There's not much documentation on the various use cases of the MXL. All the docs seem to presume that this is for SAN use and that you'll be trunking to a top-of-rack switch.
The MXL docs don't do a great job of highlighting the supposed additional capabilities of the MXL versus the IOA.
I don't need this for any SAN, I just need a simple high-throughput LAN.
Is it possible to use the MXL's external QSFP+ ports to directly attach to a 40 GbE NIC such as the intel XL710-QDA2, or Mellanox ConectX-3 series?
For instance:
-intel X520 mezzanine NICs on my blade servers' B fabric
-Force10 MXL I/O modules in B1 and B2 slots
-intel XL710 NICs on my rack servers, using direct-attach QSFP+ cables plugged into the MXL's QSFP+ ports in a fortygige switchport (that is, NON-breakout mode)
Can anyone confirm that this works? Thanks