Intel and AWS drive cloud innovation with Xeon 6 processors

What’s New

Intel® Xeon® 6 processors with P-cores power the new Amazon EC2 R8i and R8i-flex instances on AWS, delivering top performance and the fastest memory bandwidth among comparable Intel processors. These instances result from years of Intel-AWS collaboration, combining advanced silicon and integrated software optimizations for scalable, cost-efficient cloud infrastructure.

“The 8th Gen EC2 instances powered by Intel Xeon 6 mark a milestone in our collaboration with AWS,” said Ronak Singhal, senior fellow at Intel. “Together, we’ve built infrastructure that accelerates AI, boosts memory performance, and simplifies deployment – helping customers gain faster insights and higher ROI.”

Why It Matters

With increasing reliance on real-time data, AI, and compliance-intensive workloads, high-performance cloud infrastructure is essential. Intel Xeon 6 offers a flexible, general-purpose compute platform, reducing dependency on specialized accelerators and simplifying deployment for varied use cases.

“Our customers need infrastructure that matches the pace of their demanding workloads,” said Nishant Mehta, VP of EC2 Product Management at AWS. “The new R8i and R8i-flex instances provide 2.5x more memory bandwidth and 15% better price performance versus previous generations, helping customers maximize performance while lowering costs.

Key Benefits:

• High-Density Compute: Re-architected cores and increased counts enable larger instances (up to 96 x large) for higher compute density.
• Fastest DDR5 Support in Cloud: Up to 7200 MT/s DDR5 delivers higher memory bandwidth and lower latency, ideal for analytics, ML, and in-memory databases.
• Built-in AI Acceleration: Intel® AMX doubles AI inference and ML performance, reducing reliance on external accelerators.
• Intel® QuickAssist Technology (QAT): Hardware-accelerated encryption and compression boost performance for security-sensitive workloads.

Who’s Using It

Industry leaders like Netflix and CrowdStrike are piloting Xeon 6 instances for AI-driven and cloud-native applications, reporting gains in compute throughput, AI performance, and infrastructure efficiency.

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