January 3, 2026
Packets meet popcorn
Xsight Labs E1 DPU a 64-Core Arm Neoverse N2 800G DPU
Mini server on a card: 64 cores, 800G, and a comments war over “why so many cores”
TLDR: Xsight’s 64‑core DPU claims 800G with zero drops and extra headroom, using CPU cores to do the networking. Commenters are split: some say DPUs are the next big thing after GPUs, others question the per‑core math and what the benchmark really proves—why it matters for future AI/cloud networks.
Xsight Labs just dropped a wild twist on networking: a 64‑core Arm “mini server” DPU that claims to push 800 gigabits per second with zero dropped packets and 19% extra headroom. Translation: it’s a beefy little computer whose job is to move data insanely fast, and it passed the open‑source SONiC “Hero” test. The kicker? Unlike rivals, it uses its CPU cores themselves to do the network work, not a separate network chip. Cue the community drama. One camp is hyped, echoing the “next big thing after GPUs is networking” mantra and celebrating a future where DPUs turbocharge AI datacenters. Another camp comes in hot: “64 cores for 800G? That’s only ~12.5G per core!” Critics question what’s actually being measured and whether regular CPUs already do this faster for some tasks. The thread turned into a popcorn moment: is this a revolution or just clever marketing? Jokes flew about “NICs becoming tiny servers” and quips like “your network card now has more cores than your desktop.” Whether you say DPU = destiny or DPU = distraction, the vibe is pure tech soap opera—with real stakes for the future of cloud and AI plumbing. SONiC, Keysight CyPerf, and BlueField all got name‑checked as receipts.
Key Points
- •Xsight Labs’ E1 DPU integrates 64 Arm Neoverse N2 cores on TSMC 5nm and supports four DDR5‑5200 ECC RDIMMs in a 1U platform.
- •The E1 provides two 400G MACs for 800Gbps networking and uses Arm cores with DPDK to handle networking instead of a discrete NIC IP.
- •The platform passed the SONiC‑DASH Hero 800G test (800Gbps, 120M connections, 12M CPS) with zero drops and 19% headroom.
- •The 1U chassis exposes multiple PCIe lanes from the DPU, including dual PCIe Gen5 x16 slots at the front; the reviewed unit is a development platform with USB headers.
- •Xsight’s prior X2 switch chip achieved a milestone powering SpaceX Starlink V3 networking; related testing referenced Keysight CyPerf and NVIDIA’s ConnectX‑8 C8240 NIC.