900-9X5AD-0056-ST8 Nvidia 100GBE Dual-Port QSFP28 PCIE 3.0 X16 Connectx-5 ROHS R6 Adapter

Product Overview of the NVIDIA 900-9X5AD-0056-ST8 Adapter

The NVIDIA 900-9X5AD-0056-ST8 ConnectX-5 Adapter Card is a high-performance dual-port network interface designed for enterprise data centers, cloud infrastructures, and high-performance computing environments. Built to deliver ultra-fast 100GbE and InfiniBand connectivity, this adapter ensures low latency, high throughput, and reliable networking for demanding workloads.

General Information

• Brand: NVIDIA
• Manufacturer Part Number: 900-9X5AD-0056-ST8
• Device Category: Network Adapter Card
• Compliance: RoHS R6 Certified

Technical Specifications

Form Factor and Interface

• Form Factor: Plug-in Card
• Bus Interface: PCI Express 3.0 x16
• PCIe Revision: PCIe 3.0

Supported Data Link

• Gigabit Ethernet
• 10 Gigabit Ethernet
• 25 Gigabit Ethernet
• 40 Gigabit LAN
• 50 Gigabit LAN
• 100 Gigabit Ethernet
• 100 Gigabit InfiniBand

Networking and Transport

• TCP/IP
• UDP/IP
• iSCSI

Standards

IEEE and IBTA Standards

• IEEE 802.1Q, 802.1P, 802.1AX
• IEEE 802.3AD (LACP)
• IEEE 802.3AE, 802.3AP, 802.3AZ
• IEEE 802.3BA, 802.3BJ, 802.3BM, 802.3BY
• IEEE 802.1QBB, 802.1QAZ, 802.1QAU, 802.1QBG
• IEEE 1588v2 Precision Time Protocol
• IBTA Specification 1.3

Compatibility

• Linux (RHEL, Ubuntu, SUSE, CentOS)
• Windows Server editions
• VMware ESXi
• Other major enterprise and virtualization platforms

Hardware

• Servers with available PCIe 3.0 x16 slots
• Compatible with NVIDIA/Mellanox networking drivers
• Supports enterprise switches and QSFP28 cables
• Designed for data centers, HPC clusters, and storage networks

The High-Performance 100GbE Network Adapter

The category of 100 Gigabit Ethernet (100GbE) network adapter cards is designed for modern data centers, high-performance computing environments, cloud service providers, AI infrastructure, enterprise virtualization platforms, and advanced storage networks. Products in this category, including the Nvidia 900-9X5AD-0056-ST8 100GBE Dual-Port QSFP28 PCIe 3.0 x16 ConnectX-5 Adapter Card, focus on delivering ultra-low latency, extreme bandwidth, hardware offloading, and scalable networking performance.

These adapter cards are purpose-built to support demanding workloads such as big data analytics, machine learning, deep learning training, NVMe-over-Fabrics (NVMe-oF), software-defined networking (SDN), network function virtualization (NFV), and high-frequency trading. They bridge the gap between compute, storage, and network layers, ensuring consistent throughput and minimal CPU overhead.

Dual-Port 100GbE QSFP28 Architecture

Dual-port QSFP28 adapters form a critical subcategory within high-speed Ethernet solutions. Each port supports up to 100GbE, allowing a single adapter card to deliver an aggregated bandwidth of up to 200Gbps. This architecture enables redundancy, load balancing, link aggregation, and network segmentation without additional hardware.

QSFP28 Interface Standard

QSFP28 (Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable 28) is the industry standard interface for 100GbE networking. It supports various cable and transceiver options, including passive copper DAC, active optical cables (AOC), and optical transceivers for short-, medium-, and long-range connectivity. This flexibility makes QSFP28 ideal for both rack-level and inter-rack deployments.

PCIe 3.0 x16 Form Factor

Adapters in this category utilize a PCI Express 3.0 x16 interface to ensure sufficient bandwidth between the network card and the host system. PCIe 3.0 x16 provides up to 128Gbps of theoretical throughput, which is critical for sustaining full line-rate performance on dual 100GbE ports.

Modern Server Platforms

PCIe 3.0 x16 network adapters are compatible with a wide range of enterprise servers, including x86-based platforms from leading OEMs. This makes them suitable for existing infrastructure upgrades without requiring a full platform refresh.

Nvidia ConnectX-5 Technology

The ConnectX-5 family represents a mature and widely adopted generation of smart network adapters. Products based on this technology are engineered to support both Ethernet and InfiniBand capabilities, though Ethernet remains the dominant use case for enterprise and cloud deployments.

ROHS R6 and Enterprise Standards

ROHS R6 compliance ensures that products in this category meet strict environmental and safety regulations regarding hazardous substances. This compliance is essential for enterprise procurement, global deployment, and long-term sustainability goals.

Enterprise-Grade Reliability

Adapters in this category are built with high-quality components, advanced thermal design, and rigorous validation processes. This ensures consistent performance and reliability in 24/7 data center environments.

Virtualization and Cloud Computing Use Cases

100GbE dual-port network adapters are foundational components in cloud and virtualization platforms. They support large-scale virtual machine deployments, container orchestration systems, and microservices architectures.

SR-IOV and Virtual Networking

Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) allows a single physical network adapter to present multiple virtual functions to guest operating systems. This enables near-native network performance for virtual machines while maintaining strong isolation.

High-Performance Computing

In high-performance computing (HPC) and AI clusters, network performance directly impacts application scalability and efficiency. Dual-port 100GbE adapters enable fast node-to-node communication and high-speed access to shared storage.

Storage Networking and NVMe-over-Fabrics

Storage performance is increasingly dependent on network capabilities. This category is well-suited for modern storage architectures that rely on Ethernet-based protocols.

NVMe-oF Acceleration

NVMe-over-Fabrics allows NVMe storage devices to be accessed over the network with minimal latency. Hardware acceleration in ConnectX-5 adapters ensures that NVMe-oF performance approaches that of local storage.

Operating System and Platform

Products in this category support a wide range of operating systems, including major Linux distributions, Windows Server editions, and hypervisor platforms. Broad compatibility ensures easy integration into diverse IT environments.

Future-Ready Networking

While based on PCIe 3.0, the performance headroom and advanced features of these adapters ensure relevance as network demands continue to grow.