This topic describes the features of Super Computing Cluster (SCC) instance families of Elastic Compute Service (ECS) and lists the instance types of each instance family.
scchfc6, compute-optimized SCC instance family with high clock speeds
scchfg6, general-purpose SCC instance family with high clock speeds
scchfr6, memory-optimized SCC instance family with high clock speeds
sccgn6e, GPU-accelerated compute-optimized SCC instance family
sccgn6, GPU-accelerated compute-optimized SCC instance family
Introduction
SCC is based on ECS Bare Metal Instance and uses high-speed Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) based interconnections to significantly improve the network performance and acceleration ratio of large-scale clusters. SCC has all the benefits of ECS Bare Metal Instance and provides high-bandwidth, low-latency networks.
SCC is used in scenarios such as high-performance computing (HPC), AI, machine learning, scientific and engineering computing, data analytics, and audio and video processing. In a cluster, nodes are connected through RDMA networks, which delivers large throughputs and low latencies to meet the requirements of HPC and AI. RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) networks rival InfiniBand networks in terms of connection speed and can support more Ethernet-based applications.
SCC can work with other Alibaba Cloud computing services, such as ECS and Elastic GPU Service, to provide ultra-high-performance parallel computing resources for Elastic High Performance Computing (E-HPC), making cloud-based super computing possible.
Comparison of SCCs, physical machines, and virtual machines
The following table compares the features of SCCs, physical machines, and virtual machines. In this table, Y means supported, N means not supported, and N/A means not applicable.
Category | Feature | SCC | Physical machine | Virtual machine |
Automated O&M | Minute-level delivery | Y | N | Y |
Compute | Zero performance overheads | Y | Y | N |
Zero feature loss | Y | Y | N | |
Zero resource contention | Y | Y | N | |
Storage | Compatibility with ECS disks | Y | N | Y |
Boot from system disks | Y | N | Y | |
Quick reset of system disks | Y | N | Y | |
Use of ECS images | Y | N | Y | |
Cold migration between physical and virtual machines | Y | N | Y | |
No need to install operating systems | Y | N | Y | |
Implementation of data protection with cloud disks, eliminating the need for local RAIDs | Y | N | Y | |
Network | Compatibility with virtual private clouds (VPCs) | Y | N | Y |
Compatibility with the classic network | Y | N | Y | |
No communication bottlenecks between physical and virtual machine clusters in VPCs | Y | N | Y | |
Management | Compatibility with existing ECS management systems | Y | N | Y |
Consistent user experience on features such as Virtual Network Computing (VNC) with that on virtual machines | Y | N | Y | |
Out-of-band (OOB) network security | Y | N | N/A |
scchfc6, compute-optimized SCC instance family with high clock speeds
To use it, submit a ticket.
Features:
This instance family supports all features of ECS Bare Metal Instance. For more information, see Overview of ECS Bare Metal Instance families.
Compute:
Offers a CPU-to-memory ratio of 1:2.4.
Uses 3.1 GHz Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8269 (Cascade Lake) processors that deliver an all-core turbo frequency of 3.5 GHz.
Storage:
Is an instance family in which all instances are I/O optimized.
Supports only ESSDs, ESSD AutoPL disks, standard SSDs, and ultra disks.
Network:
Supports IPv6.
Supports both RoCE networks and VPCs. RoCE networks are dedicated to RDMA communication.
Supported scenarios:
Large-scale machine learning training
Large-scale high-performance scientific computing and simulation calculation
Large-scale data analytics, batch processing, and video encoding
Instance types
Instance type | vCPU | Physical cores | Memory size (GiB) | Network bandwidth (Gbit/s) | Packet forwarding rate (pps) | RoCE bandwidth (Gbit/s) | NIC queues | ENIs | Private IP addresses per ENI |
ecs.scchfc6.20xlarge | 80 | 40 | 192.0 | 30 | 6 million | 50 | 8 | 32 | 10 |
ecs.scchfc6.20xlarge provides 80 logical processors on 40 physical cores.
You can go to the ECS Instance Types Available for Each Region page to view the instance types available in each region.
For more information about these specifications, see Overview of instance families.
scchfg6, general-purpose SCC instance family with high clock speeds
To use it, submit a ticket.
Features:
This instance family supports all features of ECS Bare Metal Instance. For more information, see Overview of ECS Bare Metal Instance families.
Compute:
Offers a CPU-to-memory ratio of 1:4.8.
Uses 3.1 GHz Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8269 (Cascade Lake) processors that deliver an all-core turbo frequency of 3.5 GHz.
