8 ms·

New T4g EC2 Instances, Powered by AWS Graviton2

106 points by vcz_fr 6y ago

Cactus2018 6y ago
> T4g instances are powered by AWS Graviton2, a processor custom built by AWS using 64-bit Arm Neoverse cores. > all new and existing AWS customers can try the t4g.micro instances free for up to 750 hours per month.
baybal2 6y ago
When will they throw it for the general purpose use? Or wouldn't they because it's too expensive for them?
- kondro 6y ago
  The M/C/R6g range is already available in many regions.
- _msw_ 6y ago
  Disclosure: I work at AWS, where I build cloud infrastructure Can you clarify what you mean? C6g, M6g, and R6g instances have been available for a while now, and those support many different workloads. M6g is the "general purpose" variant. https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/m6/ https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/m6/
  - baybal2 6y ago
    Didn't notice M6g coming out of trials. Well I for long thought that taping out own CPU chips, even on Amazon's scale, wasn't that cheap. The time of Intel demanding obscene prices for high core count server CPUs is at least 2 years since passed. I was thinking if it still makes sense economically for Amazon to continue developing, and buying their own CPUs given that.
    - btian 6y ago
      I’m willing to bet a lot of money that Amazon started designing these CPUs more than 2 years ago.
    - ksec 6y ago
      Amazon is estimated to be representing close to 50% of HyperScaler Market. And the Market segment itself is also roughly 50% of the DC Market. While Intel dont disclose their CPU segment of their DC, you can bet it is the vast majority. Which gives you a rough idea of the scale of Amazon spending, i.e around 20% of Intel DC revenue. And once you see those numbers, even if it is off by 30% or even double counted. Developing cost of CPU, especially when it is more of "working" together with ARM on developing Graviton 2 ( which it in itself extremely similar to ARM's reference design ) doesn't seems to be expensive or out of question.
  - tyingq 6y ago
    Could mean for EKS. I believe Graviton is still beta there, and not recommended for production.
    - asheldon 6y ago
      Graviton is GA for EKS as well. https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/containers/eks-on-graviton-generally-available/ https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/containers/eks-on-graviton-gene...
- d2kx 6y ago
  You're literally commenting on the article that announces its general purpose availability. ...
duskwuff 6y ago
Not specifically mentioned in the press release, but interesting: t4g instances are about 20% cheaper than t3 across the board.
- cinquemb 6y ago
  Do you know how it compares to t3a? Edit: nvm: $0.0336/h for t4g.medium vs $0.0376/h t3a.medium in aws-east north virginia for on demand. Sucks not available in aws-southeast-1 yet, I would switch just for the performance bump over t*a instance.
Androider 6y ago
I think where these Graviton instances will really shine is in the AWS managed services, like RDS, ElastiCache etc. where the architecture is entirely irrelevant to you as a customer. All that you care about is that it's both faster and cheaper, a no-brainer choice.
- sitzkrieg 6y ago
  not holding my breath on aws passing down the cost saving
  - mywittyname 6y ago
    Counter-point: newer, cheaper instance types are often cheaper than the previous generation. An m6g.large is cheaper than a m5a.large is cheaper than a m4.large, etc.
    - sitzkrieg 6y ago
      i mean on rds etc?
      - anonfunction 6y ago
        You pay for the instance type you choose on RDS
        deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
skywhopper 6y ago
This is great news. I found myself wishing for these earlier today, for some tiny workloads. We've found the c/m/r6g instances to work as advertised: good or better performance for a significant discount. The downside is that you have to be sure your workload will run on ARM. In some cases that might take some changes to your build pipeline, but for certain use cases there might not need to be any changes at all. We've been able to move our PostgreSQL boxes configured with Ansible and operated with a whole lot of custom Python/Bash/Ruby scripting over to these instance types with no changes to our provisioning process beyond mirroring the arm64 postgres binaries to our private APT repo.
Rafuino 6y ago
Has this kind of extended free trial for a new instance happened before? 3.5 months is pretty long. A micro instance for a whole month only costs AWS ~$6 in revenue, but still, it's a nice, long period for testing.
- WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
  t2.micro are on the forever free tier, but yeah.
  - agwa 6y ago
    Nah, they're only free for 12 months, not forever: https://aws.amazon.com/free/?all-free-tier.sort-by=item.additionalFields.SortRank&all-free-tier.sort-order=asc&awsf.Free%20Tier%20Types=tier%2312monthsfree https://aws.amazon.com/free/?all-free-tier.sort-by=item.addi...
ngcc_hk 6y ago
Not sure they do that now but having a credit card without pre-payment meant very hard to try their services. For some it is important to have services. For 1 man shop it hard as too many things to worry about and trying is not really priority. Their instance with real usage charge. Not much but accumulate and I gave up. Still remember trying fast ai, left a credit card to another service provider and after an alert I owe them 1000 ... luckily that card is expired. And they do void as they check I have not used their service. Another has prepaid paypal. Like that. For testing only of course.
jlj 6y ago
How would these work with Spark on EMR? For example when the cluster is utilized enough to keep the it running continuously, but still has some low or no utilization periods throughout the day.

