Google Cloud recently announced the general availability of its new C4 machine series, powered by 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processors (Sapphire Rapids). The series offers a range of configurations tailored to meet the needs of demanding applications such as high-performance computing (HPC), large-scale simulations, and data analytics.
The C4 machine series is optimized to handle workloads that require substantial computational power. According to the company, it leverages Intel's latest technology to provide up to 60% better performance per core than its predecessor, the C2 series. The machines in this series are equipped with Intel Advanced Matrix Extensions (AMX), which are instrumental in accelerating AI and machine learning tasks, particularly those involving large models and datasets. The machines are available in several configurations, ranging from 4 to 96 vCPUs, allowing businesses to choose the best setup for their workload requirements.
One of the features of the C4 series is its enhanced networking capabilities. Each C4 machine offers up to 200 Gbps of network bandwidth, enabling faster data transfer and reducing latency. This is particularly beneficial for applications that rely on distributed computing or real-time data processing. Integrating Google's Virtual NIC (gVNIC) further improves network performance by offloading packet processing tasks from the CPU, thus freeing up resources for compute tasks.
The C4 series supports many use cases beyond traditional compute-intensive tasks. For instance, businesses engaged in AI and machine learning can leverage the AMX extensions to accelerate the training and inference of complex models. Meanwhile, companies involved in rendering and simulation can benefit from the series' high performance and memory bandwidth to quickly run large-scale simulations and generate high-quality visual outputs.
Olivia Melendez, a product manager at Google Cloud, wrote:
C4 VMs provide the performance and flexibility you need to handle most workloads, all powered by Google’s Titanium. With Titanium offload technology, C4 delivers high performance connectivity with up to 200 Gbps of networking bandwidth and scalable storage with up to 500k IOPS and 10 GB/s throughput on Hyperdisk Extreme. C4 instances scale up to 192 vCPUs and 1.5TB of DDR5 memory and feature the latest generation performance with Intel’s 5th generation Xeon processors (code-named Emerald Rapids) offering predefined shapes in high-cpu, standard, and high-mem configurations.
In addition, Richard Seroter, chief evangelist, made a bold statement on X:
Yes, this new C4 machine type is rad / the bee's knees / fire for database and AI workloads. But I particularly appreciated that we shared our test conditions for proving we're more performant than other cloud offerings.
(Source: Google blog post)
The C4 series is now generally available in several Google Cloud regions, including the United States, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Google has announced plans to expand availability to additional regions soon.
Pricing for the C4 series includes options for on-demand, committed use contracts, and sustained use discounts. This allows businesses to optimize their cloud spend based on specific usage patterns. Google also offers preemptible instances for the C4 series, providing a cost-effective option for workloads that can tolerate interruptions.