Item Spotlights
NVIDIA/Mellanox C8240(900-9X81Q-00CN-ST0) ConnectX-8 InfiniBand & Ethernet SuperNIC, SocketDirect NDR 400Gb/s PAM4 100G/Lane, Dual-port QSFP112, PCIe 6.0 x 16, Tall Bracket
NVIDIA C8240 (900-9X81Q-00CN-ST0) is part of the NVIDIA ConnectX-8 series of SuperNIC network interface cards. It uses the HHHL specification and is compatible with corresponding server slots. The default operating mode is 400GbE, and it is also compatible with the NDR IB network protocol, making it flexible for use in various network environments. The network card is equipped with dual-port QSFP112 interfaces, enabling efficient and flexible data transmission. It is optimized to supercharge hyperscale AI computing workloads.
The ConnectX-8 is not just a high-speed network adapter—it integrates native PCIe Gen6 support with an on-board PCIe switching fabric, eliminating the need for external PCIe switch chips. This design simplifies server architecture while improving overall system bandwidth, scalability, and multi-host connectivity.
ConnectX-8 integrates a Data Path Accelerator (DPA), a RISC-V–based event processor, and a multi-threaded PSA (Packet Stream Processor / Packet Switching Architecture) to enable hardware offload for packet parsing, classification, flow control, and SDN/NFV/QoS functions at the NIC level. In AI and HPC workloads, it accelerates collective operations such as All-Reduce and All-to-All communication, significantly improving distributed training efficiency across multi-GPU and multi-node environments.
ConnectX-8 supports advanced in-network computing capabilities such as SHARP (Scalable Hierarchical Aggregation and Reduction Protocol), which accelerates aggregation and reduction operations in large-scale HPC and AI clusters. The solution also provides telemetry-based routing and congestion control mechanisms, enabling more efficient utilization of network resources and significantly reducing tail latency — improving stability in large GPU clusters and cloud-scale environments.
