Intel's Optane SSD Compatible With NVMe; Could Boost MacBook Storage Speeds By 1000x

More details have emerged about Intel's Optane, a new kind of memory and SSD that utilizes 3D Xpoint. The upcoming 3D Xpoint technology, which is supposedly 10 times denser than DRAM and 1,000 times faster than flash storage, will be compatible with NVMe, a storage protocol that allows an SSD to make effective use of a high-speed PCIe. Several MacBook Pro models already support NVMe technology. Apple is often among the first companies to adopt emerging standards and technologies, which has led many to believe that the Cupertino-based company might leverage Intel's Optane solid state drives for super fast performance speeds in its next batch of laptops. Apple is expected to announce the refreshed MacBook lineup sporting Intel Skylake processor later this year.

Comments

Only Apple?

[pz]

And the technology won't benefit non-Apple computers?

Re:Only Apple?

[DRJlaw]

NVMe is making its arrival to PCs as well. Apple is just often among the first to adopt the coolest and most fresh hi-tech.

If by "among the first" you mean later than Dell and pretty much at the same time as Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, and every other first tier motherboard manufacturer.

Search this list for laptops which had the interface well before Apple introduced it in their line.

Among the first... more like among the all.

Re:Only Apple?

[goombah99]

Not really. Not usually. They abandon things ahead of when people think they should but then it usually turns out they were right. Floppies, serial ports, vga, these things dragged on forever, festooned on the sides of PC laptopos and desktops. The early use of postscript is why desktop publishing was so uniform on macs compared to PC, but in doing that they sort of abandoned the drivers for many other printiers. excessive ports on PCs didn't really make them more versatile it meant widespread impatability with other equipment and drivers. So leadership to the next technology also shows up in what you pare down.

Re:Only Apple?

[greenfruitsalad]

at any IT conference, you can easily spot the macbook user by the bag full of adaptors they carry with them.

Re:Only Apple?

[Gr8Apes]

They really only need 2, so why a full bag? 1 MDV->VGA and 1 MDV->HDMI with a HDMI->DVI plugin, which is a pretty common adapter. And the VGA is only necessary because someone refuses to update that 1990s 600x800 projector.

Re:Only Apple?

[Holi]

Apple just recently added NVME support to OS X (beginning of this year). Windows has had support since 2014 and Linux has had it since 2012. I would say that's a strange definition of "Among the first", more like dead last.

Ha ha ha, no.

[rasmusbr]

I'm pretty sure someone messed up the numbers, because they don't make any sense.

The current MacBook Pro has an SSD that is only 10x slower than its RAM in terms of data rate (not in terms of latency of course). This new SSD would be 100x faster than the RAM, which would be pointless.

Re:Will world leaders use this too?

[greenfruitsalad]

all i care about is: will it be fast enough for in-place execution? can we finally eliminate the need for ram AND storage? i like the idea of HP's "machine"

Eventually...

[Areyoukiddingme]

The fanboy with stars in his eyes is completely ignoring the fact that Intel has shown first 3D XPoint products that are just twice as fast as flash-based SSDs. The 1000x density and speed factors he's slobbering over are projected ceilings, which will take years to achieve in actual hardware.

not 1000X anytime soon

[duckintheface]

This headline is very misleading. Yes, 3D XPoint itself is 1000 times as fast as flash. But it's limited by the interface speed. Using the PCIe-NVme interface, the Optane SSD will be about 7 times as fast as a flash SSD. To take advantage of the full 3D XPoint speed, there will have to be a new, custom interface, and probably some software and operating system changes. All this is great but the headline is jumping ahead of the linked stories.