBA

The Dell 540-BDQB Emulex Host Bus Adapter delivers advanced connectivity with PCI-Express 4.0 technology, offering high-speed Fibre Channel performance for enterprise environments. Designed with a full-height bracket, this single-port adapter ensures reliable data transfer and seamless integration into modern infrastructures.

Product Information

• Brand Name: Dell
• Part Number: 540-BDQB
• Product Type: Single-Port Fibre Channel HBA

Technical Attributes

• Compact PCIe card with low-profile design
• Dimensions: 167.64mm x 68.91mm (6.60” x 2.71”)
• Seventh-generation Fibre Channel technology
• Supports 64GFC and 32GFC speeds

Cable Compatibility

• OM4 MMF: 0.5m to 100m at 64GFC/32GFC
• OM5 MMF: 0.5m to 100m at 64GFC/32GFC
• OM3 MMF: 0.5m to 70m at 64GFC/32GFC
• Singlemode Fiber: Up to 10km at 32GFC/16GFC with approved longwave transceivers

Optical Data Rates

• 28.05 Gb/s (3200 MB/s)
• 14.025 Gb/s (1600 MB/s)
• 8.5 Gb/s (800 MB/s)
• Automatic detection of supported speeds

Hardware Compatibility

• Intel x64 architecture
• Intel x86 systems
• PowerPC platforms

Connectivity Features

• Single port configuration
• Short-wave laser optics with LC-type connectors
• PCIe Gen4 x8 host bus interface

Controller Details

• Integrated XE601 I/O controller

Environmental Conditions

• Operating humidity: 5% to 95% non-condensing
• Operating temperature: 0°C to 55°C
• Storage temperature: -20°C to 85°C (-4°F to 185°F)

Operating System Support

• Microsoft Windows
• Oracle Linux (including UEK)
• Oracle Solaris
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
• VMware vSphere
• Additional OEM and partner support available

Dell Emulex Single-Port PCI-E HBA Overview

The Dell 540-BDQB Emulex 1-Port PCI-Express 4.0 32G/64G Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter represents a highly advanced class of enterprise connectivity hardware designed to meet the performance, reliability, and scalability demands of modern data centers. This category of Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBAs) plays a critical role in bridging servers with storage area networks (SANs), enabling ultra-low latency communication and consistent data throughput across mission-critical environments. With support for next-generation PCI Express 4.0 and dual-speed Fibre Channel connectivity at both 32G and 64G, this adapter category is built to accommodate both current workloads and future infrastructure expansion.

PCI Express

At the core of this category is PCI Express 4.0, a high-bandwidth, low-latency interconnect standard that doubles the data transfer rates of PCIe 3.0. PCIe 4.0 offers up to 16 gigatransfers per second per lane, enabling this host bus adapter to fully leverage the throughput capabilities of modern Fibre Channel fabrics. The integration of PCIe 4.0 ensures that the adapter can handle increasing I/O demands without becoming a bottleneck within the server architecture.

Optimized Lane

This category of adapters is designed to optimize PCIe lane utilization, ensuring efficient data transfer while maintaining signal integrity at high speeds. Advanced equalization and signal processing techniques are employed to minimize errors and ensure reliable data transmission across the PCIe bus. These design elements are critical in enterprise environments where uptime, consistency, and error-free operation are essential.

Fibre Channel

The Dell 540-BDQB Emulex adapter category supports both 32G and 64G Fibre Channel speeds, enabling organizations to deploy the adapter in existing SAN infrastructures while preparing for future upgrades. Fibre Channel technology has long been the standard for enterprise SAN environments due to its reliability, low latency, and deterministic performance characteristics. By supporting both current and emerging Fibre Channel standards, this adapter category provides exceptional investment protection.

High-Speed Data Transfer

With Fibre Channel speeds reaching up to 64 gigabits per second, this adapter category is optimized for high-throughput workloads such as transactional databases, enterprise resource planning systems, virtualization clusters, and high-performance computing applications. The architecture minimizes protocol overhead and supports direct memory access operations, reducing latency and CPU utilization while maintaining consistent throughput.

Single-Port Design

The Dell 540-BDQB Emulex adapter category features a single-port design, providing focused, high-performance connectivity for servers that require dedicated storage paths. This configuration is particularly advantageous in environments that employ multipathing, redundancy, or segmentation strategies, allowing administrators to optimize traffic flow and maintain high availability across SAN fabrics.

Seamless Integration

The Dell 540-BDQB Emulex adapter category is designed for seamless integration with leading enterprise SAN ecosystems, including major storage vendors, fabric switches, and management platforms. This broad compatibility ensures that organizations can deploy the adapter within existing infrastructures without requiring extensive reconfiguration or compatibility testing.

Interoperability

This category of Fibre Channel HBAs is tested and certified for compatibility with a wide range of enterprise storage arrays and SAN fabric switches. Interoperability testing ensures that the adapter functions reliably across diverse hardware configurations, supporting consistent performance and seamless data access.

Compatibility

The Dell Emulex Fibre Channel adapter category is compatible with leading hypervisors and orchestration platforms, ensuring seamless integration within virtualized and cloud-based infrastructures. Support for virtualization-aware features, such as virtual ports, zoning, and quality of service, enables administrators to optimize storage connectivity for diverse workloads. Integration with container orchestration platforms further extends the adapter’s capabilities, enabling persistent storage access for containerized applications. This ensures that modern microservices architectures can leverage enterprise-grade storage performance and reliability.

Data Integrity

Security and data integrity are paramount in enterprise storage environments, particularly in industries subject to regulatory compliance, data protection requirements, and strict governance standards. This adapter category incorporates advanced security features to safeguard data in transit and ensure the integrity of storage operations.

Scalability

Enterprise IT infrastructures must be designed with scalability and future growth in mind. This adapter category supports scalable architectures by providing high-performance connectivity that can accommodate increasing data volumes, higher I/O demands, and evolving storage technologies.

Use Cases

The Dell 540-BDQB Emulex Fibre Channel adapter category is well-suited for a wide range of enterprise application use cases and deployment scenarios. Its high-performance, reliable, and scalable design makes it ideal for environments that require consistent storage access and low-latency connectivity. Common deployment scenarios include enterprise data centers, cloud service provider infrastructures, high-performance computing clusters, disaster recovery sites, and remote office or branch office environments. In each of these scenarios, the adapter category delivers the performance and reliability necessary to support mission-critical workloads.

Alignment

This adapter category aligns with key enterprise storage trends, including the adoption of high-speed networks, NVMe over Fabrics, software-defined storage, and hybrid cloud architectures. By providing the connectivity foundation required to support these trends, the adapter category enables organizations to modernize their storage infrastructures and achieve strategic objectives.

Integration

Software-defined storage and hybrid cloud architectures rely on flexible, high-performance connectivity to deliver scalable. This adapter category supports these architectures by providing reliable, low-latency Fibre Channel connectivity that integrates seamlessly with software-defined storage platforms and hybrid cloud infrastructures.