'NP' family storage optimized VM size series

Applies to: ✔️ Linux VMs ✔️ Windows VMs ✔️ Flexible scale sets ✔️ Uniform scale sets

The 'NP' subfamily of VM size series are one of Azure's storage-optimized VM instances. They're designed for workloads that require high disk throughput and I/O, such as databases, big data applications, and data warehousing. High disk throughput and large local disk storage capacities on L-series VMs support applications and services that benefit from low latency and high sequential read and write speeds. This makes them well suited for handling tasks like large-scale log processing, real-time big data analytics, and scenarios involving large databases that perform frequent disk operations, ensuring efficient performance for storage-heavy applications.

Workloads and use cases

Real-Time Data Processing: NP-family VMs excel in environments where data needs to be processed in real time with minimal latency, such as in financial trading, real-time analytics, and network data processing.

Custom AI and Machine Learning: NP-family VMs are suitable for accelerating AI and machine learning inference tasks, where the FPGA can be programmed to execute specific algorithms sometimes faster than typical CPU or GPU-based solutions.

Genomics and Life Sciences: NP-family VMs can significantly speed up genomic sequencing tasks and other life sciences applications that benefit from custom hardware acceleration.

Video Transcoding and Streaming: FPGAs can be used to accelerate video processing tasks such as transcoding and real-time video streaming, optimizing performance and reducing processing times.

Signal Processing: NP-family VMs are ideal for applications in telecommunications and signal processing where rapid manipulation and analysis of signals are necessary.

Database Acceleration: NP-family VMs can enhance database operations, especially for custom search operations and large-scale database queries, by offloading these tasks to the FPGA.

Series in family

NP-series

The NP-series virtual machines are powered by Xilinx U250 FPGAs for accelerating workloads including machine learning inference, video transcoding, and database search & analytics. NP-series VMs are also powered by Intel Xeon 8171M (Skylake) CPUs with all core turbo clock speed of 3.2 GHz.

View the full np-series page.

Part	Quantity Count Units	Specs SKU ID, Performance Units, etc.
Processor	10 - 40vCores	Intel® Xeon® 8171M (Skylake)
Memory	168 - 672GiB
Data Disks	8 - 32Disks
Network	1 - 4NICs	7500 - 30000Mbps
Accelerators	1 - 4FPGAs	Xilinx U250 64GiB 64 - 256GiB per VM

Previous-generation NP family series

For older sizes, see previous generation sizes.

Other size information

List of all available sizes: Sizes

Pricing Calculator: Pricing Calculator

Information on Disk Types: Disk Types

Next steps

Learn more about how Azure compute units (ACU) can help you compare compute performance across Azure SKUs.

Check out Azure Dedicated Hosts for physical servers able to host one or more virtual machines assigned to one Azure subscription.

Learn how to Monitor Azure virtual machines.