Top Ethernet over InfiniBand (EoIB) Hardware Manufacturers

Published on February 11, 2026

Introduction : Ethernet over InfiniBand (EoIB) is a tunneling protocol that allows standard Ethernet traffic to run over an InfiniBand fabric. This is essential for organizations that want the raw speed and low latency of InfiniBand for their AI/HPC workloads but still need to communicate with standard Ethernet-based legacy systems, storage, and management consoles.

In order to leverage benefits of both, convergence of these network types is a major trend for the reclaimed data center. Following are popular manufacturers including specific part numbers for hardware that supports EoIB and VPI (Virtual Protocol Interconnect).

Ethernet over InfiniBand hardware manufacturers

NVIDIA (Mellanox Technologies)

NVIDIA is the dominant force in the InfiniBand market. Their “VPI” technology allows their adapters to be configured as either InfiniBand or Ethernet on a per-port basis, natively supporting EoIB.

• ConnectX-7 VPI Adapter:

  • Part Number : MCX75310AAS-ADAT (Single-port NDR 400Gb/s)

• ConnectX-6 VPI Adapter:

  • Part Number : MCX653105A-HDAT (HDR 200Gb/s)

• Skyway InfiniBand to Ethernet Gateway:

  • Part Number : Skyway-NDR
  • Application : A standalone appliance that acts as a bridge between an InfiniBand data center fabric and an Ethernet external network.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)

HPE integrates InfiniBand technology into their Cray and ProLiant server lines. They use specific part numbers for their customized versions of high-speed fabrics.

• HPE InfiniBand HDR100/Ethernet 100Gb Adapter:
  • Part Number : P06250-B21
• HPE InfiniBand NDR Adapter:
  • Part Number : P45641-B21

Dell Technologies

Dell provides PowerEdge optimized network adapters that support multi-protocol fabrics for virtualized data centers.

• NVIDIA ConnectX-6 Single Port VPI Card for Dell:
  • Part Number : 540-BDBW
  • Application: Specifically designed for Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers to handle low-latency EoIB tunneling.

Cisco Systems

While Cisco is the leader in pure Ethernet, they produce Nexus series modules that allow their switches to act as gateways for InfiniBand-heavy environments.

• Cisco Nexus Gateway Module:
  • Part Number: N7K-M206FQ-23L
  • Application: Used in large scale enterprise data centers to manage traffic between standard Ethernet cores and specialized InfiniBand pods.

Summary

As speeds move from HDR (200G) to NDR (400G) and beyond to 1.6T, the overhead of tunneling Ethernet over InfiniBand (EoIB) becomes more taxing on the silicon. This is why manufacturers like NVIDIA and HPE are focusing on on chip hardware offloading to ensure that bridging the two networks does not kill latency gains achieved.