---
description: Astera Labs Orion is a PCIe rack reference design scaling 8 to 160 accelerators per pod with any GPU; Aries 7 PCIe 7 retimers sample in Q4.
title: Astera Labs Orion Scales 8 to 160 Accelerators on a 320-Lane PCIe Fabric With Any GPU, as Aries 7 Brings PCIe 7 Retimers and Optics
image: https://www.storagereview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Storagereview-astera-labs-Orion-Rack.jpeg
---

[![Storage Review]()](https://storagereview.com/)

---

[Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/@storagereview) [X (Twitter)](https://twitter.twitter.com/storagereview) [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/storagereview/) [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/storagereview-com) [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/user/storagereview?sub_confirmation=1) [Email](mailto:info@storagereview.com) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/1y6VnznABhHeOSMOmbDTz0) [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/StorageReview/) [Discord](https://discord.gg/TwMHb4azdC) [RSS Feed](https://www.storagereview.com/rss.xml) [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@storagereview)

[Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/@storagereview) [X (Twitter)](https://twitter.com/storagereview) [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/storagereview/) [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/storagereview-com) [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/user/storagereview?sub_confirmation=1) [Email](mailto:info@storagereview.com) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/1y6VnznABhHeOSMOmbDTz0) [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/StorageReview/) [Discord](https://discord.gg/TwMHb4azdC) [RSS Feed](https://www.storagereview.com/rss.xml) [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@storagereview)

[![StorageReview.com]()](https://www.storagereview.com)

≡ Menu

- [Home](https://www.storagereview.com/)
- [Storage Reviews](https://www.storagereview.com/review)
  - [End User Reviews](https://www.storagereview.com/consumer)
  - [Enterprise Reviews](https://www.storagereview.com/enterprise)
  - [Ubiquiti Reviews](https://www.storagereview.com/best/ubiquiti-reviews)
- [SR Merch](https://store.storagereview.com)
- [Leaderboards](https://www.storagereview.com/best)
  - [Best Storage Arrays](https://www.storagereview.com/best/storage-arrays)
  - [Best Enterprise SSDs](https://www.storagereview.com/best/enterprise-ssds)
  - [Best Servers](https://www.storagereview.com/best/servers)
  - [Best Enterprise GPUs](https://www.storagereview.com/best/enterprise-gpus)
  - [Best Desktops for Local AI](https://www.storagereview.com/best/desktops-local-ai)
  - [Best Laptops for Local AI](https://www.storagereview.com/best/laptops-local-ai)
  - [Best Local LLM Tools](https://www.storagereview.com/best/local-llm-tools)
  - [Agentic AI Hardware](https://www.storagereview.com/best/agentic-ai-hardware)
  - [Best SSDs & Hard Drives](https://www.storagereview.com/best_drives)
  - [Best Portable SSDs](https://www.storagereview.com/best/portable-ssds)
  - [Best Business Laptops](https://www.storagereview.com/best/business-laptops)
  - [Best Mobile Workstations](https://www.storagereview.com/best/mobile-workstations)
  - [Best Desktop Workstations](https://www.storagereview.com/best/desktop-workstations)
  - [Best Mini PCs](https://www.storagereview.com/best/mini-pcs)
  - [Best Laptop Battery Life](https://www.storagereview.com/best/laptop-battery-life)
- [Storage Reference Guide](https://www.storagereview.com/storage-reference-guide)
- [About SR](https://www.storagereview.com/about-storagereview)
  - [StorageReview.com Sweepstakes Rules and Regulations](https://www.storagereview.com/storagereview-com-sweepstakes-rules-and-regulations)

Search

[Home](https://www.storagereview.com/) » [News](https://www.storagereview.com/news) » Astera Labs Orion Scales 8 to 160 Accelerators on a 320-Lane PCIe Fabric With Any GPU, as Aries 7 Brings PCIe 7 Retimers and Optics

