NVIDIA Mellanox MCX654105A-HCAT SmartNIC Firmware 20.28.1002

Firmware which is added at the time of manufacturing, is used to run user programs on the device and can be thought of as the software that allows hardware to run. Embedded firmware is used to control the functions of various hardware devices and systems, much like a computer’s operating system (OS) controls the function of software applications. Firmware may be written into read-only memory (ROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM) or flash memory.

Important Notes:
- Security Hardening Enhancements: This release contains important reliability improvements and security hardening enhancements. Mellanox recommends upgrading your devices firmware to this release to improve the devices’ firmware security and reliability.
- When upgrading or changing configuration on multi-host adapter cards, for the changes to take effect, PCIe restart must be simultaneously send from both hosts (servers).
- SR-IOV - Virtual Functions (VF) per Port - The maximum Virtual Functions (VF) per port is 127.
- It is recommended to enable the “above 4G decoding” BIOS setting for features that require large amount of PCIe resources. Such features are: SR-IOV with numerous VFs, PCIe Emulated Switch, and Large BAR Requests.

Changes and New Features:

- EDR link speed is now supported when using ConnectX-6 100Gb/s HCA and connecting with HDR optical cables.
- Implemented the following new commands from NS-SI 1.2 specification: Get IB Link Status, Get IB Statistics, and Get PF Assignment
- Added support for Virtual node GUID, and set & get address through the NC-SI commands.
- Added the ability to inject iCRC/vCRC port level error using Port Transmit Error Register (PTER).
- Added support for in-node sync.
- Support for SX RDMA Flow Table type in IB port
- Support for modifying header action in IB port
- Support for new hairpin mode: IB-to-IB, Eth-to-IB, and IB-to-Eth
- This new feature defines the forwarding behavior in MPFS for packets arriving from the network (uplink) with destination MAC address that does not appear in the MPFS FDB. The new feature is configured by a new NV configuration (UNKNOWN_UPLINK_MAC_FLOOD) which when enabled, floods all local MPFS ports with these packets, otherwise drops these packets.
- Increased the maximum XRQ number to 512.
- Added the following new mlxconfig parameters to the Non-Volatile Configurations section: log_max_outstandng_wqe and ece_disable_mask

Bug Fixes:

- In rare cases, HDR active copper cable link up time might be higher than expected (up to 2 minutes).
- Fixed an issue that caused packets to get stuck when the Rate Limiter was enabled.
- Active SHARP SAT QPs (QP with packet-based e2e credits) can break the live-FW-patch flow and result in firmware getting stuck.
- Fixed an issue that prevented a QP with ATS buffer from being using by the NVMF offload.

About Network Adapter Drivers:

When connected, the operating system usually installs a generic driver that helps the computer to recognize the newly attached device.

However, proper software must be applied if you want to make use of all features that the network adapter has available. This task also allows computers to properly recognize all device characteristics such as manufacturer, chipset, technology, and others.

Updating the adapter's drivers and utilities version might improve overall performance and stability, increase transfer speeds, fix different compatibility problems and several network-related errors, as well as bring various other changes.

To install this release, simply get the package, extract it if necessary, run the setup, and follow the instructions displayed on-screen. When done, don't forget to perform a system restart and reconnect the network adapter to make sure that all changes take effect properly.

Without further ado, if you intend to apply this version, click the download button and install the package. Moreover, check with our website as often as possible so that you don't miss a single new release.