Xsight Labs has introduced the E1L, a lower-power version of its 64-core E1 DPU. The new chip scales the design down to 8-22 Arm Neoverse N2 cores while still supporting up to 200Gbps over four SerDes lanes. It also includes up to two DDR5-5200 interfaces with inline encryption, line-rate AES-GCM for IPsec offload, and 20 PCIe Gen5 lanes across six dual-mode controllers with SR-IOV support.
The E1L is configurable at 25W, 30W, or 40W TDP, with typical draws of 15W, 18W, and 25W respectively. That low power footprint makes it suitable for network switches, where it can be integrated on a COM Express Type 7 module, as well as storage servers for both NVMe and disk arrays. The author notes that the PCIe lanes could theoretically attach E1.L SSDs directly, building an entire system around the DPU.
Xsight's approach deliberately differs from AMD's Pensando line. While AMD argues against running offloads on a sea of Arm cores and instead uses P4 programmable engines, Xsight relies on standard Neoverse N2 cores with Linux and DPDK. This means software written for the larger E1 should scale down easily to the E1L, and the company has previously demonstrated running out-of-the-box Ubuntu on the 64-core version.
The E1L is not aimed at the 800Gbps race; it is a deliberate step back to 200Gbps to prioritize power efficiency. That tradeoff opens up new deployment scenarios where hitting higher speeds is less important than staying within a tight power budget. The article also notes that single-core performance of the Neoverse N2 cores is competitive, though direct comparisons with Nvidia's BlueField parts are limited by memory constraints in testing.