# Astera Labs Orion Scales 8 to 160 Accelerators on a 320-Lane PCIe Fabric With Any GPU, as Aries 7 Brings PCIe 7 Retimers and Optics

by Harold Fritts on October 14, 2026

[AI](https://www.storagereview.com/enterprise/ai)  ◇  [Enterprise](https://www.storagereview.com/enterprise)

Astera Labs has announced Orion, a rack-scale reference design that lets a neocloud or enterprise pick its GPUs and CPUs after the rack is built. Accelerators arrive as PCIe plug-in cards, and a 320-lane PCIe switch fabric scales a pod from 8 to 160 of them, so an operator can deploy the rack once and swap compute as prices, lead times, and workloads change. Astera Labs is not building the racks itself; OEM and ODM partners will manufacture and sell them, with the first designs due in the first quarter of 2027.

![Astera Labs Orion rack reference design render, a full-height rack populated with compute and fabric trays]()

## Modular Pod Topologies and COSMOS Management

Orion ships as six reference designs that can be bought as a complete rack or one at a time: the Orion-CT compute tray with eight accelerators and CPU, GPU, or XPU options; the Orion-FT fabric tray that links trays across scale-up and scale-out topologies; the Orion-CB compute board, which puts eight accelerators and their peripherals under one fabric switch; the Orion-LB link board that carries the fabric between boards, trays, and racks; and the Orion-MT memory tray, listed as coming soon for fabric-attached KV cache offload near the GPU. The scale-up fabric runs on PCIe 6 today, and Astera Labs says UALink is on the roadmap.

![Astera Labs Orion-LB link board render with two shrouded connector cages and a PCIe edge connector on a green board]()

The pitch is aimed at inference economics, where Astera Labs argues that operators have to commit to accelerator capacity long before they know which part will be available or affordable, and that a rack tied to one platform carries that risk for its whole life. Orion’s fabric adds In-Network Compute and Hypercast for collective traffic, and the company says the composable PCIe design helps the same accelerator deliver more tokens per second by keeping it busy, though it has published no throughput figures for a built rack.

![Astera Labs Orion-CT compute tray render with eight accelerator cards installed and the fan wall at the rear]()

COSMOS Rack Manager and COSMOS Fabric Manager handle discovery, telemetry, diagnostics, RAS, fabric routing, firmware and lifecycle management, and optimization APIs across every link in the rack. “We’re entering a new era of AI inference, where operators are judged on the tokens they deliver per dollar, not the hardware inside their racks,” said Pravin Patel, vice president and general manager of the AI Platform Solutions Group at Astera Labs. “Orion gives AI inference cloud providers a production-grade, compute-agnostic architecture so they can quickly bring inference capacity online, provide outcome-based pricing for their customers, and adapt as the industry and compute landscape evolves.”

![Astera Labs COSMOS software stack diagram showing Platform APIs, Embedded Software, and the ICs, modules, and boards layer feeding a cloud infrastructure management stack]()

A powered Orion rack with interchangeable, pre-validated compute trays in different CPU and accelerator configurations is on the floor at booth B34 at the OCP Global Summit in San Jose through October 15, the same show where [AMD put its Helion rack blueprint](https://www.storagereview.com/news/amd-helion-agentic-ai-rack-packs-up-to-32768-epyc-cores-in-an-open-ocp-blueprint) into OCP.

## Aries PCIe 7 Signal-Conditioning Portfolio

Four days earlier, on October 8, Astera Labs announced Aries 7, which it calls the industry’s first PCIe 7 signal conditioning portfolio to span copper and optical links. The family covers smart retimers, smart redrivers, smart cable modules, smart optical drivers, and optical transimpedance amplifiers, with reach running from centimeters of PCB trace to more than 50 meters over optical cable between racks. Each doubling of the PCIe data rate shrinks signal margin, and a single unstable link can idle an accelerator, which is the problem the retimer business has always solved one generation at a time.

