Amazon EC2 X2i Instances

Up to 50% better performance than X1 instances for memory-intensive workloads

Amazon EC2 X2i instances are the next generation of memory-optimized instances delivering improvements in performance, price performance, and cost per GiB of memory compared to previous generation X1 instances. These instances offer a choice of 16:1 or 32:1 ratio of memory to vCPU and are ideal for memory-intensive databases and electronic design automation (EDA) workloads.

X2idn and X2iedn instances are powered by 3rd generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors with an all-core turbo frequency up to 3.5 GHz and deliver up to 50% higher compute price performance than comparable X1 instances. X2idn and X2iedn instances both include up to 3.8 TB of local NVMe SSD storage and up to 100 Gbps of networking bandwidth, while X2idn offers up to 2 TiB of memory and X2iedn offers up to 4 TiB of memory. X2idn and X2iedn instances are SAP-Certified and are a great fit for workloads such as small-to large-scale traditional and in-memory databases, and analytics.

X2iezn instances are powered by 2nd generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors with an all core turbo frequency of up to 4.5 GHz, the fastest in the cloud. They feature up to 1.5 TiB of memory, and deliver up to 55% better price performance than X1e instances. X2iezn instances are a great fit for EDA workloads as well as relational databases that benefit from high single-threaded processor performance and a large memory footprint.

X2i processor

Benefits

Lower TCO

X2i instances deliver improvements in performance, price performance, and cost per GiB of memory compared to X1 instances. X2i instances also offer instance sizes with up to 128 vCPUs and 4,096 GiB of memory, enabling you to consolidate workloads on fewer instances and save on per-core licensing costs.

Run memory-intensive workloads

With X2idn and X2iedn instances you can run in-memory databases such as SAP HANA with up to 45% more SAPS than comparable X1 instances. Visit the SAP Partner page to learn more about SAP solutions on AWS. X2iezn instances let you run memory-intensive workloads that also require high single-threaded CPU performance, such as EDA workloads.  

Maximized resource efficiency

X2i instances are built on the AWS Nitro System, a combination of dedicated hardware and lightweight hypervisor that delivers practically all of the compute and memory resources of the host hardware to your instances for better overall performance and security.

Features

Powered by Intel Xeon Scalable processors

X2idn and X2iedn instances are powered by 3rd generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors (code named Ice Lake) and deliver up to 50% higher compute price performance than comparable X1 instances. X2iezn instances are powered by 2nd generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors (code named Cascade Lake) and deliver up to 55% better compute price performance than X1e instances.

High performance storage

X2idn and X2iedn instances support up to 80 Gbps throughput to Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), which is more than four times that of comparable X1 instances. X2idn and X2iedn instances also include up to 3.8 TB of local NVMe storage per instance. X2iezn instances support up to 19 Gbps throughput to Amazon EBS.  

High performance networking

X2idn, X2iedn, and X2iezn instances support up to 100 Gbps networking bandwidth, which is four times higher than comparable X1 instances. X2idn and X2iedn support the Elastic Fabric Adapter (EFA) on the largest sizes, and X2iezn support it on the largest and metal sizes.

 

Built on the AWS Nitro System

X2i instances are built on the AWS Nitro System, which is a rich collection of building blocks that offloads many of the traditional virtualization functions to dedicated hardware and software to deliver high performance, high availability, and high security while also reducing virtualization overhead.

X2idn, X2iedn and X2iezn Instances Comparison

X2idn and X2iedn Instances

X2idn and X2iedn instances are a great fit for in-memory databases and analytics, large-scale traditional databases, and some EDA workloads.

Features

  • 3rd generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors with up to 3.5 GHz frequency
  • Up to 2 TiB of memory on X2idn; up to 4 TiB on X2iedn
  • Up to 80 Gbps EBS bandwidth
  • Up to 100 Gbps network bandwidth
  • Up to 3.8 TB local NVMe SSD
  • Up to 128 vCPU
  • Support for EFA on 32xlarge size
  • SAP Certified for Business Suite on HANA, SAP S/4HANA, Data Mart Solutions on HANA, Business Warehouse on HANA, SAP BW/4HANA, and SAP NetWeaver with anyDB. For details, see the SAP Certification website.

X2iezn Instances

X2iezn instances are ideal for EDA workloads such as physical verification, static timing analysis, power signoff, and full chip gate-level simulation, as well as relational databases.

Features

  • 2nd generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors with up to 4.5 GHz frequency
  • Up to 1.5 TiB of memory
  • Up to 19 Gbps EBS bandwidth
  • Up to 100 Gbps network bandwidth
  • EBS-Only
  • Up to 48 vCPU
  • Support for EFA on 12xlarge and metal sizes
  • SAP Certified for NetWeaver with anyDB. For details, see the SAP Certification website.

