If I understand how AWS is doing this, a vCPU is a virtual processor. So a 2 vCPU is the same as a 2 core CPU? So a 128 vCPU would be the equivalent of a 128 core CPU?
Does this also mean that a vCPU 128 instance is 64 times faster than a vCPU 2 instance?
Is the x1.32xlarge with a vCPU of 128 the fastest cpu EC2 instance that AWS currently offers?
A vcpu is equivalent to one hyperthreaded core, not one physical core.
In your example, there are (probably) 64 physical cores, hyperthreaded to present as 128 virtual cpus.
More cores don’t make a computer faster, they allow a developer to subdivide data and act on it across more workers. If the developer can and does do that, then you’ll get the answer faster, if he can’t or doesn’t then you won’t.
If you’re running an HTTP server, usually the server framework will split the workload out for you and you’ll be all good without having to do anything extra yourself.
But anyways, as to the question of how to assess Amazon’s vCPU value, this paper seems to describe the math that they use to determine the number that they give:
Yep. In fact if you check for the actual number of physical cores via the instance’s OS, you’ll get 1/2 the number of vCPU.
I’m not sure what the fastest current instance type is. Amazon periodically rolls out new versions of each base series (m3, m4, r3, r4, etc…) as they update the hardware frames for each new generation of Xeons.
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