This topic describes the features of Elastic Compute Service (ECS) High-performance Computing (HPC) Optimized instance families and lists specific instance types.
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About HPC-optimized instances
HPC-optimized instances deliver the best price-to-performance ratio for HPC workloads while reducing large-scale operational costs. Built on Alibaba Cloud's next-generation Cloud Infrastructure Processing Unit (CIPU) architecture, they provide stable computing power, enhanced I/O performance, and chip-level security hardening:
Dedicated hardware offloads virtualization overhead, resulting in near-zero performance loss. Physical CPU cores are exposed directly, delivering exceptional and stable compute power.
High-throughput, low-latency, and stable elastic Remote Direct Memory Access (eRDMA) networking enables fast node-to-node communication and improves performance for network-intensive applications.
HPC-optimized instances support high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, scientific computing, engineering simulation, data analytics, and audio-video processing. They meet demanding requirements for compute, network, and storage performance. Use Elastic High Performance Computing (E-HPC) to create HPC-optimized instances just like other ECS instances. Scale your cloud-based parallel tasks efficiently.
Before using HPC-optimized instances, note the following:
You cannot change instance types.
These instances expose physical CPU cores. Hyper-threading is not supported.
HPC-optimized instances include the following families:
HPC-optimized instance family hpc9a
About hpc9a: The hpc9a family targets HPC workloads that require large memory capacity, such as chip design. It offers an ultra-high CPU-to-memory ratio of up to 1:24. Built on Alibaba Cloud's latest CIPU architecture and powered by AMD's newest EPYC™ Turin processors, hpc9a uses physical CPU cores to deliver stable computing power, stronger I/O engines, and chip-level security hardening.
Scenarios: Chip design and other HPC workloads.
Compute:
CPU-to-memory ratio (physical cores to memory) is 1:24. Maximum memory is 3072 GiB.
Processor: Fifth-generation AMD EPYC™ Turin processor. Turbo frequency up to 5.0 GHz. Uses physical cores for stable compute performance.
Hyper-threading is not supported.
Operating system compatibility: Supports only verified and performance-optimized operating systems, including Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 and 4.
Storage:
I/O optimized instance.
These instances support the NVMe protocol. For more information, see Overview of the NVMe protocol.
Supported disk types: Enterprise SSD (ESSD), ESSD AutoPL disks, and Regional ESSDs. For more information about disks, see Overview of Elastic Block Storage.
Network:
These instances support IPv4 and IPv6. For information about IPv6 communication, see IPv6 communication.
Delivers an ultra-high packet forwarding rate.
These instances support eRDMA. For information about how to use eRDMA, see Enable eRDMA on enterprise-level instances.
These instances support jumbo frames. For more information, see Jumbo frames.
hpc9a includes the following instance types and metrics:
Instance type | Physical cores | Memory (GiB) | Baseline network bandwidth (Gbit/s) | eRDMA network bandwidth (Gbit/s) |
ecs.hpc9a.32xlarge | 128 | 3072 | 200 | 200 |
HPC-optimized instance family hpc8i
The hpc8i family is in invitational preview. To use it, submit a ticket.
About hpc8i: The hpc8i family is optimized for compute-intensive applications such as implicit finite element analysis, molecular dynamics, and computational chemistry. It uses the latest Intel® Xeon® Emerald Rapids processors. All-core turbo frequency is 3.6 GHz. It supports Intel's rich software ecosystem, including Intel Math Kernel Library and Advanced Vector Extensions 512 (AVX-512).
Scenarios:
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) in industrial simulation.
EDA simulation.
Geological exploration.
Weather forecasting.
Molecular dynamics simulation.
Other HPC workloads.
Compute:
CPU-to-memory ratio is 1:8.
Processor: Intel® Xeon® Emerald Rapids processor. Base clock speed is at least 2.8 GHz. All-core turbo frequency is 3.6 GHz. Delivers stable compute performance.
Hyper-threading is not supported.
Operating system compatibility: Supports only verified and performance-optimized operating systems, including Alibaba Cloud Linux 2.1903 LTS 64-bit and Alibaba Cloud Linux 3.2104 LTS 64-bit.
Storage:
I/O optimized instance.
These instances support the NVMe protocol. For more information, see Overview of the NVMe protocol.
Supported disk types: Elastic ephemeral disks, ESSDs, ESSD AutoPL disks, and Regional ESSDs. For more information about disks, see Overview of Elastic Block Storage.
Network:
These instances support IPv4 and IPv6. For information about IPv6 communication, see IPv6 communication.
These instances support eRDMA. For information about how to use eRDMA, see Enable eRDMA on enterprise-level instances.
These instances support jumbo frames. For more information, see Jumbo frames.
The hpc8i family includes the following instance types and metrics.
Instance type | Physical cores | Memory (GiB) | Baseline network bandwidth (Gbit/s) | eRDMA network bandwidth (Gbit/s) |
ecs.hpc8i.32xlarge | 64 | 512 | 100 | 100 |
HPC-optimized instance family hpc8ae
About hpc8ae: The hpc8ae family targets tightly coupled HPC workloads that are both compute- and network-intensive, such as industrial simulation, Electronic Design Automation (EDA) simulation, geological exploration, weather forecasting, and molecular dynamics simulation. It delivers the latest fourth-generation AMD EPYC™ (Genoa) processors with up to 3.75 GHz turbo frequency, 64 Gbps eRDMA inter-node network bandwidth, and enhanced memory bandwidth.