Storage:
Is an instance family in which all instances are I/O optimized.
Supports only ESSDs, ESSD AutoPL disks, standard SSDs, and ultra disks.
Network:
Supports IPv6.
Supports both RoCE networks and VPCs. RoCE networks are dedicated to RDMA communication.
Supported scenarios:
Large-scale machine learning training
Large-scale high-performance scientific computing and simulation calculation
Large-scale data analytics, batch processing, and video encoding
Instance types
Instance type | vCPU | Physical cores | Memory size (GiB) | Network bandwidth (Gbit/s) | Packet forwarding rate (pps) | RoCE bandwidth (Gbit/s) | NIC queues | ENIs | Private IP addresses per ENI |
ecs.scchfg6.20xlarge | 80 | 40 | 384.0 | 30 | 6 million | 50 | 8 | 32 | 10 |
ecs.scchfg6.20xlarge provides 80 logical processors on 40 physical cores.
You can go to the ECS Instance Types Available for Each Region page to view the instance types available in each region.
For more information about these specifications, see Overview of instance families.
scchfr6, memory-optimized SCC instance family with high clock speeds
To use it, submit a ticket.
Features:
This instance family supports all features of ECS Bare Metal Instance. For more information, see Overview of ECS Bare Metal Instance families.
Compute:
Offers a CPU-to-memory ratio of 1:9.6.
Uses 3.1 GHz Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8269 (Cascade Lake) processors that deliver an all-core turbo frequency of 3.5 GHz.
Storage:
Is an instance family in which all instances are I/O optimized.
Supports only ESSDs, ESSD AutoPL disks, standard SSDs, and ultra disks.
Network:
Supports IPv6.
Supports both RoCE networks and VPCs. RoCE networks are dedicated to RDMA communication.
Supported scenarios:
Large-scale machine learning training
Large-scale high-performance scientific computing and simulation calculation
Large-scale data analytics, batch processing, and video encoding
Instance types
Instance type | vCPU | Physical cores | Memory size (GiB) | Network bandwidth (Gbit/s) | Packet forwarding rate (pps) | RoCE bandwidth (Gbit/s) | NIC queues | ENIs | Private IP addresses per ENI |
ecs.scchfr6.20xlarge | 80 | 40 | 768.0 | 30 | 6 million | 50 | 8 | 32 | 10 |
ecs.scchfr6.20xlarge provides 80 logical processors on 40 physical cores.
You can go to the ECS Instance Types Available for Each Region page to view the instance types available in each region.
For more information about these specifications, see Overview of instance families.
scch5, SCC instance family with high clock speeds
Features:
This instance family supports all features of ECS Bare Metal Instance. For more information, see Overview of ECS Bare Metal Instance families.
Compute:
Offers a CPU-to-memory ratio of 1:3.
Uses 3.1 GHz Intel® Xeon® Gold 6149 (Skylake) processors.
Storage:
Is an instance family in which all instances are I/O optimized.
Supports standard SSDs and ultra disks.
Network:
Supports both RoCE networks and VPCs. RoCE networks are dedicated to RDMA communication.
Supported scenarios:
Large-scale machine learning training
Large-scale high-performance scientific computing and simulation calculation
Large-scale data analytics, batch processing, and video encoding
Instance types
Instance type | vCPU | Physical cores | Memory size (GiB) | Network bandwidth (Gbit/s) | Packet forwarding rate (pps) | RoCE bandwidth (Gbit/s) | NIC queues | ENIs | Private IP addresses per ENI |
ecs.scch5.16xlarge | 64 | 32 | 192.0 | 10 | 4.5 million | 50 | 8 | 32 | 10 |
ecs.scch5.16xlarge provides 64 logical processors on 32 physical cores.
You can go to the ECS Instance Types Available for Each Region page to view the instance types available in each region.
For more information about these specifications, see Overview of instance families.
sccg5, general-purpose SCC instance family
Features:
This instance family supports all features of ECS Bare Metal Instance. For more information, see Overview of ECS Bare Metal Instance families.
Compute:
Offers a CPU-to-memory ratio of 1:4.
Uses 2.5 GHz Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8163 (Skylake) processors for consistent computing performance.
Storage:
Is an instance family in which all instances are I/O optimized.
Supports standard SSDs and ultra disks.
Network:
Supports both RoCE networks and VPCs. RoCE networks are dedicated to RDMA communication.
