P43275-B21 HPE Mellanox Ethernet 10/25GB Dual Port SFP28 OCP3 Adapter

P43275-B21 HPE Mellanox MCX562A-ACAI Ethernet Adapter Overview

The P43275-B21 HPE Mellanox MCX562A-ACAI Ethernet 10/25GB Dual Port SFP28 OCP3 Adapter is engineered to deliver high-performance networking for data-intensive applications and enterprise-grade server environments. As a part of HPE's high-speed networking solutions, this Mellanox adapter combines dual-port SFP28 connectivity with the OCP 3.0 form factor, delivering unparalleled flexibility, throughput, and virtualization capabilities.

Built on the ConnectX-5 architecture from Mellanox (now NVIDIA Networking), this 25Gb Ethernet adapter ensures low-latency, high-throughput networking that supports modern workloads including cloud computing, data analytics, machine learning, and storage-intensive operations. With dual-port 10/25 GbE capability, the P43275-B21 is designed for HPE servers that require scalable and reliable network interface solutions.

Advanced Ethernet Capabilities with SFP28

The dual-port SFP28 interfaces on the P43275-B21 allow for link speeds of up to 25 Gbps per port. This enables customers to maximize bandwidth in a compact and energy-efficient footprint. SFP28 technology is backward compatible with SFP+ 10G modules, which adds deployment flexibility across various network architectures.

The SFP28 interface also supports a broad range of optical transceivers and DAC cables, making this Ethernet adapter an ideal choice for environments requiring high-speed connectivity with minimal latency. The modular nature of SFP28 cages allows organizations to tailor their networking approach to meet specific performance, distance, and budgetary requirements.

Key Features of the HPE MCX562A-ACAI Adapter

• Dual-port 10/25GbE SFP28 interface
• Optimized for HPE Gen10 and Gen10 Plus servers
• Based on the Mellanox ConnectX-5 architecture
• Supports RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE v2)
• Flexible OCP 3.0 form factor for modular server deployment
• Hardware offloads for tunneling protocols like VXLAN, NVGRE
• SR-IOV support for enhanced virtualization
• Enterprise-grade reliability and performance consistency

OCP 3.0 Form Factor: The Future of Modular Networking

The P43275-B21 is built using the OCP 3.0 form factor, which supports a modular, open design that enhances thermal efficiency and power management in modern server architectures. This form factor standard enables the seamless integration of NICs into HPE server motherboards, reducing cabling complexity and allowing hot-swapping and better serviceability.

OCP 3.0 cards also enable real-time telemetry and health monitoring features that are critical in today’s data center environments. With OCP 3.0 NIC 3.0 design, administrators benefit from front-accessible components and standardized mechanical and electrical interfaces, facilitating faster deployments and easier lifecycle management.

Benefits of OCP3.0 in Data Centers

• Reduced cabling and simplified installation
• Enhanced power efficiency and airflow optimization
• Increased network modularity and scalability
• Support for higher I/O throughput per watt
• Improved monitoring via enhanced telemetry

Use Cases and Application Scenarios

The P43275-B21 adapter is widely deployed in multiple use cases across various industries. Its high-speed Ethernet capability and intelligent offloading features make it ideal for cloud data centers, enterprise storage fabrics, and high-performance computing clusters. Whether used for east-west traffic in a cloud-native Kubernetes environment or for iSCSI/NFS over Ethernet in hybrid cloud infrastructure, this adapter consistently delivers performance and efficiency.

Cloud and Virtualization Workloads

In multi-tenant environments, where virtualization density and VM performance are critical, the P43275-B21 adapter provides Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) support that enables direct assignment of adapter resources to virtual machines. This helps reduce CPU overhead and enhances data path efficiency, ensuring minimal bottlenecks even under heavy load.

Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) applications also benefit from the advanced offloading capabilities such as stateless offloads, checksum, and segmentation offload, all of which improve the packet processing efficiency at the hypervisor and guest OS levels.

