Oracle introduces E3 instances based on AMD EPYC processors

Oracle introduces E3 instances based on AMD EPYC processors

Oracle has launched its new Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Compute E3 platform. The platform is configured based on AMD 2nd EPYC processors and should provide users with more processing power for workloads.

The new E3 instances include bare metal and standard instances. These instances are based on the recently launched second-generation EPYC processors from chip manufacturer AMD. With these processors, the instances are well prepared for both generic workloads and workloads that require high bandwidth.

Using E3 instances

Oracle would like to use these E3 instances to attract new customers. However, existing customers can also use the new instances based on 2nd generation AMD EPYC processors. This to optimise the cloud environment for their own infrastructure stack.

Oracle Cloud has been working with AMD’s EPYC processors for two years now. Several important applications of the cloud giant are very suitable for these specific AMD processors. Think of applications such as E-Business Suite, JD Edwards and PeopleSoft.

Specifications

With the new generation of EPYC processors, bare metal instances now support up to 128 OCPUs (Oracle Compute Units), 128 cores and 256 threads. This is the highest number of physical cores that a public cloud supports, according to Oracle. Besides the cores, they have 2 TB of RAM and network bandwidth of 100 Gbps.

These E3 instances are based on the EPYC 7742 processor. As a result, the instances offer a higher core count of virtual machines (VM’s) than the previous E2 generation instances. This core count runs up to 640 CPUs and 1 TB of memory. In addition, the new instances also offer 16 GB of memory per OCPU. This is twice as much as the E2 instances provide at the moment.

Furthermore, instead of a standard menu of 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 cores for its instances, Oracle allows customers to select the number of OCPUs they need for a vm.

Price and availability

The cost of using the new E3 instances is based on the new per-second model now used for the entire Oracle Cloud Infrastructure compute instances. Instances for vm’s have a minimum usage of 1 minute, while the bare metal instances have a minimum usage of 1 hour.

The E3 instances are now available in the Oracle regions US East (Ashburn), US West (Phoenix), Central Germany (Frankfurt) and Japan East (Tokyo). According to Oracle, the E3 instances should be available in all global regions in the second quarter of 2020.