Supported scenarios:
Large-scale machine learning training
Large-scale high-performance scientific computing and simulation calculation
Large-scale data analytics, batch processing, and video encoding
Instance types
Instance type | vCPU | Physical cores | Memory size (GiB) | Network bandwidth (Gbit/s) | Packet forwarding rate (pps) | RoCE bandwidth (Gbit/s) | NIC queues | ENIs | Private IP addresses per ENI |
ecs.sccg5.24xlarge | 96 | 48 | 384.0 | 10 | 4.5 million | 50 | 8 | 32 | 10 |
ecs.sccg5.24xlarge provides 96 logical processors on 48 physical cores.
You can go to the ECS Instance Types Available for Each Region page to view the instance types available in each region.
For more information about these specifications, see Overview of instance families.
sccgn6e, GPU-accelerated compute-optimized SCC instance family
To use it, submit a ticket.
Features:
This instance family supports all features of ECS Bare Metal Instance. For more information, see Overview of ECS Bare Metal Instance families.
Compute:
GPU:
Innovative NVIDIA Volta architecture
32 GB of HBM2 GPU memory
5,120 CUDA cores
640 Tensor cores
GPU memory bandwidth of up to 900 GB/s
Support for up to six bidirectional NVLink connections, which each have a unidirectional bandwidth of 25 GB/s for a total bandwidth of 300 GB/s
Offers a CPU-to-memory ratio of 1:8.
Uses 2.5 GHz Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8163 (Skylake) processors for consistent computing performance.
Storage:
Is an instance family in which all instances are I/O optimized.
Supports only ESSDs, ESSD AutoPL disks, standard SSDs, and ultra disks.
Supports high-performance Cloud Paralleled File System (CPFS).
Network:
Supports IPv6.
Supports VPCs.
Supports RoCE v2 networks, which are dedicated to low-latency RDMA communication.
Supported scenarios:
Ultra-large-scale training for machine learning on distributed GPU clusters
Large-scale high-performance scientific computing and simulation calculation
Large-scale data analytics, batch processing, and video encoding
Instance types
Instance type | vCPU | Memory size (GiB) | GPU | GPU memory (GB) | Network bandwidth (Gbit/s) | Packet forwarding rate (pps) | RoCE bandwidth (Gbit/s) | NIC queues | ENIs | Private IP addresses per ENI |
ecs.sccgn6e.24xlarge | 96 | 768.0 | NVIDIA V100 * 8 | 32GB * 8 | 32 | 4.8 million | 50 | 8 | 32 | 10 |
You can go to the ECS Instance Types Available for Each Region page to view the instance types available in each region.
For more information about these specifications, see Overview of instance families.
sccgn6, GPU-accelerated compute-optimized SCC instance family
Features:
This instance family supports all features of ECS Bare Metal Instance. For more information, see Overview of ECS Bare Metal Instance families.
Compute:
This instance family uses NVIDIA V100 GPUs (SXM2-based) that have the following features:
Innovative NVIDIA Volta architecture
16 GB of HBM2 GPU memory
5,120 CUDA cores
640 Tensor cores
GPU memory bandwidth of up to 900 GB/s
Support for up to six bidirectional NVLink connections, which each have a unidirectional bandwidth of 25 GB/s for a total bandwidth of 300 GB/s
Offers a CPU-to-memory ratio of 1:4.
Uses 2.5 GHz Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8163 (Skylake) processors for consistent computing performance.
Storage:
Is an instance family in which all instances are I/O optimized.
Supports only ESSDs, ESSD AutoPL disks, standard SSDs, and ultra disks.
Supports high-performance CPFS.
Network:
Supports IPv6.
Supports VPCs.
Supports RoCE v2 networks, which are dedicated to low-latency RDMA communication.
Supported scenarios:
Ultra-large-scale training for machine learning on distributed GPU clusters
Large-scale high-performance scientific computing and simulation calculation
Large-scale data analytics, batch processing, and video encoding
Instance types
Instance type | vCPU | Memory size (GiB) | GPU | Network bandwidth (Gbit/s) | Packet forwarding rate (pps) | RoCE bandwidth (Gbit/s) | NIC queues | ENIs | Private IP addresses per ENI |
ecs.sccgn6.24xlarge | 96 | 384.0 | NVIDIA V100 * 8 | 30 | 4.5 million | 50 | 8 | 32 | 10 |
You can go to the ECS Instance Types Available for Each Region page to view the instance types available in each region.
For more information about these specifications, see Overview of instance families.
Billing methods
SCCs support the pay-as-you-go and subscription billing methods. For more information, see Overview of billing methods.