AWS next-generation instances, C6g and R6g, powered by Graviton2 processor promise to deliver up to 40% better performance and 20% reduced cost in comparison to the current generation x86 based instances.
Amazon Web Services has made significant progress in its sixth generation of Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2) instances. The cloud computing giant announced the launch of the general availability of its new generation of Arm-based instances (C6g and R6g) powered by AWS designed processor, Graviton2. The new compute-optimized (C6g) and memory-optimized (R6g) instances claim to deliver up to 40% better price/performance over its Intel Corporation x86-based EC2 instances.
AWS CEO Andy Jassy tweeted that the next-gen EC2 instances would be a game changer.
Excited to bring customers the next gen of Amazon EC2 instances powered by #AWSOpens a new window -designed, Arm-based Graviton2 processors that deliver up to 40% better price/performance than comparable current x86 instances. Should be a game changer!
— Andy Jassy (@ajassy) June 12, 2020Opens a new window
C6g: Designed for Compute-Intensive Workloads
At AWS re:Invent 2019, AWS unveiledOpens a new window the new AWS C6g instances with a goal to deliver upto 40% improved price/performance over the fifth generation C5 instancesOpens a new window . These instances are designed for various compute-optimized use cases such as High Performance Computing (HPC), batch processing, CPU-based machine learning inference, gaming, scientific modeling, and distributed analytics with 1 to 64 virtual CPUs (vCPUs) and up to 128 GB of memory. It is powered by the AWS Nitro System (a combination of dedicated hardware and software tools), and prominent features include the custom-built AWS Graviton2 processor with 64-bit Arm cores, as well its ability to support 25 Gbps of network bandwidth and 19 Gbps of Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) bandwidth.
Testifying that the new C6g instances improve performance by 40% and cost by 20%, a case studyOpens a new window shared by AWS experts showed a 37% better price/performance over the other C family instances.
R6g: Designed for Memory Optimization
Amazon EC2 R6g instances are designed to deliver fast performance for large data sets memory workloads. They deliver up to 40% better price/performance over the R5 (fifth generation) instances for memory-intensive applications such as open-source databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL), in-memory caches (Redis, Memcached), and real-time big data analytics. R6g instances support workloads with 1 to 64 vCPUs and up to 512 GB of memory.
Graviton2: The Customized, In-House Processor
The silicon processor market has been highly competitive with several industry heavyweights such as Intel, Qualcomm, AMD, NVIDIA already in the fray. Dipping its feet in this ambitious market, backed by its penchant for innovation, AWS had developed its 1st generation, Arm-based, custom-made processor: the AWS Graviton Processor – to power Amazon EC2 A1 instance family. The processors deliver optimized performance at a lower price for customer workloads. Improvising its processor, AWS last year launched the Arm-based Graviton2 processor with better performance and capabilities over the 1st generation Gravitor processor.
Jeff Barr, Chief Evangelist for AWS sharesOpens a new window , “Graviton2 is a custom AWS design that is built using a 7 nm (nanometer) manufacturing process. It is based on 64-bit Arm Neoverse cores and can deliver up to 7x the performance of the A1 instances, including twice the floating point performance. Additional memory channels and double-sized per-core caches speed memory access by up to 5x.â€
The new instances are built on AWS Nitro System, powered by Arm-based AWS Graviton2 processors that deliver 7x more performance, 4x more compute cores, and 5x faster memory than the A1 instances along with up to 40% better price/performance over the current generation x86-based instances. Illustrating how AWS designed its own processor, Patrick Moorhead Founder, President, and Principal Analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy sharesOpens a new window , “You may be wondering how AWS could do something this big. This isn’t the team’s first rodeo. This team started off as Annapurna Labs, acquired by Amazon in early 2015. Before its acquisition, AWS worked closely with Annapurna Labs on Nitro, AWS’s secret sauce for offloading, accelerating, and virtualizing compute, storage, and network. Each Annapurna chip included an acceleration ASIC and Arm cores, and I believe 10s of millions of these chips are powering Nitro today.â€
David Brown, Vice President, Amazon EC2, at AWS addedOpens a new window , “The new Amazon EC2 instances powered by AWS-designed, Arm-based, Graviton2 processors represent a significant generational leap for customers, delivering 40% better price/performance over comparable x86-based instances, and already we’ve seen a broad set of customers embrace them across a wide variety of general-purpose, compute-optimized, and memory-optimized workloads.â€
Currently, the Amazon EC2 C6g and R6g instances are available in AWS’ U.S. East (Northern Virginia and Ohio), U.S. West (Oregon), Europe (Frankfurt), Europe (Ireland) and Asia Pacific (Tokyo) cloud regions.
Additionally, James Hamilton, VP and Distinguished Engineer at AWS, shared details about the general availability of the new instances on social media.
Up to 40% better price performance now available for compute-intensive and memory-intensive workloads with AWS Graviton2 based Amazon EC2 C6g and R6g instances.
— Amazon Web Services (@awscloud) June 11, 2020Opens a new window
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