Slashdot Mirror
Intel Promises 'Optane' SSDs Based On Technology Faster Than Flash In 2016
holy_calamity writes: Intel today announced that it will introduce SSDs based on a new non-volatile memory that is significantly faster than flash in 2016. A prototype was shown operating at around seven times as fast as a high-end SSD available today. Intel's new 3D Xpoint memory technology was developed in collaboration with Micron and is said to be capable of operating as much as 1000 times faster than flash. Scant details have been released, but the technology has similarities with the RRAM and memristor technologies being persued by other companies.
I read the TFA for a change and it said that the drives would be available in lightweight laptops. There was a Slashdot article about this technology when it was announced and there was speculation about whether it was a cache technology or a direct storage medium.
TFA said it would be for enterprise storage *and* laptops, so its likely means it's a "drive" and that it will likely be more or less affordable or it wouldn't go into laptops. The only question is how fast, TFA said the demo was only 7x current flash but maybe faster at introduction in 2016.
I think the original story said it was far more durable than flash now, and if TFA article is to be believed about use in enterprise storage it could really shake things up. Vendors now make a big deal out of fancy tiering schemes, charging two arms and a leg for a few SSDs and fancy software to keep quiet data on their only slightly cheaper nearline disks. What's the point if you can do 100% of this with drives faster than flash but cheap enough to go into laptops?
1000x the endurance, but since it's also 1000x faster, you can wear it out just as fast assuming you're maxing out the IO long enough, and assuming that they use similar wear leveling.