Microsoft’s Azure HC-Series VM Brings Supercomputing to the Cloud
The next thing in cloud computing? Supercomputer strength.
Microsoft’s Azure HC-series Virtual Machines, available now, are designed to leverage the speed and agility of a supercomputer in the public cloud. The Azure HC-series VM features Intel Xeon Scalable processors that manage a single VM scale set using 13,200 physical CPU cores and more than 100 terabytes of memory for a single distributed memory workload.
Produced with scientists and engineers in mind, as well as enterprises relying upon Big Data to inform decisions, the HC-series VM is expected to increase efficiency in research and productivity in public cloud environments. Starting at $581 a month, Microsoft also intends for its latest option to be one of its most affordable.
“The Azure HC-series, powered by Intel architecture, gives our customers the high-demand workloads and application performance needed to deliver quicker insights at scale,” says Trish Damkroger, vice president of Intel’s Data Center Group and general manager of the company’s Extreme Computing Organization.
From a specs perspective, HC-series VMs feature Intel Xeon Platinum 8168 processors to maneuver AVX, AVX2, and AVX512 clock frequencies from the Intel Xeon Scalable first-generation family. The VMs also expose 44 nonhyperthreaded CPU cores and 352 gigabytes of RAM, with a base clock of 2.7 gigahertz, an all-core Turbo speed of 3.4 gigahertz, and a single-core Turbo speed of 3.7 gigahertz. They include a 700-gigabyte local NVMe solid-state drive and support up to four managed disks.
