MacPro 10GbE - Has anyone seen this before

[ewhite]

Hi All,

Please see the image below, can anyone tell me an official Apple card to use for this type of connection, and confirm the termination type? Looks like CAT6 or CAT6A to a termination I've not seen before, going into a 10GbE interface card.

Link to pictures of what I am talking about: Click Here

Interface card example (but can't tell if fiber or Copper) http://www.myricom.com/solutions/10-gb-ethernet/overview.html

Thanks everyone -

 

[initialsBB]

It looks more like an mini SAS connector to me... Edit: guess not, sorry!

The thickness of the cable seems to indicate that it is copper, so it is probably a CX4 or SFP+ cable (probably the older CX4 though). It is much thicker than a CAT6.

That card also looks like copper connect (fat port).

 

[reebzor]

looks like those cards have take GBICs, so maybe you can use fiber or copper.

 

[ewhite]

It looks more like an mini SAS connector to me... Edit: guess not, sorry!

The thickness of the cable seems to indicate that it is copper, so it is probably a CX4 or SFP+ cable (probably the older CX4 though). It is much thicker than a CAT6.

That card also looks like copper connect (fat port).

Thanks - I agree that this looks like CX4, but I really have no way to tell exactly. Looks like it is also called Infiniband, and there are several variations.

I'm at a loss where to go next with this, if you have any recommendations on who I could ask (prob not Apple) would be appreciated.

Link to infiniband

 

[deconstruct60]

Hi All,

Please see the image below, can anyone tell me an official Apple card to use for this type of connection, and confirm the termination type?

There is no Apple branded 10GbE card. Only their relatively dated Fibre Channel card. It would be interesting if Apple replaced that FC card with a 10GbE card that could do FCoE (Fiber Channel over Ethernet). That would make more sense that sticking to the FC only storage networks. That's a dead-end.

However, 3rd party solutions have been out for years. Here's a Small-tree blog entry from almost 2 years ago.

http://smalltreesales.blogspot.com/2010/07/about-10gb-ethernet-network-interface.html

 

[matspekkie]

This is an infiniband card mainly used for storage connections.
A company like http://www.small-tree.com/ sells specific apple cards like these.

 

[dyn]

It depends on the part number: some are using glass and thus use the SFP+ module but others are copper and use the CX4 connector. How I know? I clicked the part numbers and it will then tell you

 

[deconstruct60]

Looks like it is also called Infiniband, and there are several variations.

I'm at a loss where to go next with this, if you have any recommendations on who I could ask (prob not Apple) would be appreciated.

Unless things relatively recently changed, there are no Infiniband solutions for Macs. Macs and Apple have mostly dropped out of the top end high performance computing and no one is moving toward an upper end storage solution with a Mac front end.

[ At one point Mellanox was going to do Mac OS X drivers for cards based on their chipset, but that market never panned out. Especially after the Mac/XServe solutions started to get pushed out of new Top 500 Supercomputer installs. After retirement of the XServe all the more so. ]