Intel and Micron Unveil 3D XPoint Memory, 1000x Speed and Endurance Over Flash

MojoKid writes: Today at a press conference in San Francisco, Intel and Micron unveiled 3D XPoint (Cross Point) memory technology, a non-volatile memory architecture they claim could change the landscape of consumer electronics and computer architectures for years to come. Intel and Micron say 3D XPoint memory is 1000 times faster than NAND, boasts 1000x the endurance of NAND, and offers 8-10 times the density of conventional memory. 3D XPoint isn't electron based, it's material based. The companies aren't diving into specifics yet surrounding the materials used in 3D XPoint, but the physics are fundamentally different than what we're used to. It's 3D stackable and its cross point connect structure allows for dense packing and individual access at the cell level from the top or bottom of a memory array. Better still, Intel alluded to 3D XPoint not being as cost-prohibitive as you might expect. Intel's Rob Crooke explained, "You could put the cost somewhere between NAND and DRAM." Products with the new memory are expected to arrive in 2016 and the joint venture is in production with wafers now.

Comments

memresistor?

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/tech...

"By contrast, 3D XPoint works by changing the properties of the material that makes up its memory cells to either having a high resistance to electricity to represent a one or a low resistance to represent a zero."

Sounds like a memresistor?

Re:memresistor?

[under_score]

A non volatile PC would be nice.

No it wouldn't. Not unless we go back to having hard reset buttons on the front of our machines. The distinction between volatile and non-volatile memory is useful since we still have such shitty software full of bugs and security flaws. I wan't to be able to "reset" my machine without having to erase my hard disk.

Re:Newegg

[tomxor]

Usually i'd agree... there's been countless up and coming new types of memory that never make it.

But i'm cautiously optomistic here because

a) It's Intel and not some tiny obscure VC

b) they said they already have wafers and mention 2016 O_o !

no wonder they ditched their awesome SSD controllers.

Seems Not

[DumbSwede]

from the The Register

An Intel spokesperson categorically denied that it was a phase-change memory process or a memristor technology. Spin-transfer torque was also dismissed. Whatever it is, Intel and Micron have been developing it for about ten years.

Ram replacement?

[duckintheface]

There has been some discussion http://bit.ly/1SLtYAh that 3D XPoint might be a replacement for RAM in mobile devices because it is "ram-like" in speed and low power due to the fact that it's non-volatile. If this can replace RAM and NAND in phones and tablets, it will be a major milestone in the history of computing.

How does it compare to RAM, though?

[wonkey_monkey]

Intel and Micron say 3D XPoint memory is 1000 times faster than NAND, boasts 1000x the endurance of NAND, and offers 8-10 times the density of conventional memory.

How does the speed compare to conventional memory, though?

Re:cost per bit...

[mlts]

I can see this being used two ways:

A fast SSD.

A swap device/slow RAM.

This can make things interesting for SANs, especially because it adds another tier to the disk type hierarchy.

I'd like to see it used as a cache, as well for swap and the core OS files so booting is made quicker. However, it would be useful for database index volumes as well.

Retention time?

[Tapewolf]

How long is it able to retain the data and under what range of conditions? Currently this is one of the big problems with flash, where small-process TLC memory is so fragile that reading it damages the contents, much like core.

MRAM?

[Taco Cowboy]

This '3D Xpoint memory' sounds very much like MRAM as described by the following article

http://spectrum.ieee.org/semic...

Last year (2014) Samsung reportedly was collaborating with 15 partners in developing similar spintronic MRAM memory technology

http://www.mram-info.com/samsu...

Hynix and Toshiba also partnered to develop their own version of MRAM

http://phys.org/news/2014-04-f...

In less than 5 years we might get to enjoy the fruits of the labor of the thousands of researchers who have been working very hard to make the spintronic dream come true, and I for one, wish to take this chance to thank them for their hard works!