Product Details

  • X2idn
  • Instance Size vCPU Memory (GiB) Instance Storage (GB) Network Bandwidth (Gbps) EBS Bandwidth (Gbps)
    x2idn.16xlarge 64 1,024 1 x 1900 NVMe SSD 50 40
    x2idn.24xlarge 96 1,536 2 x 1425 NVMe SSD 75 60
    x2idn.32xlarge 128 2,048 2 x 1900 NVMe SSD 100 80
    x2idn.metal 128 2,048 2 x 1900 NVMe SSD 100 80
  • X2iedn
  • Instance Size vCPU Memory (GiB) Instance Storage (GB) Network Bandwidth (Gbps) EBS Bandwidth (Gbps) 
    x2iedn.xlarge 4 128 1 x 118 NVMe SSD Up to 25 Up to 20
    x2iedn.2xlarge 8 256 1 x 237 NVMe SSD Up to 25 Up to 20
    x2iedn.4xlarge 16 512 1 x 475 NVMe SSD Up to 25 Up to 20
    x2iedn.8xlarge 32 1,024 1 x 950 NVMe SSD 25 20
    x2iedn.16xlarge 64 2,048 1 x 1900 NVMe SSD 50 40
    x2iedn.24xlarge 96 3,072 2 x 1425 NVMe SSD 75 60
    x2iedn.32xlarge 128 4,096 2 x 1900 NVMe SSD 100 80
    x2iedn.metal 128 4,096 2 x 1900 NVMe SSD 100 80
  • X2iezn
  • Instance Size vCPU Memory (GiB) Instance Storage (GB) Network Bandwidth (Gbps) EBS Bandwidth (Gbps) 
    x2iezn.2xlarge 8 256 EBS-Only Up to 25 3.17
    x2iezn.4xlarge 16 512 EBS-Only Up to 25 4.75
    x2iezn.6xlarge 24 768 EBS-Only 50 9.5
    x2iezn.8xlarge 32 1,024 EBS-Only 75 12
    x2iezn.12xlarge 48 1,536 EBS-Only 100 19
    x2iezn.metal 48 1,536 EBS-Only 100 19

Customers

Siemens
“Siemens EDA helps you engineer a smarter future faster, delivering an unmatched portfolio of electronic design automation (EDA) software, hardware, and services. Siemens EDA worked with AWS to test the new Amazon EC2 X2iezn HPC/EDA focused instances with the industry performance and sign-off leader Calibre evaluating advanced node DRC workloads. We were pleased to demonstrate performance improvements of up to 14% using the 4.5 GHz all core turbo frequency of X2iezn instances for all VMs in the run. Additionally, we successfully demonstrated the use of a heterogeneous server configuration using the X2iezn as the primary node and other lower memory VMs for remote compute - providing an 11% speed up and attractive value. These results confirmed the X2iezn is a good fit for primary server EDA workloads for Calibre Physical and Circuit verification applications.”

Michael White, Senior Director, Physical Verification Product Management Calibre Design Solutions, Siemens EDA

Annapurna logo
“Annapurna Labs, an Amazon company, is the chip development arm of AWS responsible for designing the AWS Nitro System, AWS Graviton processors, AWS Inferentia chips, and AWS Trainium chips. At Annapurna Labs, we have been running machine-learning SoC blocks’ design rule checks using Amazon EC2 X1e and R5d instances. Our testing of the X2iezn instances with Calibre’s Design Rule Checking has shown a 40% faster runtime compared to X1e instances, and a 25% faster runtime over R5d instances. We were able to quickly and easily migrate our workloads to the X2iezn instances and can now test more EDA workloads in a shorter period of time. "

Nafea Bshara, Vice President, and Distinguished Engineer at Annapurna Labs

NXP logo
“NXP Semiconductors, N.V. announced they are moving their EDA to the cloud. Chip design requires extensive simulation and validation, requiring a significant amount of compute power with high frequency processors. We worked with AWS to run our Calibre and Spectre workloads on Amazon EC2 X2iezn instances, which feature the fastest Intel Xeon Scalable processors in the cloud, with an all core turbo frequency of up to 4.5GHz. We measured 10-15% higher performance using X2iezn instances compared to our on-premises, Xeon Gold 6254 with max turbo frequency of 4.0GHz.”

Maarten Kelderman, Director R&D IT Design Infrastructure

Astera labs
"Astera Labs, founded in 2017, is a fabless, cloud-based semiconductor company developing purpose-built CXL, PCIe, and Ethernet connectivity solutions for data-centric systems. During the chip design and verification process, Astera Labs believes it is critical to identify potential flaws using simulation tools. That’s what interested Astera Labs in using Amazon EC2 X2iezn instance, which offers an industry-leading all-core turbo frequency of up to 4.5GHz. We were able to see performance gains of up to 25% compared to similar EDA workloads running on R5 instances."

Jitendra Mohan, CEO Astera Labs

cadence logo
“Cadence is a leader in electronic design, building upon more than 30 years of computational software expertise. The company applies its underlying Intelligent System Design strategy to turn concepts into reality. We have been working with AWS to test their new X2iezn instances, which offers an all-core turbo frequency of up to 4.5 GHz. We tested the X2iezn instances using our Pegasus Verification System, which allows designers to run physical verification jobs on the cloud without having to copy any design layout/schematic or foundry rule decks to the cloud and observed a 50% performance improvement over AWS R5 instances. We see X2iezn instances as an excellent environment for testing EDA workloads.”

Mahesh Turaga, Vice President, business development, Cloud at Cadence

synopsys logo
“Synopsys customers leverage our tools in the cloud to accelerate delivery of next-generation products. Synopsys IC Validator is one such tool that provides highly scalable high-performance physical verification signoff. On Amazon’s new EC2 X2iezn instances, we achieved 15% performance improvement, scalability to 1000s of cores, and 30% better efficiency using IC Validator’s unique elastic CPU management technology versus R5d instances.”

Christen Decoin, VP Business Dev, Custom Design and Manufacturing Group, Synopsys Inc.

Resources

Blog

New – Amazon EC2 X2idn and X2iedn Instances for Memory-Intensive Workloads with Higher Network Bandwidth

Blog

Driving High Performance and Efficient Physical Verification with Synopsys IC Validator on Amazon EC2 X2iezn Instances

Blog

Amazon EC2 X2iezn Instances Powered by the Fastest Intel Xeon Scalable CPU for Memory-Intensive Workloads

What's new

Introducing Amazon EC2 X2idn and X2iedn instances

What's new

Introducing Amazon EC2 X2iezn instances

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