Storage Networking and NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF)

With the proliferation of NVMe-based storage systems, low-latency network interfaces are crucial. The HPE Mellanox MCX562A-ACAI adapter supports RoCE v2, enabling Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) over Ethernet fabrics. This functionality significantly lowers latency and reduces CPU utilization in storage applications such as NVMe-oF and iSER (iSCSI Extensions for RDMA).

Enterprises utilizing software-defined storage solutions like VMware vSAN, Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct, or Ceph will find the adapter's compatibility and performance alignment with their workloads to be ideal for consistent data throughput and reliability.

Performance Enhancements and Hardware Offloads

The P43275-B21 adapter provides hardware-based acceleration features that offload protocol processing from the server’s CPU. This not only frees up compute resources for application processing but also ensures consistent network throughput under diverse workloads.

Supported Offloads

• TCP/UDP/IP checksum offload
• Large Send Offload (LSO)
• Receive Side Scaling (RSS)
• Generic Receive Offload (GRO)
• VXLAN, GENEVE, and NVGRE tunneling offload
• IPSec and TLS encryption offload (with security firmware)

These offload capabilities are instrumental in reducing network stack processing time, improving efficiency for demanding applications such as real-time analytics, edge computing, and AI training workloads.

Compatibility with HPE Servers and Infrastructure

The HPE MCX562A-ACAI P43275-B21 adapter is qualified for use with a wide range of HPE ProLiant and Apollo servers, particularly those supporting OCP 3.0 mezzanine slots. HPE ensures rigorous compatibility testing and firmware validation to guarantee seamless integration, optimal BIOS handshakes, and enterprise-grade reliability.

Supported Server Families

• HPE ProLiant DL Gen10/Gen10 Plus servers
• HPE Apollo 2000 and 4000 series systems
• HPE Synergy composable infrastructure (via OCP 3.0 adapters)

With HPE’s Integrated Lights-Out (iLO) management and tooling support, deploying and maintaining the P43275-B21 adapter is simplified. Smart Update Manager (SUM) and Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) provide driver and firmware orchestration that aligns with the server’s lifecycle.

Virtualization and Cloud Integration

As organizations transition to hybrid cloud and containerized platforms, the need for NICs that can operate efficiently in virtualized and orchestrated environments grows. The P43275-B21 delivers consistent integration across leading hypervisors including VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, Red Hat KVM, and Citrix XenServer.

Containerization and Kubernetes Integration

For Kubernetes-based environments, especially those utilizing Calico, Flannel, or Cilium CNI plugins, the adapter provides strong support for overlay networking through VXLAN/NVGRE offloads and SR-IOV passthrough for container workloads requiring direct access to NIC resources.

Enhanced Packet Processing for Microservices

In microservices architecture, fast inter-service communication is vital. The adapter's low-latency capabilities and offloading features help minimize inter-pod communication delays. This results in more efficient service mesh operations and better application responsiveness.

Security Features and Firmware Options

The HPE Mellanox MCX562A-ACAI adapter includes support for secure boot and firmware validation, ensuring that malicious code cannot execute during NIC initialization. Optional cryptographic acceleration and secure firmware signing enhance security posture for customers in regulated industries or zero-trust environments.

Administrators can manage and apply firmware updates via HPE’s secure tooling framework, ensuring version control and audit compliance across environments.

Secure Networking Capabilities

• Firmware image signing and validation
• Optional IPSec offload for encrypted data streams
• Hardware root of trust for NIC firmware
• Role-based access control for device configuration

Environmental Efficiency and Power Optimization

As data centers move towards greener initiatives, the power efficiency of every component matters. The P43275-B21 Ethernet adapter offers power-aware features that adjust performance according to system load, minimizing waste while maintaining performance.

Through intelligent thermal design and power throttling, the adapter supports Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) standards and advanced power states that align with HPE's sustainability objectives.

Energy Efficient Design

• Dynamic power consumption scaling
• Compliant with Energy Star and RoHS directives
• Supports system-wide power optimization via BIOS settings