Appendix—Design Consideration Using Q3200

Motivation for Using Q3200

The NVIDIA Quantum-X800 Q3200 is an ideal InfiniBand switching solution for mixed-generation environments, where data-center infrastructures need to integrate modern high-speed networking (Quantum-X800 based) with prior-generation systems.
It incorporates two fully independent switches in a compact 2U air-cooled chassis, each providing 36 ports of 800 Gb/s.

The Q3200 is commonly deployed in storage-rich architectures thanks to its dense port configuration and high aggregate bandwidth. It is particularly effective for environments that require:

• High-speed connectivity for new compute clusters

• Seamless integration with HDR, NDR, NDR200, and XDR400 InfiniBand systems

• Robust networking to large-scale storage infrastructures

Overall, the Q3200 enables flexible, high-throughput fabrics while simplifying mixed-generation deployments.

Q3200 Hardware Overview

Dual Independent Switch Architecture

• Two independent 36-port switches in a single 2U enclosure

• 18 OSFP cages per switch, each supporting 2x 800G ports

• 36 × 800G ports per switch

• Air-cooled design

• AC power

• Managed switch with NVOS support

Management Interface

• Dedicated InfiniBand in-band management port (FNM port), for both internal switches

• FNM port connectivity to UFM at NDR200 speed

Switch Radix Capability

Connectivity to Storage

The diagram below illustrates a Q3200 deployed in the leaf layer, connecting upstream to the Q3400 spine and downstream to the compute layer via XDR400 or NDR links. The Q3200 connects to the Q3400 at XDR speed, while connections to the servers operate at XDR400 or NDR speeds. Each 1.6 Tb/s OSFP port on the Q3200 is split into four in cases of XDR400 (or NDR200) links to support server connectivity. 

XDR400 Two-Port Split Option

Q3200 ports can be configured to split into two XDR400 ports. In this mode, each resulting port uses two lanes of 200 Gb/s, providing 2 × 400 Gb/s connectivity from a single physical port.

To configure this split mode, use the following NVOS commands:

nv set interface swB2p1-2 link connection-mode ndr
nv set interface swB2p1-2 link breakout 2x-xdr
nv config apply -y
nv config save

This split option is useful when connecting Q3200 ports to systems while preserving efficient use of the switch’s high-speed OSFP interfaces.

Port Behavior Limitation

The following limitations apply to ports 17, 18, 35, and 36:

• Split mode is not supported

• Linear Active Copper Cable (LACC) is not supported

As a result, the XDR400 two-port split option described above cannot be applied to these ports.

Release Notes Reference

For details on known issues, limitations, and recommended workarounds for Q3200 deployments, refer to the NVIDIA NVOS Release Notes available in the Enterprise Support Portal.

Last updated: September 02, 2026