If there is one networking startup Patrick talks about weekly, it is Xsight Labs. The company, backed by AMD, Intel Capital, Marvell, and others, just notched a showcase win providing connectivity for Starlink V3 satellites. The chip being used is the company’s X2, which we covered in pieces like Xsight Labs X2 12.8T Network Switch Goes Universal.
Xsight Labs X2 Switch Powering SpaceX Starlink V3
Just as a quick refresher, here is the summary of the switch. While many of the new switches we are discussing today are 51.2Tbps or higher, this is only a 12.8Tbps switch. Broadcom and others are mostly focused on the large-scale AI cluster build-out, so this is a line that is coming in below that in terms of power and performance. Unlike those huge AI data center switch chips, this is a sub-200W chip in TSMC N5.
Today, the huge announcement is that this is the chip going into the SpaceX Starlink V3 satellite that will handle Terabit per second scale networking in space.
Space has its own set of environmental requirements that are very different than what we have for typical data center networking. Also, serviceability is different on a satellite than in a data center. You cannot submit a ticket to have a switch replaced within an hour when it is orbiting Earth. The SpaceX team, in selecting the X2, would have needed to become comfortable with its reliability in space and its performance.
Xsight’s X2 chip will form an integral part of the terabit routing needs of the next generation of Starlink satellites. – Michael Nicolls, VP Starlink Engineering, SpaceX (Source: Press Release)
Final Words
For Xsight Labs, this is a major showcase win, given its high-visibility application in a unique deployment. There is a lot of talk about AI data centers in space these days, so perhaps this is a prelude to an emerging field of space networking, and Xsight Labs ends up being an early leader in it. Either way, it is just neat to see.
If you were wondering about the company’s 800G DPU, the Xsight Labs E1, next week, we will start our series on that 64-Arm Neoverse core DPU with a fun piece.
