I saw that GCloud offers N2 instances with up to 128 vCPUs. I wonder what kind of hardware that is. Do they really put 128 cores into 1 chip? If so, Intel doesn't make them generally available for sale to the public, right? If they use several chips, how do they split the cores? Also, I assume that all cores are on the same node, do they place more than 2 CPU chips on that node or do they have chips with 56 cores (which also is a lot)?
Thanks!
You can easily build or purchase a system with 128 vCPUs. Duplicating Google's custom hardware and firmware is another matter. 128 vCPUs is not large today.
Google Cloud publishes the processor families: CPU platforms
The Intel Ice Lake Xeon motherboards support multiple processor chips.
With a two-processor motherboard using the 40 core model (8380), 160 vCPUs are supported.
For your example, Google is using 32-core CPUs.
Note: one physical core is two vCPUs. link
I am not sure what Google is using for n2d-standard-224 which supports 224 vCPUs. That might be the Ice Lake 4 processor 28-core models.
GCloud N2 machines: 128 vCPUs in 1 chip?
Currently, the only processors that support 64 cores (128 vCPUs) that I am aware of are ARM processors from Ampere. That means Google is using one or more processor chips on a multi-cpu motherboard.
If so, Intel doesn't make them generally available for sale to the public, right?
You can buy just about any processor on Amazon, for example.
If they use several chips, how do they split the cores? Also, I assume that all cores are on the same node, do they place more than 2 CPU chips on that node or do they have chips with 56 cores (which also is a lot)?
You are thinking in terms of laptop and desktop technology. Enterprise rack mounted servers typically support two or more processor chips. This has been the norm for a long time (decades).