Astera Labs’ Leo CXL Smart Memory Controllers on Microsoft Azure M-series Virtual Machines Overcome the Memory Wall

SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Astera Labs, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALAB), a leader in semiconductor-based connectivity solutions for rack-scale AI infrastructure, today announced its Leo CXL Smart Memory Controllers enable customers to evaluate Compute Express Link^® (CXL^®) memory expansion capabilities for their specific workloads in the Azure M-series virtual machines (VMs) preview.

Microsoft’s Azure M-series VMs is the industry’s first announced deployment of CXL-attached memory, addressing the growing demands of memory-intensive workloads, including in-memory databases. As organizations process increasingly large datasets, traditional server architectures face a fundamental bottleneck known as the “memory wall.” CXL technology breaks through this barrier by enabling memory expansion beyond the limitations of CPU-attached DRAM, providing cloud providers and enterprises with the flexibility to scale memory capacity and…