Can you use HP mezzanine cards on PCI-E?

[niffcreature]

Yes, its very specific question I know.
Mezzanine cards are for HP proliant servers etc.

I will keep bumping this thread until I get an informative answer so don't just say it can't be done.

 

[Dangman]

I've moved this thread over to the Data Storage Subforum as it's more suitable here.

 

[Blue Fox]

No. The connectors are nothing alike. A simple look at one of them would tell you everything.

 

[Old Hippie]

No. The connectors are nothing alike. A simple look at one of them would tell you everything.

I will keep bumping this thread until I get an informative answer so don't just say it can't be done.

Boy, I hope that's informative enough. LOL!

 

[NetRolller3D]

I have a Quadro FX 3600M mezzanine graphics card for the HP WS460C blade. What I have found is that this card is just a good old MXM-HE card in an MXM-to-mezzanine adapter. While the adapter is specific to HP, the MXM card itself works fine in a generic notebook, after a VBIOS flash.

So, while there is no PCIE compatibility, there is MXM compatibility at least for some graphics mezzanine cards.

 

[tormentum]

HP mezzanine cards are designed to plug into HP Blade servers, which in turn plug into an HP Blade Enclosure (C3000 or C7000)

A mezzanine card has two functions, internal IO and external IO. Part of the connector interfaces with the blade server in much the same way a PCIe port would, interfacing directly with the system board. The other part of the connector interfaces through the blade to the interconnect modules on the back of the blade enclosure. These interconnect modules can be one of several things (network switch, storage switch, SAS interconnect, Virtual Connect, and some others). Basically, because the blade does not have any real "external IO" ports, the blade facilitates "cabling" through to the corresponding switch/interconnect by using it's connector port on the mezzanine card.

Thus, these cards have a completeley different connector on them; "Square peg, round hole!":

So, whilst technically they are a PCIe interface, they are also an external IO interface for the card itself. I've never seen an "adapter" that goes between these and a conventional IO port, and I doubt they exist, as they would require a PCIe port, as well as an IO port (NIC, FC, SAS, etc), meaning each mezzanine family would require it's own "PCIe adapter"

Hope this sheds some more light on things for you.

For completeness, the blade mezzanine connector:

And the blade rear IO connector which interfaces with the interconnects on the back of the blade enclosure:

Some other useful links:
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12810_ca/12810_ca.HTML
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/blades/components/mezzanine/pcie/questionsanswers.html

 

[cdoublejj]

Here's a whole slew of adapters, PCIe, PCI Express, PCIe Carriers, PCIe Modules, PCIe Adapters, PCIe Mezzanine Cards, PCIe Mezzanine Board, PCIe embedded products from Dynamic Engineering