Can customers select specific CPU models?
Yes, customers can select specific CPU models in OCI, though they do so by choosing a Compute Shape rather than picking a standalone processor model from a list.
Oracle is quite transparent about exactly which silicon powers each shape. When you select a shape, you are effectively selecting the specific CPU model tied to that generation.
In the OCI Console, when you create an instance, you choose from three main "Processor Families." Within those families, the specific model is fixed based on the shape name:
AMD Series:
Standard.E6: Powered by AMD EPYC™ 9J45 (5th Gen).
Standard.E5: Powered by AMD EPYC™ 9J14 (4th Gen/Genoa).
Standard.E4: Powered by AMD EPYC™ 7J13 (3rd Gen/Milan).
Intel Series:
Standard3 / Optimized3: Typically powered by Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8358 (Ice Lake).
HPC Shapes: Often use high-frequency models like the Intel® Xeon® Gold 6154.
Arm Series:
Standard.A4: Powered by AmpereOne® (M-series).
Standard.A1: Powered by Ampere® Altra® processors.
Bare Metal: You get the specific model in its raw form. For example, if you rent a BM.Standard.E5.128, you are getting a dual-socket server with two 64-core AMD EPYC 9J14 processors.
Virtual Machines (VMs): You are assigned a "slice" of that specific CPU model. OCI’s scheduler ensures that your virtual machine runs on the processor generation you selected (e.g., an E4 VM will always run on an E4 host).
You cannot mix different CPU models within a single instance. However, OCI's Flexible Shapes allow you to select the CPU model (e.g., AMD E5) and then choose the exact number of cores you want from that specific model, rather than being forced into a pre-set core count.
For Bare Metal instances, OCI allows you to go a step further than just "selecting" the model. You can access Advanced BIOS settings during provisioning to:
Disable Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT): Turn off hyper-threading for workloads that need dedicated physical cores.
Configure NUMA Nodes: Adjust how the CPU talks to memory for extreme latency tuning.
Disable Cores: You can choose to use only a percentage of the available cores (e.g., 25%, 50%) if you want to limit software licensing costs while keeping the full memory and I/O of the server.