NVIDIA Mellanox Switch-IB 2 MSB7560-E EDR InfiniBand Leaf Blade – 36-Port 100Gb/s for CS7500 Series Director Switches

Add EDR ports to a Mellanox director switch, with SHARP acceleration.

The NVIDIA Mellanox MSB7560-E is a Switch-IB 2 EDR 100Gb/s InfiniBand leaf blade for CS7500-series modular director switches. It provides 36 external QSFP28 ports for servers and storage, with SHARP support for HPC, AI and large storage clusters.

How the MSB7560-E Fits Into a Modular InfiniBand Director

Modular InfiniBand directors are built from two blade types: leaf blades that face the servers and spine blades that connect the leaf blades through the chassis backplane. Replacing a failed blade or expanding a chassis requires the correct blade generation for the chassis.

The MSB7560-E is the Switch-IB 2 leaf blade for the CS7500, CS7510 and CS7520 directors. Each leaf blade adds 36 EDR ports, so the chassis can grow in steps as more servers and storage nodes join the cluster.

Because it uses Switch-IB 2 silicon, the blade supports SHARP (Scalable Hierarchical Aggregation and Reduction Protocol), which performs collective operations inside the network and reduces the load on compute nodes.

SHARP Acceleration for HPC and AI

SHARP-capable blades let MPI and NCCL collective operations, such as all-reduce, run inside the switch. This cuts the amount of data crossing the network and shortens job run times for simulation and deep learning workloads.

Hot-Swappable Field Replacement

The blade installs from the front (leaf) side of the chassis and can be replaced without powering down the director, keeping the rest of the fabric online during maintenance or upgrades.

How to Install the MSB7560-E

1. Confirm the chassis model (CS7500, CS7510 or CS7520) and that the management software release supports Switch-IB 2 blades.
2. Wear an ESD strap, remove the blank or failed blade, and slide the MSB7560-E into the correct leaf slot until the ejectors lock.
3. Verify the blade is detected, then connect servers and storage to its QSFP28 ports with EDR cables.
4. Check port and fabric status, enable SHARP if required, and save the configuration.