Astera Labs Introduces Scorpio Smart Fabric Switch Portfolio Purpose-built for AI Infrastructure at Cloud-Scale

Astera Labs, Inc. announced a portfolio of fabric switches, including an industry’s 1st PCIe 6 switch, built for demanding AI workloads in accelerated computing platforms deployed at cloud-scale.

The Scorpio Smart Fabric Switch portfolio is optimized for AI dataflows to deliver maximum predictable performance/watt, high reliability, easy cloud-scale deployment, reduced time-to-market, and lower total cost of ownership.

Scorpio Smart Fabric Switch portfolio features 2 application-specific product lines with multi-generational roadmap:

Scorpio P-Series for GPU-to-CPU/NIC/SSD PCIe 6 connectivity – architected to support mixed traffic head-node connectivity across a diverse ecosystem of PCIe hosts and endpoints.
Scorpio X-Series for back-end GPU clustering – architected to deliver the highest back-end GPU-to-GPU bandwidth with platform-specific customization.

AI server platform applications
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Jitendra Mohan, CEO, Astera Labs, said: “Hyperscalers are deploying highly specialized AI platforms at an unprecedented pace, scale, and complexity. Our new Scorpio Smart Fabric Switch portfolio delivers maximum system utilization and uptime for two specific AI use cases – scale-out PCIe connectivity with Scorpio P-Series and back-end, scale-up GPU clustering with Scorpio X-Series. Scorpio offers energy efficient fabric solutions with predictable, secure, and high-performance data flows and extensive fleet management capabilities for accelerated AI infrastructure deployments at cloud-scale.”

Patrick Moorhead, founder, CEO, and chief analyst, Moor Insights & Strategy, said: “Hyperscalers and AI platform providers developing systems for training and inferencing workloads have traditionally used PCIe switches that were initially designed for general purpose and storage applications. These switches can be complex, consume high power, and require longer system development cycles that make them challenging for AI platforms. With its introduction of the Scorpio Smart Fabric Switch portfolio, Astera Labs is focused on the industry’s need for a more performant, efficient fabric solution that’s purpose-built to meet the specific requirements of AI training and inference workloads in the cloud.”

Scorpio Smart Fabric Switches expand the company’ Intelligent Connectivity Platform and integrates with the COnnectivity System Management and Optimization Software (COSMOS) suite to deliver a customizable connectivity backbone with data center observability, enhanced security, and extensive fleet management capabilities. Scorpio enables unmatched insights into the state and health of accelerated computing platforms to ensure maximum uptime and availability.

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Scorpio Smart Fabric Switches are tested with leading PCIe hosts and endpoints in Astera Labs’ Cloud-Scale Interop Lab and in customer platforms. Scorpio is shipping in pre-production quantities for head-node PCIe 6 connectivity and ready to propel AI platform deployments utilizing industry-leading GPUs with reliable plug-and-play interoperability, advanced diagnostics and telemetry, and comprehensive design collateral.

Brian Kelleher, SVP, GPU engineering, NVIDIA Corp., said: “AI infrastructure requires the right balance of interconnect performance, efficiency and capabilities to enable accelerated computing for AI workloads at scale. The new Scorpio fabric switch portfolio can support NVIDIA accelerated AI infrastructure deployments across a wide variety of AI and HPC workloads.”