Xsight Labs A Data Plane you Program in Linux

Eric Vallone of Xsight Labs introduced the company’s software-defined approach to networking silicon at Networking Field Day 41, covering the X2 programmable switch and the E1 DPU. He also previewed the newly announced E1L, a 200G DPU aimed at firewalls, security appliances, and storage, ahead of a deeper architectural discussion by Yoav Galon. Vallone, who leads Xsight Labs’ commercial organization, described the company as a late-stage fabless semiconductor startup founded in 2017 that has raised roughly $750 million and now ships two products.

The X2 is a 12.8T switch built on TSMC 5nm with 112G SerDes. It draws under 200 watts and typically around 186, which Vallone put at 30 to 40 percent below industry norms. He argued that programmability brings performance and power benefits rather than a tax, and noted that Xsight has opened the full switch architecture much as x86 did for CPUs. SpaceX places multiple X2s in every Starlink V3 satellite as the core data processing engine. It was drawn by the low power, the SerDes, and the ability to reconfigure the data plane remotely, since there are no truck rolls in space. The E1, launched about 18 months ago as the first 800G DPU, packs 64 Arm N2 cores with no slow path. It ships as a host-attached add-in card or as a 1RU server platform. The new E1L scales from 8 to 22 cores at 25 to 40 watts in a smaller form factor.

Vallone stressed that both chips shipped as A0 silicon, meaning they worked on the first tape-out, which he called unusual for products this complex. He mapped the portfolio to three of the five components Xsight sees in AI network infrastructure: the E1 at the server edge, the X series in the rack-to-rack cluster fabric, and the E series in storage. He added that the E1L’s crypto capabilities suit it to firewalls. A delegate asked about go-to-market, and Vallone said Xsight remains a silicon company first. Partners such as Edgecore build X2 systems, while Xsight also sells its own branded switches directly, including a 1RU unit that automatically scales its line rate from 3.2T to 12.8T.