About a-team Marketing Services
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry

A-Team Insight Blogs

Arista Debuts Application Switch; Embeds FPGAs Into Network for Lowest Latency

Subscribe to our newsletter

Sun Microsystems might have coined the the slogan “The Network Is The Computer” but it is Arista Networks that is today delivering on the concept with its first Application Switch, which embeds FPGA processing into a switch so that business logic can really be run in the networking fabric itself with lowest-latency data access.

With both Sun and Arista sharing a founder in Andy Bechtolsheim, it’s perhaps not surprising that the company has taken an inevitable leap in network intelligence by allowing business logic to run natively on its switch, bringing applications as close to data traffic as is possible. For the financial markets, that means execution algorithms, pre-trade risk, market data ticker plants, and other low-latency applications that might be made available across a networked enterprise.

Specifically, Arista is introducing the 7124FX – a version of its 7124SX low-latency switch, which marries 24 x 10gE network ports with an Altera Stratix V FPGA chip, 8GB RAM, 50GB solid state disk, and options for precision timing (including an atomic clock) for clock synchronisation.

By embedding FPGA processing into a switch as opposed to a network interface card (NIC), which is now pretty commonplace, it’s possible to architect systems where low-latency services can access data from or be made accessible across an enterprise network, instead of to applications running on a single server. How trading systems architects will adopt these intelligent switches alongside equally intelligent NICs is yet to be seen, but one can expect reference designs to emerge that take advantage of the best of both approaches.

Arista is partnering with the likes of Exegy and NovaSparks to deliver integrated appliances, while it is also working with Impulse C and Enyx to provide development environments and building blocks for firms looking to implement their own code in the switch.

Availability of the 7124FX is slated for this summer, with pricing of around $50K for a model without an atomic clock, and $60K with one.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Recorded Webinar: The future of market data – Harnessing cloud and AI for market data distribution and consumption

Market data is the lifeblood of trading, but as data volumes grow and real-time demands increase, traditional approaches to distribution and consumption are being pushed to their limits. Cloud technology and AI-driven solutions are rapidly transforming how financial institutions manage, process, and extract value from market data, offering greater scalability, efficiency, and intelligence. This webinar,...

BLOG

Beyond the Monolith: Crafting the Agile Trading Stack for the Modern Era

For decades, the central question for any firm designing its trading systems architecture has been a seemingly binary choice: buy an off-the-shelf platform or build a proprietary one in-house? The ‘buy’ camp argued for speed to market and vendor-managed upkeep, while the ‘build’ camp championed bespoke functionality and control over intellectual property. Today, this long-standing...

EVENT

AI in Capital Markets Summit London

The AI in Capital Markets Summit will explore current and emerging trends in AI, the potential of Generative AI and LLMs and how AI can be applied for efficiencies and business value across a number of use cases, in the front and back office of financial institutions. The agenda will explore the risks and challenges of adopting AI and the foundational technologies and data management capabilities that underpin successful deployment.

GUIDE

AI in Capital Markets: Practical Insight for a Transforming Industry – Free Handbook

AI is no longer on the horizon – it’s embedded in the infrastructure of modern capital markets. But separating real impact from inflated promises requires a grounded, practical understanding. The AI in Capital Markets Handbook 2025 provides exactly that. Designed for data-driven professionals across the trade life-cycle, compliance, infrastructure, and strategy, this handbook goes beyond...