AWS re:Invent 2024 Computing Summary

At re:Invent 2024, AWS is driving customized advancements in both hardware and software to reflect diverse customer needs. The company introduced various instance types, including Graviton, Nvidia Blackwell GPU-based instances, Trainium, and Ultra Server, emphasizing the scalability of computing infrastructure.

Currently, EC2 offers approximately 850 different instance types, and at the center of all this customized service is the Nitro System. The Nitro System maximizes performance and flexibility through the following key components:

• Nitro Card: Improves system performance by reducing I/O burden
• Nitro Hypervisor: A lightweight hypervisor that manages memory and CPU allocation
• Nitro Security Chip: Dedicated hardware for virtualization and security

The introduction of the Nitro System resolved the performance overhead of the existing Xen-based architecture, and through its modular design, it was possible to exponentially increase instance types from 70 to over 800.

Additionally, ARM-based Graviton is evolving into a special-purpose processor optimized for workload efficiency, and the Trainium chipset for AI computing supports the creation of high-performance AI models.