Title

AWS re:Invent 2023 - AWS Graviton: The best price performance for your AWS workloads (CMP334)

Summary

• AWS Graviton processors provide optimized price performance for various workloads on AWS.
• AWS has been investing in custom silicon since 2013, starting with the AWS Nitro system and leading to the development of Graviton processors.
• Graviton processors have evolved over four generations, with Graviton 4 being the latest, offering significant improvements in performance and energy efficiency.
• AWS Graviton processors are used by a wide range of customers, including startups and large enterprises across different industries.
• Customers using Graviton processors have reported improvements in performance, cost efficiency, and reductions in carbon emissions.
• Graviton 4 introduces a 50% increase in the number of cores per CPU, 96 cores based on ARM's Neoverse V2 architecture, and 12 DDR5 5600 channels for memory bandwidth.
• Graviton 4 also features encrypted DRAM and PCIe links, ARMv9 support, and SVE2 for media encoding and other workloads.
• Customers like Datadog, Epic Games, and Honeycomb have reported significant performance improvements with Graviton 4.
• The software ecosystem for Graviton and ARM64 is robust, with support across Linux operating systems, AWS tools, and third-party ISV software.
• SAP HANA Cloud has transitioned to Graviton with 35% better price performance and a 45% reduction in compute carbon footprint.
• AWS managed services support Graviton, offering performance and price performance benefits.
• Best practices for transitioning to Graviton include using up-to-date software stacks and considering managed services for an easier transition.
• Resources like the Graviton Technical Guide, Graviton Fast Start Program, and Porting Advisor for Graviton are available to assist with migration.
• Containerized workloads, Java, Python, machine learning, C/C++, PHP, and Go are among the languages and applications with specific guidance for Graviton adoption.
• Graviton 4 is available in preview with the R8G instance, offering the best price performance for memory-intensive workloads.

Insights

• AWS's investment in custom silicon, starting with the Nitro system and leading to Graviton processors, demonstrates a strategic focus on specialized, efficient, and secure computing resources tailored for cloud workloads.
• The rapid iteration and generational improvements of Graviton processors highlight AWS's commitment to performance enhancement and energy efficiency, which are critical factors for modern cloud computing.
• The widespread adoption of Graviton processors by a diverse range of customers underscores the processors' versatility and the growing importance of ARM architecture in the cloud.
• The emphasis on energy efficiency and carbon footprint reduction aligns with the increasing corporate responsibility towards environmental sustainability and the demand for green computing solutions.
• The introduction of Graviton 4 with its significant architectural improvements, such as increased core count, larger caches, and support for the latest ARMv9 features, positions AWS to cater to the most demanding cloud workloads, including high-performance computing and machine learning.
• The strong software ecosystem support for Graviton and ARM64, including major Linux distributions, AWS tools, and third-party software, indicates a mature and accessible platform for developers and enterprises.
• The availability of comprehensive resources and best practices for transitioning to Graviton processors reflects AWS's efforts to facilitate customer migration and optimize their workloads for ARM64 architecture.
• The specific guidance provided for popular languages and applications, including containerized workloads, Java, and machine learning, suggests that AWS is targeting a broad developer audience to encourage Graviton adoption.
• The preview availability of Graviton 4 with the R8G instance demonstrates AWS's ongoing innovation cycle and its strategy to maintain a competitive edge in the cloud services market by offering the latest technology advancements to customers.