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.
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View instance availability by region : Instance types may vary by region. We recommend that you check the purchase availability in each region.
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View instance type selection guide: First, determine which instance families are suitable for your business scenario. Then, use this topic to select a specific instance type.
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View instance metric descriptions: Read this topic to understand the metrics for instance types.
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Use the ECS Price Calculator : You can use the price calculator to estimate instance fees.
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 high-throughput, low-latency RDMA networks to serve high-concurrency workloads of applications, such as HPC and AI applications. 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 Alibaba CloudE-HPC, making cloud-based super computing possible.
HPC optimized instance families contain the following:
Comparison of SCCs, physical machines, and virtual machines
The following table compares the features of SCCs, physical machines, and virtual machines. In the table, Y indicates that the feature is supported, N indicates that the feature is not supported, and N/A indicates that the feature is not applicable.
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Feature type |
Feature |
SCC |
Physical machine |
Virtual machine |
|
Automated O&M |
Minute-level delivery |
Y |
N |
Y |
|
Compute |
Zero performance loss |
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 |
|
|
No need for local RAIDs and better data protection for disks |
Y |
N |
Y |
|
|
Network |
Compatibility with virtual private clouds (VPCs) |
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 |
sccg7, general-purpose SCC instance family
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Introduction: This instance family provides all features of ECS Bare Metal Instance. For more information, see Overview of ECS Bare Metal Instance families.
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Supported scenarios:
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Large-scale machine learning training
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Large-scale high-performance scientific computing and simulations
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Large-scale data analytics, batch processing, and video encoding
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Compute:
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Offers a CPU-to-memory ratio of 1:4.
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Uses 2.9 GHz Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8369 (Ice Lake) processors that deliver an all-core turbo frequency of 3.5 GHz.
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Storage:
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Is an instance family in which all instances are I/O optimized.
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Supports Enterprise SSDs (ESSDs), ESSD AutoPL disks, Regional ESSDs, standard SSDs, and ultra disks. For information about disks, see Overview of Block Storage.
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Network:
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These instances support IPv4 and IPv6. For information about IPv6 communication, see IPv6 communication.
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Supports both RoCE networks and VPCs. RoCE networks are dedicated to RDMA communication.
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sccg7 instance types
|
Instance type |
vCPUs |
Physical cores |
Memory (GiB) |
Network baseline bandwidth (Gbit/s) |
Packet forwarding rate (pps) |
RoCE network bandwidth (Gbit/s) |
ENIs |
|
ecs.sccg7.32xlarge |
128 |
64 |
512.0 |
100 |
24,000,000 |
200 |
32 |
sccc7, compute-optimized SCC instance family
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Introduction: This instance family provides all features of ECS Bare Metal Instance. For more information, see Overview of ECS Bare Metal Instance families.
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Supported scenarios:
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Large-scale machine learning training
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Large-scale high-performance scientific computing and simulations
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Large-scale data analytics, batch processing, and video encoding
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Compute:
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Offers a CPU-to-memory ratio of 1:2.
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Uses 2.9 GHz Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8369 (Ice Lake) processors that deliver an all-core turbo frequency of 3.5 GHz.
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Storage:
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Is an instance family in which all instances are I/O optimized.
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Supported disk types: ESSDs, ESSD AutoPL disks, Regional ESSDs, standard SSD, and ultra disk. For more information, see Elastic Block Storage Overview.
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Network:
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These instances support IPv4 and IPv6. For information about IPv6 communication, see IPv6 communication.
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Supports both RoCE networks and VPCs. RoCE networks are dedicated to RDMA communication.
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sccc7 instance types
|
Instance type |
vCPUs |
Physical cores |
Memory (GiB) |
Network baseline bandwidth (Gbit/s) |
Packet forwarding rate (pps) |
RoCE network bandwidth (Gbit/s) |
ENIs |
|
ecs.sccc7.32xlarge |
128 |
64 |
256.0 |
100 |
24,000,000 |
200 |
32 |
sccgn7ex, GPU-accelerated compute-optimized SCC instance family
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Introduction: The sccgn7ex family provides high-bandwidth SCC instances. Alibaba Cloud developed this family to meet the growing demand for large-scale AI training. Multiple bare metal servers are interconnected through a third-generation RDMA SCC network. This network supports an interconnection bandwidth of 800 Gbit/s. You can scale the number of clusters based on your training needs to quickly meet the demands of large-scale AI parameter training.
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Scenarios: Ultra-large-scale AI training.
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Compute:
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These instances support NVSwitch and provide up to 312 TFLOPS of computing power (TF32).
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The processor-to-memory ratio is 1:8.
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Processor: Third-generation Intel® Xeon® 8369 scalable processors (Ice Lake). These processors have a base frequency of 2.9 GHz, an all-core turbo frequency of 3.5 GHz, and support the PCIe 4.0 interface.
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Storage:
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I/O optimized instance
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Supported disk types: ESSDs, ESSD AutoPL disks, and Regional ESSDs. For more information, see Elastic Block Storage Overview.
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Network:
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These instances support IPv4 and IPv6. For information about IPv6 communication, see IPv6 communication.
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Supports only VPC.
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High network performance with a packet forwarding rate of 24 million PPS.
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sccgn7ex instances support an interconnection bandwidth of 800 Gbit/s (4 × dual-port 100 Gbit/s RDMA). The instances support GPUDirect. Each GPU is directly connected to a 100 Gbit/s network port.
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The following table lists the instance types and specifications for the sccgn7ex family.
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Instance type |
vCPU |
Memory (GiB) |
GPU memory (GB) |
Base network bandwidth (Gbit/s) |
Packet forwarding rate (PPS) |
RoCE network (Gbit/s) |
Elastic Network Interfaces (ENIs) |
|
ecs.sccgn7ex.32xlarge |
128 |
1024 |
80 GB × 8 |
64 |
24 million |
800 |
15 |
Billing methods
SCCs support the pay-as-you-go and subscription billing methods. For more information, see Overview of billing methods.