Emulating Oxide: How Faux Can You Go?
Oxide and Friends, Friday, September 11th, 2026
Oxide engineers discuss VOXEL, the emulation environment that lets them test rack configurations they haven't built yet.
In this Oxide and Friends episode, Bryan and Adam are joined by Steve, Andrew, and Rain to discuss how Oxide tests rack configurations it hasn't built yet.
The conversation centers on VOXEL (Virtual OXide Emulation Lab), which runs emulated rack deployments on a single Helios host using Falcon/propolis VMs, SoftNPU software switches, and FRR routers, with optional real service processor firmware.
They explain how emulating components such as the Tofino-based Sidecar switch, Hubris firmware, and trust quorum has accelerated development across many domains of the Oxide stack.