TL;DR
Oracle launched A4 Standard instances on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure that use AmpereOne M Arm silicon, offering virtualized and bare-metal shapes up to 96 physical cores. The move follows Oracle's recent sale of its stake in Ampere Computing and comes with stated per-core performance gains over the prior A2 generation.
What happened
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure has introduced A4 Standard instances built on Ampere Computing's AmpereOne M chips, available in both virtual machine and bare-metal configurations. For OCI, Oracle selected a 96-core variant clocked at 3.6 GHz with large on-chip cache and a 12-channel DDR5 5600MT/s memory controller. Oracle exposes cores in pairs called OCPUs (each OCPU equals two physical cores) and is offering VM sizes up to 45 OCPUs (90 cores) with 700 GB memory, as well as a bare-metal option with 48 OCPUs (96 cores), 768 GB DDR5 and 3.84 TB of onboard storage. Oracle claims up to 35% higher core-for-core performance versus its previous A2 instances, citing a roughly 20% higher clock speed and increased memory bandwidth. The A4 instances are priced at $0.0138 per OCPU per hour and $0.0027 per GB per hour.
Why it matters
- Customers get access to higher-clocked Arm-based instances on OCI with increased memory bandwidth and large core counts for compute-heavy workloads.
- Oracle's launch underscores that divesting an equity stake in a chip vendor does not necessarily end commercial use of that vendor's silicon.
- The A4 family offers Oracle a competitive, non-x86 compute option as other cloud providers advance their own Arm and accelerator designs.
- Performance and pricing claims could influence migration or instance selection for users evaluating Arm-based cloud compute versus x86 alternatives.
Key facts
- A4 instances use AmpereOne M silicon in a 96-core configuration at 3.6 GHz for OCI.
- The selected chip includes 192 MB and 64 MB of L2 and L3 cache, respectively, and supports 12 channels of DDR5 5600MT/s memory.
- Oracle parcels cores as OCPUs, where each OCPU consists of two physical cores.
- Virtual A4 VMs are available up to 45 OCPUs (90 cores) with up to 700 GB system memory.
- Bare-metal A4 offering provides 48 OCPUs (96 cores), 768 GB of DDR5 and 3.84 TB onboard storage.
- Both virtual and bare-metal A4 instances support block storage and up to 100 Gbps network bandwidth.
- Oracle claims up to 35% better core-for-core performance versus its prior A2 generation, partly due to a 20% higher clock speed and greater memory bandwidth.
- A4 pricing on OCI is $0.0138 per OCPU per hour and $0.0027 per GB per hour.
- Oracle sold its stake in Ampere Computing last week and said it will adopt a policy of chip neutrality.
What to watch next
- Whether Oracle will continue to deploy future Ampere chip generations in OCI (not confirmed in the source).
- How customers respond to A4 performance and price compared with Oracle's A2 instances and competitors' offerings (not confirmed in the source).
- Any announcements from Oracle or Ampere clarifying a longer-term product roadmap or supply relationship (not confirmed in the source).
Quick glossary
- OCPU: Oracle's unit of compute allocation; in this context each OCPU represents two physical CPU cores.
- Bare-metal instance: A cloud server provisioned directly on physical hardware without a hypervisor, giving full access to the machine's resources.
- Arm CPU: A processor architecture based on designs from Arm Holdings, commonly used in energy-efficient servers and mobile devices.
- DDR5 5600MT/s: A generation of double data rate memory offering higher bandwidth and throughput; 5600MT/s indicates the data transfer rate.
- CPU cache (L2/L3): On-chip memory layers (L2 and L3) used to store frequently accessed data to reduce latency and improve processor performance.
Reader FAQ
Did Oracle sell its stake in Ampere Computing?
Yes; the source says Oracle divested its stake in Ampere Computing last week.
Are the A4 instances available now on OCI?
Yes; the source reports Oracle announced availability of A4 Standard instances in virtualized and bare-metal forms.
How do A4 instances compare to A2?
Oracle claims up to 35% higher core-for-core performance versus A2, citing higher clock speeds and greater memory bandwidth; A2 still offers larger maximum VM sizes.
Will Oracle stop using Ampere chips after the divestment?
Not confirmed in the source; the article says it's unclear whether next-generation Ampere cores will continue to be deployed in OCI.
PAAS + IAAS 4 Oracle isn't done with Ampere yet as A4 instances arrive on OCI boasting 96 cores Big Red said it had sold its stake in its long-time…
Sources
- Oracle isn't done with Ampere yet as A4 instances arrive on OCI boasting 96 cores
- Introducing OCI Ampere A4 Standard Compute Instances
- Oracle isn't done with Ampere yet as A4 instances arrive on …
- After selling stake in Ampere, Oracle fields more Arm cores
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