PCIe3 2-port 25/10 Gb NIC & RoCE SFP28 adapter (FC EC2T and FC EC2U; CCIN 58FB)

Learn about the specifications and operating system requirements for feature code (FC) EC2T and FC EC2U adapters.

Overview

FC EC2T and EC2U are both the same adapter with different feature codes. FC EC2T is a low-profile adapter, and FC EC2U is a full-height adapter.

The PCIe3 2-PORT 25/10 Gb NIC & RoCE SFP28 Adapter (FC EC2T and EC2U) is a PCI Express® (PCIe) generation 3 (Gen3) x8 adapter. The adapter provides two 25 Gb SFP28 ports. The adapter supports both the Ethernet network interface controller (NIC) function and RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE). Using RoCE, the adapter can support significantly greater bandwidth with low latency. It also minimizes CPU overhead by more efficiently using memory access. This offloads the CPU from I/O networking tasks, improving performance and scalability.

Figure 1. PCIe3 LP 2-port 25/10 Gb NIC & RoCE SFP28 Adapter (FC EC2T)
PCIe3 LP 2-port 25/10 Gb NIC & RoCE SFP28 Adapter
Figure 2. PCIe3 2-port 25/10 Gb NIC & RoCE SFP28 Adapter (FC EC2U)
PCIe3 2-port 25/10 Gb NIC & RoCE SFP28 Adapter

Specifications

Item
Description
Adapter FRU number
01FT753
Wrap Plug FRU number
74Y7010 (Twinax wrap plug)
12R9314 (Optical wrap plug)
I/O bus architecture
PCIe3 x8
Slot requirement
For details about slot priorities, maximums, and placement rules, see PCIe adapter placement rules and slot priorities and select the system you are working on.
Voltage
3.3 V, 12 V.
Form factor
Short, low-profile (FC EC2T).
Short, with full-height tailstock (FC EC2U).
Attributes provided
RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE).
Dual port 25 Gb/10 Gb Ethernet network connectivity.
Supports 25 Gb Ethernet SFP28 connectivity.
Supports 10 Gb Ethernet SFP+ connectivity.
Supports 25 Gb SFP28 SR connectivity with a 25 Gb optical transceiver (IBM® P/N 03GH278, purchased separately).
Supports 10 Gb SFP+ SR connectivity with a 10 Gb optical transceiver (IBM P/N 01FT829, purchased separately).
Supports 1 Gb RJ45 connectivity with a 1000BASE-T transceiver (IBM P/N 03FP283, purchased separately). Supports 1 Gb and full-duplex only. PowerVM® SR-IOV not supported for 1 Gb.
AIX® Network Installation Management (NIM) support.
PCI Express 3.0 (up to 8 GT/s) x8.
PCIe Gen 3.0 compliant, 1.1 and 2.0 compatible.
IEEE 802.3ae (25Gb or 10Gb Ethernet), IEEE 802.3ad (Link Aggregation & Failover), IEEE 802.3az (Energy Efficient Ethernet), IEEE 802.1Q/P (VLAN Tagging), IEEE 802.10au (Congestion Notification), IEEE 802.1Qbg, IEEE 802.3Qaz D0.2 (ETS), IEEE 802.1Qbb D1.0 (PFC), IEEE 1588v2 (PTP).
Jumbo frame support up to 9.6 KB.
VXLAN and NVGRE Overlay Network offload support.
TCP/UDP/IP stateless offload.
TCP/UDP checksum offload.
TCP segmentation offload.
PowerVM SR-IOV support for 10 Gb and higher speeds.. For more information see, PowerVM SR-IOV FAQs.
Cables
For 25 GbE, IBM offers SFP28 Passive Copper 25 Gb Ethernet cables up to 2 m. SFP28 based transceivers are included on each end of these cables.
For 10 GbE, IBM offers Direct Attach Copper (DAC) cables up to 5 m. SFP-based transceivers are included on each end of these cables. For more information about adapter cabling, see Cable and Transceiver information.
Transceivers
For 25 GbE, IBM qualifies and supports SFP28 optical transceiver (FC EB47) to install into the adapter. Customers can also use their own optical cabling and SFP28 optical transceiver for the other end. The 25 Gb optical transceiver is capable up to 100 m through the OM4 cable or 70 M through OM3 cable. Either one or both of the adapter’s two SFP28 ports can be populated.
For 10 GbE, IBM qualifies and supports SFP+ optical transceiver (FC EB46) to install into the adapter. Customers can also use their own optical cabling and SFP+ optical transceiver for the other end. The 10 Gb optical transceiver is capable up to 300 M through the OM3 cable or 82 m through OM2 cable. Either one or both of the adapter’s two SFP28 ports can be populated.
For 1000BASE-T, IBM qualifies and supports the RJ45 transceiver (FC EB48) to install into the adapter. Customers can also use their own Cat 5e STP cabling. The 1000BASE-T transceiver is capable up to 100 m through the Cat 5e STP cable. Both of the adapter’s two RJ45 ports can be populated, but mixing 1 Gb with higher speeds is not supported. 100 Mbps or 10 Mbps speeds and half-duplex are not supported. PowerVM SR-IOV is not supported on ports with FC EB48 installed.