106 points by vcz_fr 6y ago

Cactus2018 6y ago

> T4g instances are powered by AWS Graviton2, a processor custom built by AWS using 64-bit Arm Neoverse cores. > all new and existing AWS customers can try the t4g.micro instances free for up to 750 hours per month.

baybal2 6y ago

When will they throw it for the general purpose use? Or wouldn't they because it's too expensive for them?

kondro 6y ago
The M/C/R6g range is already available in many regions.
_msw_ 6y ago
Disclosure: I work at AWS, where I build cloud infrastructure Can you clarify what you mean? C6g, M6g, and R6g instances have been available for a while now, and those support many different workloads. M6g is the "general purpose" variant. https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/m6/ https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/m6/
- baybal2 6y ago
  Didn't notice M6g coming out of trials. Well I for long thought that taping out own CPU chips, even on Amazon's scale, wasn't that cheap. The time of Intel demanding obscene prices for high core count server CPUs is at least 2 years since passed. I was thinking if it still makes sense economically for Amazon to continue developing, and buying their own CPUs given that.
  - btian 6y ago
    I’m willing to bet a lot of money that Amazon started designing these CPUs more than 2 years ago.
  - ksec 6y ago
    Amazon is estimated to be representing close to 50% of HyperScaler Market. And the Market segment itself is also roughly 50% of the DC Market. While Intel dont disclose their CPU segment of their DC, you can bet it is the vast majority. Which gives you a rough idea of the scale of Amazon spending, i.e around 20% of Intel DC revenue. And once you see those numbers, even if it is off by 30% or even double counted. Developing cost of CPU, especially when it is more of "working" together with ARM on developing Graviton 2 ( which it in itself extremely similar to ARM's reference design ) doesn't seems to be expensive or out of question.
- tyingq 6y ago
  Could mean for EKS. I believe Graviton is still beta there, and not recommended for production.
  - asheldon 6y ago
    Graviton is GA for EKS as well. https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/containers/eks-on-graviton-generally-available/ https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/containers/eks-on-graviton-gene...
d2kx 6y ago
You're literally commenting on the article that announces its general purpose availability. ...

duskwuff 6y ago

Not specifically mentioned in the press release, but interesting: t4g instances are about 20% cheaper than t3 across the board.

cinquemb 6y ago
Do you know how it compares to t3a? Edit: nvm: $0.0336/h for t4g.medium vs $0.0376/h t3a.medium in aws-east north virginia for on demand. Sucks not available in aws-southeast-1 yet, I would switch just for the performance bump over t*a instance.

Androider 6y ago

I think where these Graviton instances will really shine is in the AWS managed services, like RDS, ElastiCache etc. where the architecture is entirely irrelevant to you as a customer. All that you care about is that it's both faster and cheaper, a no-brainer choice.

sitzkrieg 6y ago
not holding my breath on aws passing down the cost saving
- mywittyname 6y ago
  Counter-point: newer, cheaper instance types are often cheaper than the previous generation. An m6g.large is cheaper than a m5a.large is cheaper than a m4.large, etc.
  - sitzkrieg 6y ago
    i mean on rds etc?
    - anonfunction 6y ago
      You pay for the instance type you choose on RDS
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

skywhopper 6y ago

This is great news. I found myself wishing for these earlier today, for some tiny workloads. We've found the c/m/r6g instances to work as advertised: good or better performance for a significant discount. The downside is that you have to be sure your workload will run on ARM. In some cases that might take some changes to your build pipeline, but for certain use cases there might not need to be any changes at all. We've been able to move our PostgreSQL boxes configured with Ansible and operated with a whole lot of custom Python/Bash/Ruby scripting over to these instance types with no changes to our provisioning process beyond mirroring the arm64 postgres binaries to our private APT repo.

Rafuino 6y ago

Has this kind of extended free trial for a new instance happened before? 3.5 months is pretty long. A micro instance for a whole month only costs AWS ~$6 in revenue, but still, it's a nice, long period for testing.

WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
t2.micro are on the forever free tier, but yeah.
- agwa 6y ago
  Nah, they're only free for 12 months, not forever: https://aws.amazon.com/free/?all-free-tier.sort-by=item.additionalFields.SortRank&all-free-tier.sort-order=asc&awsf.Free%20Tier%20Types=tier%2312monthsfree https://aws.amazon.com/free/?all-free-tier.sort-by=item.addi...

ngcc_hk 6y ago

Not sure they do that now but having a credit card without pre-payment meant very hard to try their services. For some it is important to have services. For 1 man shop it hard as too many things to worry about and trying is not really priority. Their instance with real usage charge. Not much but accumulate and I gave up. Still remember trying fast ai, left a credit card to another service provider and after an alert I owe them 1000 ... luckily that card is expired. And they do void as they check I have not used their service. Another has prepaid paypal. Like that. For testing only of course.

jlj 6y ago

How would these work with Spark on EMR? For example when the cluster is utilized enough to keep the it running continuously, but still has some low or no utilization periods throughout the day.