![Astera Labs Aries 7 PCIe Smart Retimer, Smart Redriver, Smart Optical TIA, and Smart Optical Driver packages beside two Aries smart cable modules]()

The Aries 7 retimers and redrivers follow the OCP Signal Conditioner Standard Footprint, so a board designed for one can take the other later as trace loss, latency, and power budgets settle. The optical drivers and TIAs target near-package optics and linear pluggable optics across multi-rack fabrics, and the whole family reports into the same COSMOS software for monitoring and tuning. AMD and Intel have validated Aries retimers in production from PCIe 4 through PCIe 6, and both say they are working with Astera Labs on the PCIe 7 transition.

“The real question for architects isn’t retimer vs redriver, or copper vs optical: it’s whether they have one comprehensive toolbox with the optionality to pick the right tool for their evolving reach, density and power requirements,” said Adit Narasimha, senior vice president of the Signal Connectivity Group at Astera Labs. Aries 7 retimers, redrivers, cable modules, and optical drivers and TIAs are expected to sample to select hyperscale, OEM, and NPO customers in the fourth quarter of 2026, with broader availability after platform qualification. Astera Labs has not published data rates per lane, power, or pricing for the Aries 7 parts.

### [Astera Labs Orion](https://www.asteralabs.com/products/orion-rack-scale-reference-architecture/)

**Engage with StorageReview**

[Newsletter](https://www.storagereview.com/storage_newsletter) |  [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/user/StorageReview "Opens in a new window") | Podcast  [iTunes](https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/storagereview-com-storage-reviews/id1060681115 "Opens in a new window")/ [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/1y6VnznABhHeOSMOmbDTz0 "Opens in a new window") |  [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/storagereview/ "Opens in a new window") |  [Twitter](https://twitter.com/storagereview "Opens in a new window") |  [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@storagereview? "Opens in a new window") |  [RSS Feed](https://www.storagereview.com/rss.xml)

![]()

### Harold Fritts

I have been in the tech industry since IBM created Selectric. My background, though, is writing. So I decided to get out of the pre-sales biz and return to my roots, doing a bit of writing but still being involved in technology.

Previous post: [Supermicro OCP Accepted Portfolio Adds 48V Busbar ORv3 Racks, a 250 kW In-Rack CDU, and a 102.4 Tbps CPO Switch](https://www.storagereview.com/news/supermicro-ocp-accepted-portfolio-48v-busbar-orv3-racks-250-kw-cdu-cpo-switch)

Next post: [Celestica DS6005 Puts 102.4Tbps of Co-Packaged Optics and 64 1.6TbE Ports in a 1.5OU Liquid-Cooled ORv3 Switch](https://www.storagereview.com/news/celestica-ds6005-102-4tbps-co-packaged-optics-1-5ou-liquid-cooled-orv3-switch)

Trusted Vendors

Products and solutions from our affiliate partners:

- [  
  ![Ubiquiti Logo]()  
   Ubiquiti  
  ](https://store.ui.com/us/en?a_aid=StorageReview "Opens in a new window")
- [  
  ![Newegg Logo]()  
   Newegg  
  ](https://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=g5terNMDhz0&offerid=1207190.18&subid=0&type=4 "Opens in a new window")
- [  
  ![Amazon Logo]() Amazon  
  ](https://amzn.to/4fLJUEW "Opens in a new window")

Newsletter

Subscribe to the StorageReview newsletter to stay up to date on the latest news and reviews. We promise no spam!

1  

Leave this field empty if you’re human:

## Advertisement

Content Categories

[Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/@storagereview) [X](https://twitter.com/storagereview) [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/storagereview/) [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/storagereview-com) [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/user/storagereview?sub_confirmation=1) [Email](mailto:info@storagereview.com) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/1y6VnznABhHeOSMOmbDTz0) [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/StorageReview/) [Discord](https://discord.gg/TwMHb4azdC) [RSS](https://www.storagereview.com/rss.xml) [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@storagereview)

Copyright © 1998-2025 Flying Pig Ventures, LLC Cincinnati, Ohio. All rights reserved.