Cable and Transceiver information

Use multimode fiber optic cables with shortwave lasers that adhere to the following specifications:
  • OM3 or OM4: Multimode 50/125 micron fiber, 2000 MHz x km bandwidth
  • OM2: Multimode 50/125 micron fiber, 500 MHz x km bandwidth
  • OM1: Multimode 62.5/125 micron fiber, 200 MHz x km bandwidth

Because core sizes are different, OM1 cables can only be connected to other OM1 cables. For best results, OM2 cables must not be connected to OM3 or OM4 cables. However, if an OM2 cable is connected to an OM3 or OM4 cable, the characteristics of the OM2 cable apply to the entire length of the cables. The following table shows the supported distances for the different fiber optic cable types at different link speeds.

Table 1. Cable type and distance (10 Gb/s)
Rate Cable type and distance
10 Gb/s OM1 OM2 OM3
0.5 m to 33 m (1.64 ft to 108.26 ft) 0.5 m to 82 m (1.64 ft to 269.02 ft) 0.5 meters to 300 meters (1.64 ft to 984.25 ft)
Table 2. Cable type and distance (25 Gb/s)
Rate Cable type and distance
25 Gb/s OM2 OM3 OM4
0.5 m to 20 m (1.64 ft to 65.62 ft) 0.5 m to 70 m (1.64 ft to 229.66 ft 0.5 m to 100 m (1.64 ft to 984.25 ft)
Table 3. Optical transceivers and cables
Feature code Description
EB46 10 Gb optical transceiver (purchased separately)
EB47 25 Gb optical transceiver (purchased separately)
EB48 1 Gb RJ45 transceiver (purchased separately)
EB4J 25 Gb/s 0.5 m (1.6 ft) SFP28 passive copper 25 Gb Ethernet cable
EB4K 25 Gb/s 1.0 m (3.3 ft) SFP28 passive copper 25 Gb Ethernet cable
EB4L 25 Gb/s 1.5 m (4.9 ft) SFP28 passive copper 25 Gb Ethernet cable
EB4M 25 Gb/s 2.0m (6.6-ft) SFP28 passive copper 25 Gb Ethernet cable
EB4P [100 Gb/s to 4x25 Gb/s] 2.0 m (6.6-ft) QSFP28 passive copper to SFP28 4x25 Gb Ethernet split cable
EN01 10 Gb/s 1 m (3.3 ft) copper active twinax Ethernet cable
EN02 10 Gb/s 3 m (9.8 ft) copper active twinax Ethernet cable
EN03 10 Gb/s 5 m (16.4 ft) copper active twinax Ethernet cable
EN03 10 Gb/s 5 m (16.4 ft) copper active twinax Ethernet cable

Operating system or partition requirements

If you are installing a new feature, ensure that you have the software that is required to support the new feature and you must determine any prerequisites that must be met for this feature and the attached devices. For information about operating system and partition requirements, see one of the following topics: