NVIDIA Mellanox MCX654105A-HCAT SmartNIC Firmware 20.32.1010

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:

- GMP Classes: Added support for blocking unwanted GMP classes by dedicated MADs.
- QP Resources: Added a new NvConfig parameter LOG_MAX_QUEUE to set the maximum number of work queue resources (QP, RQ, SQ...) that can be created per function. The default value is 2^17.
- Congestion Control Key: Added a Congestion Control Key to all Congestion Control MADs to authenticate that they are originated from a trusted source.
- SMP Firewall: Added an SMP firewall to block the option of sending SMPs (MADS sent on QP0 from the Subnet Manager) from unauthorized hosts to prevent fake SMPs from being recognized as the SM.
- Vendor Specific MADs Class 0x9: Vendor Specific MADs Class 0x9 is no longer supported by the firmware. If case the firmware detects such MAD, the firmware will return a "NOT SUPPORTED" error to the user.
- TLS/XTS/Signature Padding: Blocked the VF's ability to use both padding and signature in order to prevent the NIC from hanging.
- Asserts' Severity Level: Added 3 new assert filters (Health buffer, NVlog, FW trace). The assert will be exposed now if its severity level is equal to or above the new filter. The filters are configurable by the ini file. The "Health buffer" filter is also configurable by new access register.
- VUID VPD Virtio: An emulated PCI device can be hot plugged/unplugged by the DPU software stack. However, the life cycle and the state of the bare metal host system where an emulated PCI device is plugged in, is not in control of the DPU software stack. PCI BDF may not be available in corner cases, hence, an emulation PCI device handler (VUID) is required which is predictable and stable (across emulation controller reset/restart, across DPU warm reboot). The VUID will show in PCI PF device VPD as [VU] section.
- Rate Limit per VM instead of VM-TC: Enabled Rate Limit per VM instead of VM-TC. This capability is implemented by adding support to a new Scheduling element type: rate limit elements that will connect to the rate_limit and will share its rate limit.
- Dynamically Connected Transport (DCT) with Adaptive Routing (AR): Performance improvements in the DCT with AR flow by exposing a hint to the software in DCI software context that indicates that RDMA WRITE on this DCI is not supported.
- Dynamic Timeout Mechanism: Added support for dynamic timeout mechanism when in InfiniBand mode.
- QSHR Access Register: Added support for QSHR access register to enable Set and Query rate limit per-host per-port.
- New Software Steering ICM Resource for VXLAN Encapsulation: The firmware now exposes a new Software Steering ICM resource for VXLAN encap expand in order for the SW Steering to manage this resource directly.
- Asymmetrical VFs per PF: Added support for asymmetrical VFs per PF. To enable it: PF_NUM_OF_VF_VALID must be true, and PF_NUM_OF_VF to a none zero value.
- mlxlink Support to read/write Access Registers by LID: Added 2 new MAD access registers to enable mlxlink to read/write access registers by LID (to the whole subnet).
- VXLAN Encapsulation Expansion: Enabled the exposure of new ICM resource to the software steering for VXLAN encapsulation expansion.

Bug Fixes:

 
- Fixed an issue that resulted in firmware getting stuck and causing unexpected behavior when connecting an optical transceiver that support RXLOS, and the remote side port was down.
- Fixed an issue that caused the link status to be reported incorrectly and consequently caused the link to go down due to the wrong definition of the RX_LOS polarity in the INI. 
- Fixed an issue that prevented the system from creating more than 128K QPs.
- Modified the Effective BER calculation method. Due to this, the value of the Effective BER will be slightly higher, however the link quality remains the same as prior to this change. Note: There is no change in the Symbol BER, it is the same as prior to this change.
- Limited the external loopback speed according to the used module's capabilities.
- Fixed an issue that resulted in wrong RNR timeout when trying to set it during the rts2rts_qp transition.
- Fixed an issue that cause the flash frequency on boot to be lower than expected (under 50Mhz) by enabling the firmware to increase it on boot2 to normal frequency. Note: On boards that use Winbond flash, the firmware is blocked if using a firmware that does not include this fix. 
- Added support for DSFP AOC (CMIS) v4 when error code is not reported by the module.
- Fixed a race between DC QP flush and DC packets that led to stuck slices in the hardware. To avoid such situation, firmware keeps the TCU drop set until QP flush is done.

This firmware version includes the following PCIe changes:

- Fixed the ACS Port Number field in DSPs and ACS Egress Control Vector field in DSPs
- Added support for VSC on USP of PCIe Switch
- Fixed the mapping of Legacy Interrupts in the PCIe Switch
- Fixed MRRS & MPS configurations in DSPs

About Network Adapter Firmware:

When connected, the operating system usually installs a generic firmware 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 firmware 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.