linux-drivers/
drivers/net/ethernet/mellanox/mlx4

Mellanox ConnectX-3 and ConnectX-3 Pro Ethernet/InfiniBand adapters

10/40/56 Gbps Ethernet and InfiniBand network adapters that Mellanox (now part of NVIDIA) shipped from roughly 2011 through the late 2010s. The ConnectX-3 family was widely deployed in data centers, HPC clusters, and storage fabrics, and many of those cards are still in production service today even though newer ConnectX-4/5/6/7 hardware uses the separate mlx5 driver.

keep-annotate conf=0.83 last_sold=2019 deploy=medium replacement=mlx5_core subsystem=net category=networking-ethernet
83%

recommendation

Worth keeping but documenting as legacy. NVIDIA stopped supporting ConnectX-3 in its mainstream OFED stack after version 5.1, leaving these cards on an older long-term-support branch, and the hardware is no longer sold new. However, ConnectX-3 cards remain common in deployed fleets, and upstream maintainers were still merging cleanups and bug fixes into 2025-2026, so the driver is actively cared for. Newer hardware uses mlx5_core instead.

repository signals

41 files
42,471 source lines
135 commits, 5y
+1,667 / −1,323 lines added / removed, 5y
67 authors, 5y
monthly commits · 2021-04-21 → 2026-04-21 · 135 total · active in 45/61 months
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sources

  1. docs.nvidia.com

    NVIDIA maps mlx4 to ConnectX-3/ConnectX-3 Pro, while mlx5 covers ConnectX-4 and newer adapters.

  2. docs.nvidia.com

    NVIDIA states that as of MLNX_EN/OFED version 5.1, ConnectX-3 and ConnectX-3 Pro are no longer supported except via older 4.9 LTS branches.

  3. spinics.net

    As late as February 2026, mlx4 was still receiving net-next functional cleanup work, indicating active upstream maintenance rather than removal.

  4. spinics.net

    A September 2025 mlx4 bug fix was accepted into netdev/net, showing current bug-fix traffic and maintainer attention.

codex reasoning notes (technical)

Shell `sed` on local mlx4 Kconfig shows the driver is a real Mellanox Ethernet driver; shell `git log` on the local tree shows substantive mlx4 activity through 2025-2026, including bug fixes and API conversions. Source 1 was obtained via `web.search_query` and identifies mlx4 with ConnectX-3/3 Pro and mlx5 as the successor line for newer hardware. Source 2 was obtained via `web.search_query` and shows vendor support has already moved ConnectX-3/3 Pro to legacy/LTS-only status, supporting `hardware_still_sold_new_in_2025=false` and a legacy-market assessment; `last_widely_available_year=2019` is an inference from that vendor support transition and the age of the product family, so confidence is slightly reduced. Sources 3 and 4 were obtained via `web.search_query` on mailing-list archives and show ongoing upstream mlx4 development in 2025-2026 with no clear removal/deprecation thread found, so removal is not justified. Overall this looks like legacy but still-deployed hardware with active upstream upkeep: keep the driver, but annotate it as legacy rather than deprecate/remove.