Astera Labs has announced a new generation of Leo smart memory controllers. The Leo 2 series adds CXL 3.2 and PCIe Gen6 support, which should help memory expansion keep up with faster interconnects in modern servers. This is a natural progression for the company's existing CXL memory controller line.
Alongside Leo 2, Astera Labs introduced the Leo X controller, a more ambitious design that attaches memory expanders directly to the fabric networks used by AI accelerators. That enables rack-scale fabric-attached memory, potentially easing memory bottlenecks in large AI clusters. Leo 2 and Leo X thus represent two different approaches to the same problem: fitting more memory where it is needed most. The source does not disclose performance benchmarks or shipment dates, so the practical impact is still unproven.