Scenarios:
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) in industrial simulation.
EDA simulation.
Geological exploration.
Weather forecasting.
Molecular dynamics simulation.
Other HPC workloads.
Compute:
CPU-to-memory ratio is 1:4.
Processor: AMD EPYC™ Genoa processor with 3.4 GHz base clock speed. Single-core turbo frequency up to 3.75 GHz. Delivers stable compute performance.
Hyper-threading is not supported.
Operating system compatibility: Supports only verified and performance-optimized operating systems, including Alibaba Cloud Linux 2.1903 LTS 64-bit and Alibaba Cloud Linux 3.2104 LTS 64-bit.
Storage:
I/O optimized instance.
These instances support the NVMe protocol. For more information, see Overview of the NVMe protocol.
Supported disk types: ESSDs, ESSD AutoPL disks, and Regional ESSDs. For more information about disks, see Overview of Elastic Block Storage.
Network:
These instances support IPv4 and IPv6. For information about IPv6 communication, see IPv6 communication.
These instances support eRDMA. For information about how to use eRDMA, see Enable eRDMA on enterprise-level instances.
The hpc8ae family includes the following instance types and metrics.
Instance type | Physical cores | Memory (GiB) | Baseline network bandwidth (Gbit/s) | eRDMA network bandwidth (Gbit/s) |
ecs.hpc8ae.32xlarge | 64 | 256 | 64 | 64 |
HPC-optimized instance family hpc7ip
About hpc7ip: The hpc7ip family targets HPC workloads that require large memory capacity, such as chip design. Built on the third-generation SHENLONG architecture, it delivers stable and predictable high performance. Chip-level fast-path acceleration boosts storage and network performance and improves compute stability by orders of magnitude. It offers an ultra-high CPU-to-memory ratio of up to 1:32 and uses Intel Optane persistent memory to significantly reduce the cost per GiB of memory for memory-intensive applications.
Scenarios: Chip design and other HPC workloads.
Compute:
CPU-to-memory ratio (DRAM + persistent memory) is approximately 1:32.
Processor: Third-generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processor (Ice Lake). Base clock speed is 2.9 GHz. All-core turbo frequency is 3.5 GHz. Delivers stable compute performance.
Maximum memory is 2560 GiB (512 GiB DRAM + 2048 GiB Intel® Optane™ persistent memory).
Hyper-threading is not supported.
Operating system compatibility: Supports only verified and performance-optimized operating systems, including Alibaba Cloud Linux 2.1903 LTS 64-bit and Alibaba Cloud Linux 3.2104 LTS 64-bit.
Storage:
I/O optimized instance.
These instances support the NVMe protocol. For more information, see Overview of the NVMe protocol.
Supported disk types: ESSDs, ESSD AutoPL disks, and Regional ESSDs. For more information about disks, see Overview of Elastic Block Storage.
Network:
These instances support IPv4 and IPv6. For information about IPv6 communication, see IPv6 communication.
These instances provide an ultra-high packet forwarding rate.
The hpc7ip family includes the following instance types and metrics.
Instance type | Physical cores | Memory (GiB) | Persistent memory (GiB) | Baseline network bandwidth (Gbit/s) |
ecs.hpc7ip.32xlarge | 64 | 512 | 2048 | 64 |
HPC-optimized instance family hpc6id
About hpc6id: The hpc6id family targets HPC workloads that require large memory capacity and local data access, such as chip design. Built on the third-generation SHENLONG architecture, it delivers stable and predictable high performance. Chip-level fast-path acceleration boosts storage and network performance and improves compute stability by orders of magnitude. It provides large memory capacity and two 3.8 TB local data disks to reduce costs for memory- and data-bound applications.
Scenarios: Chip design, seismic reservoir and structural simulation, and other HPC workloads.
Compute:
CPU-to-memory ratio is approximately 1:38.
Processor: Intel® Xeon® Scalable processor (Cascade Lake). Base clock speed is 3.1 GHz. All-core turbo frequency is 3.5 GHz. Delivers stable compute performance.
Hyper-threading is not supported.
Operating system compatibility: Supports only verified and performance-optimized operating systems, including Alibaba Cloud Linux 2.1903 LTS 64-bit and Alibaba Cloud Linux 3.2104 LTS 64-bit.
Storage:
I/O optimized instance.
These instances support the NVMe protocol. For more information, see Overview of the NVMe protocol.
Supported disk types: ESSDs, ESSD AutoPL disks, and Regional ESSDs. For more information about disks, see Overview of Elastic Block Storage.
Network:
These instances support IPv4 and IPv6. For information about IPv6 communication, see IPv6 communication.
These instances provide an ultra-high packet forwarding rate.
The hpc6id family includes the following instance types and metrics.
Instance type | Physical cores | Memory (GiB) | Local storage (GB) | Baseline network bandwidth (Gbit/s) |
ecs.hpc6id.20xlarge | 40 | 1536 | 2 × 3840 | 32 |