Amazon Web Services (AWS) has recently unveiled the latest addition to its suite of virtual servers, known as the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). This announcement marks the general availability of the compute-optimized C8i and C8i-flex instances. These new instances are powered by custom Intel Xeon processors, exclusively available on AWS, and deliver an impressive all-core turbo frequency of 3.9 GHz. With a memory-to-virtual CPU (vCPU) ratio of 2:1, these instances provide unmatched performance and memory bandwidth, setting a new benchmark for Intel processors in cloud computing.
The C8i and C8i-flex instances offer significant improvements over their predecessors, the C7i and C7i-flex instances. Users can expect up to a 15% better price-performance ratio and 2.5 times more memory bandwidth. These instances are particularly noteworthy for being up to 60% faster in running NGINX web applications, 40% faster in AI deep learning recommendation models, and 35% faster for Memcached stores when compared to the C7i and C7i-flex instances.
These advancements make C8i and C8i-flex instances particularly suited for compute-intensive workloads. Ideal use cases include web server hosting, caching, Apache Kafka, ElasticSearch, batch processing, distributed analytics, high-performance computing (HPC), advertising serving, scalable multiplayer gaming, and video encoding.
Continuing the trend of innovation, the 8th generation instances, including C8i and C8i-flex, incorporate the new 6th generation AWS Nitro Cards. These cards offer up to twice the network and Amazon Elastic Block Storage (Amazon EBS) bandwidth compared to previous generations. Users can further optimize their setups with a 25% configurable bandwidth allocation between network and EBS bandwidth, enhancing database performance, query processing, and logging speeds.
C8i Instances
C8i instances are designed to handle the most demanding compute-intensive tasks. They can support up to 384 vCPUs and 768 TB of memory, including bare-metal instances that allow direct access to the underlying physical hardware. This makes them ideal for applications that require continuous high CPU usage, such as CPU-based inference tasks and video streaming.
Below are the specifications for various C8i instance sizes:
Instance size: vCPUs: Memory (GiB): Network bandwidth (Gbps): EBS bandwidth (Gbps)
- c8i.large: 2 vCPUs, 4 GiB memory, Up to 12.5 Gbps network bandwidth, Up to 10 Gbps EBS bandwidth
- c8i.xlarge: 4 vCPUs, 8 GiB memory, Up to 12.5 Gbps network bandwidth, Up to 10 Gbps EBS bandwidth
- c8i.2xlarge: 8 vCPUs, 16 GiB memory, Up to 15 Gbps network bandwidth, Up to 10 Gbps EBS bandwidth
- c8i.4xlarge: 16 vCPUs, 32 GiB memory, Up to 15 Gbps network bandwidth, Up to 10 Gbps EBS bandwidth
- c8i.8xlarge: 32 vCPUs, 64 GiB memory, 15 Gbps network bandwidth, 10 Gbps EBS bandwidth
- c8i.12xlarge: 48 vCPUs, 96 GiB memory, 22.5 Gbps network bandwidth, 15 Gbps EBS bandwidth
- c8i.16xlarge: 64 vCPUs, 128 GiB memory, 30 Gbps network bandwidth, 20 Gbps EBS bandwidth
- c8i.24xlarge: 96 vCPUs, 192 GiB memory, 40 Gbps network bandwidth, 30 Gbps EBS bandwidth
- c8i.32xlarge: 128 vCPUs, 256 GiB memory, 50 Gbps network bandwidth, 40 Gbps EBS bandwidth
- c8i.48xlarge: 192 vCPUs, 384 GiB memory, 75 Gbps network bandwidth, 60 Gbps EBS bandwidth
- c8i.96xlarge: 384 vCPUs, 768 GiB memory, 100 Gbps network bandwidth, 80 Gbps EBS bandwidth
- c8i.metal-48xl: 192 vCPUs, 384 GiB memory, 75 Gbps network bandwidth, 60 Gbps EBS bandwidth
- c8i.metal-96xl: 384 vCPUs, 768 GiB memory, 100 Gbps network bandwidth, 80 Gbps EBS bandwidth
C8i-flex Instances
C8i-flex instances are a more cost-effective alternative to C8i instances, offering a 5% better price performance at a 5% lower price. These instances are tailored for workloads that benefit from the latest generation performance but do not require full utilization of all compute resources. C8i-flex instances can achieve full CPU performance 95% of the time.
Here are the specifications for C8i-flex instances:
Instance size: vCPUs: Memory (GiB): Network bandwidth (Gbps): EBS bandwidth (Gbps)
- c8i-flex.large: 2 vCPUs, 4 GiB memory, Up to 12.5 Gbps network bandwidth, Up to 10 Gbps EBS bandwidth
- c8i-flex.xlarge: 4 vCPUs, 8 GiB memory, Up to 12.5 Gbps network bandwidth, Up to 10 Gbps EBS bandwidth
- c8i-flex.2xlarge: 8 vCPUs, 16 GiB memory, Up to 15 Gbps network bandwidth, Up to 10 Gbps EBS bandwidth
- c8i-flex.4xlarge: 16 vCPUs, 32 GiB memory, Up to 15 Gbps network bandwidth, Up to 10 Gbps EBS bandwidth
- c8i-flex.8xlarge: 32 vCPUs, 64 GiB memory, Up to 15 Gbps network bandwidth, Up to 10 Gbps EBS bandwidth
- c8i-flex.12xlarge: 48 vCPUs, 96 GiB memory, Up to 22.5 Gbps network bandwidth, Up to 15 Gbps EBS bandwidth
- c8i-flex.16xlarge: 64 vCPUs, 128 GiB memory, Up to 30 Gbps network bandwidth, Up to 20 Gbps EBS bandwidth
For users currently utilizing earlier generations of compute-optimized instances, transitioning to C8i-flex instances is straightforward and does not require modifications to existing applications or workloads.
Availability and Pricing
The Amazon EC2 C8i and C8i-flex instances are now accessible in several AWS Regions, including US East (N. Virginia), US East (Ohio), US West (Oregon), and Europe (Spain). These instances can be purchased as On-Demand, Savings Plans, and Spot instances. Additionally, C8i instances are available as Dedicated Instances and Dedicated Hosts. For detailed pricing information, users can refer to the Amazon EC2 Pricing page.
For those interested in experiencing the capabilities of C8i and C8i-flex instances, they can be explored via the Amazon EC2 console. For more information, visit the Amazon EC2 C8i instances page. Feedback can be shared through AWS re:Post for EC2 or standard AWS Support channels.
The introduction of C8i and C8i-flex instances marks a significant milestone in cloud computing, offering users unparalleled performance and cost efficiency. As AWS continues to innovate, businesses can leverage these advancements to enhance their operations and deliver superior services to their customers.
For further details, visit the official Amazon website.
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