Manage your privacy

To provide the best experiences, we and our partners use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us and our partners to process personal data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site and show (non-) personalized ads. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.

Click below to consent to the above or make granular choices. Your choices will be applied to this site only. You can change your settings at any time, including withdrawing your consent, by using the toggles on the Cookie Policy, or by clicking on the manage consent button at the bottom of the screen.

Functional Functional Always active

The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.

Preferences Preferences

The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.

Statistics Statistics

The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.

Marketing Marketing

The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.

Statistics

Marketing

Features

Always active

Special features

Special purposes

Always active

- Manage options
- Manage services
- Manage {vendor\_count} vendors
- [Read more about these purposes](https://cookiedatabase.org/tcf/purposes/)

Accept Deny Manage options Save preferences Manage options

- {title}
- {title}
- {title}

Manage your privacy

To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.

Functional Functional Always active

The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.

Preferences Preferences

The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.

Statistics Statistics

The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.

Marketing Marketing

The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.

Statistics

Marketing

Features

Always active

Special features

Special purposes

Always active

- Manage options
- Manage services
- Manage {vendor\_count} vendors
- [Read more about these purposes](https://cookiedatabase.org/tcf/purposes/)

Accept Deny Manage options Save preferences Manage options

- {title}
- {title}
- {title}

Manage consent Manage consent

```json
{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/news\/astera-labs-orion-rack-reference-design-160-accelerators-pcie-fabric-aries-7-pcie-7","url":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/news\/astera-labs-orion-rack-reference-design-160-accelerators-pcie-fabric-aries-7-pcie-7","name":"Astera Labs Orion Scales 8 to 160 Accelerators on a 320-Lane PCIe Fabric With Any GPU, as Aries 7 Brings PCIe 7 Retimers and Optics - StorageReview.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/news\/astera-labs-orion-rack-reference-design-160-accelerators-pcie-fabric-aries-7-pcie-7#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/news\/astera-labs-orion-rack-reference-design-160-accelerators-pcie-fabric-aries-7-pcie-7#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Storagereview-astera-labs-Orion-Rack.jpeg","datePublished":"2026-10-14T15:32:43+00:00","description":"Astera Labs Orion is a PCIe rack reference design scaling 8 to 160 accelerators per pod with any GPU; Aries 7 PCIe 7 retimers sample in Q4.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/news\/astera-labs-orion-rack-reference-design-160-accelerators-pcie-fabric-aries-7-pcie-7#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/news\/astera-labs-orion-rack-reference-design-160-accelerators-pcie-fabric-aries-7-pcie-7"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/news\/astera-labs-orion-rack-reference-design-160-accelerators-pcie-fabric-aries-7-pcie-7#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Storagereview-astera-labs-Orion-Rack.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Storagereview-astera-labs-Orion-Rack.jpeg","width":1500,"height":844,"caption":"Astera Labs Orion rack reference design render, a full-height rack populated with compute and fabric trays"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/news\/astera-labs-orion-rack-reference-design-160-accelerators-pcie-fabric-aries-7-pcie-7#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Astera Labs Orion Scales 8 to 160 Accelerators on a 320-Lane PCIe Fabric With Any GPU, as Aries 7 Brings PCIe 7 Retimers and Optics"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/","name":"StorageReview.com","description":"StorageReview.com is a leading provider of news and reviews throughout the entire IT stack - from the datacenter to the edge, and all points in between.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/#organization","name":"StorageReview.com","url":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Storage-Reviews-2-2.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Storage-Reviews-2-2.png","width":344,"height":61,"caption":"StorageReview.com"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/storagereview","http:\/\/youtube.com\/user\/storagereview"]}]}
```