NVIDIA Mellanox MCX653106A-ECAT SmartNIC Firmware 20.30.1004

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 the configuration on multi-host adapter cards, for the changes to take effect, PCIe restart must be simultaneously sent 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:

- Added support for PAM4 Auto Negotiation and Link Training in 200GbE link speed.
- Removed triggering unexpected internal CNPs for RoCE Lossy slow_restart_idle feature.
- Enabled KR-Startup in Auto-Negotiation mode for PAM4.
- Added support for a new NV config mode “icm_cache_mode_large_scale_steering” that enables less cache misses and improves performance for cases when working with many steering rules. This capability is enabled using the mlxconfig parameter "ICM_CACHE_MODE".
- Added support for power saving in L1 ASPM link state.
- This new capability enables VF/VF-group rate-limiting while per-host rate-limiter is also applied.

Bug Fixes:

- Removed the option to create unnecessary internal CNP operation for the Lossy ADP retransmission feature.
- Set the cap to 0 for high index functions to avoid too many parallel VF NODNIC functions.
 - Fixed an issue related to unused port LEDs when no cable is connected to the adapter card.

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.

  It is highly recommended to always use the most recent driver version available.

Try to set a system restore point before installing a device driver. This will help if you installed an incorrect or mismatched driver. Problems can arise when your hardware device is too old or not supported any longer.