Mellanox InfiniHost InfiniBand Host Channel Adapters (Tavor/Arbel)
First- and second-generation Mellanox InfiniBand host channel adapter cards (the MT23108 Tavor, MT25208 Arbel, and InfiniHost III Ex/Lx families) used in HPC clusters and enterprise storage fabrics from roughly 2003 through the early 2010s, before being superseded by ConnectX-series silicon.
recommendation
Worth keeping but its niche is worth documenting: the hardware was end-of-lifed by Mellanox/NVIDIA around 2016 when 130nm component supply dried up, and new deployments now use ConnectX cards driven by mlx5_ib. However, upstream activity is still healthy — a refactor patch landed on linux-rdma in early 2026 and fixes were pulled into stable in 2024 — so old InfiniBand clusters that still rely on these adapters continue to be supported. mlx5_ib is the modern successor for new buyers, but it does not run on this older silicon.
repository signals
sources
- cateee.net
LKDDb identifies CONFIG_INFINIBAND_MTHCA as the ib_mthca driver for Mellanox InfiniHost HCAs including MT23108 and MT25208/Arbel-era devices.
- lore.kernel.org
linux-rdma carried a 2026 patch titled "RDMA/mthca: Use generic resize-CQ lock", showing current upstream maintenance rather than abandonment.
- lore.kernel.org
mthca code was also pulled through stable trees in 2024, indicating ongoing bug-fix relevance for deployed systems.
- network.nvidia.com
NVIDIA's InfiniHost III Ex firmware page shows release dates clustered in 2007-2008, consistent with a long-obsolete product generation.
- network.nvidia.com
NVIDIA/Mellanox EOL material for InfiniHost III states manufacturing support was ending because the 130nm high-lead product family lost supplier support around 2016, evidencing end-of-life status for this era of hardware.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Real driver directory; local exec_command/rg on Kconfig identified it as Mellanox InfiniHost/Tavor/Arbel HCA support. lore_activity (MCP) on mthca files found a linux-rdma 2026 functional patch, so there is no sign of active removal and current maintenance argues against deprecate/remove. lore_file_timeline (MCP) on mthca_main.c also showed stable-tree traffic through 2024. Deployment appears legacy-only: web search found LKDDb for device IDs plus NVIDIA firmware pages dated 2007-2008 and an NVIDIA EOL PDF indicating this product era was already end-of-life by roughly 2016. That supports low present-day deployments, not zero, because old InfiniBand clusters can persist in labs/HPC estates. mlx5_ib is the practical upstream successor for new Mellanox RDMA deployments, but not a drop-in hardware replacement for existing cards.