Mellanox ConnectX-4 Re-flash to 100GbE?

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AveryFreeman

consummate homelabber
Mar 17, 2017
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Near Seattle
averyfreeman.com
if it doesn't work due to flint complaining - it is quite easy to get the mstflint sources, bypass the ckeck that fails, compile and flash whatever you want (at your own risk!)
did this to get fcct/pro fw on the el-cheapo hp cx-3 to see how much vxlan-offload is really worth...
You flashed QCBTs with FCCT firmware? I didn't know that was possible. I just read that the PROs actually have upgraded ASICs, how'd that work out? Are they basically just FCBTs, or is there any improvement over the FCBT(40/56GB firmware) with the FCCT firmware?

I flashed the QCBTs to FCBT and there's no discernable difference, but their hardware is identical...
 

unphased

Active Member
Jun 9, 2022
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Well I just ordered a CX455A-ECAT for $65 plus tax. At least for today it's the cheapest cx4 x16 card I found on eBay (the actual cheapest cx4 card is a $60 x8 CX4131A-BCAT), and I'm stoked to have found a sub-hundred dollar x16 card that might not even need me to flash it to reach those speeds given it's already an ECAT. If i do end up trying to flash it I will report back here.
 

TonyA

New Member
Sep 2, 2014
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I saw this thread and thought I may be able to help.

I recently picked up some MCX4131A-GCAT cards, but from my research these are PCIe 3 x8 cards, so 100GbE throughput shouldn't be possible if I've done my sums right?

There's a number of people said in the thread they've tried this and made it work, if someone could either reply with a howto or point me at one elsewhere I'm happy to try this and post a step by step example of experimenting to get this done if it's something people would be interested in?

I've got over ten cards and only paid circa $15 each for them, so happy to see if I can help. For the avoidance of doubt though, I'm not selling any so please don't ask, I was lucky picking these up and plan to migrate most of my existing boxes once I've understood the subtleties of DACs AOCs Transceivers etc... better (see my recent OP asking for help).

Edit added

I may be interested in swapping some of the cards for transceivers and cabling where the other party has been equally fortunate in what they paid for their contribution, so maybe we can help each other out?
 

unphased

Active Member
Jun 9, 2022
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Ah I just ordered a $40 CX4131A-BCAT... hmmm not sure if I should cancel it then. Nah I'll take it. Need more hardware for troubleshooting and stuff.
 

Freebsd1976

Active Member
Feb 23, 2018
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MCX413A-GCAT or MCX413A-BCAT are your target, they can flash to 100Gbe but limited by pcie 3.0 X8
MCX415-BCAT OR MCX416A-BCAT also your tagert,they can flash to 100Gbe and have pcie 3.0 x16