Intel Launches Optane DIMMs Up To 512GB (anandtech.com)

Intel announced the availability of its long-awaited Optane DIMMs Wednesday, bringing 3D XPoint memory onto the DDR4 memory bus. From a report: The modules that have been known under the Apache Pass codename will be branded as Optane DC Persistent Memory, to contrast with Optane DC SSDs, and not to be confused with the consumer-oriented Optane Memory caching SSDs. The new Optane DC Persistent Memory modules will be initially available in three capacities: 128GB, 256GB and 512GB per module. This implies that they are probably still based on the same 128Gb 3D XPoint memory dies used in all other Optane products so far. The modules are pin-compatible with standard DDR4 DIMMs and will be supported by the next generation of Intel's Xeon server platforms.

Comments

I'm not up on all the jargon

[H3lldr0p]

So is this one step closer to non-volatile RAM or not?

I mean, are we finally going to bridge that gap between storage and RAM so that everything is finally moving at bus speed or is that still the fevered dreams of ultra-systems-on-a-chip?

Re:I'm not up on all the jargon

[swb]

If I remember the hype correctly, Optane is supposed to be some multiple faster than SSD with superior durability. My guess this is some kind of gimmick to break through disk bus bandwidth limits but without using NVMe slots.

A lot of servers seem to have a bunch of empty DIMM slots, so it maybe makes sense to sell Optane that can be plugged into existing DIMM slots.

What's not clear is how they plan to present this to the computer -- is it going to be as a disk device, or is it just going to be mapped to RAM? My understanding is that Optane is still much slower than RAM, so it would seem to make sense to present it as a disk device somehow. I'm not sure any OS would even have a way of dealing with "these memory pages act like non-volatile storage, not like RAM".

I'm also curious what having a couple of TB of Optane as storage on your memory bus would do for memory access times. I think we're already cursed going to main memory as it is, having that bus tied up with large Optane traffic sounds like it would make memory access worse.

Maybe Intel's plan is to just use DDR as some kind of backplane/interconnect and plans multiple memory busses in some future chipset release that allows for Optane and DRAM to not get in each other's way.

Naming conventions

[PraiseBob]

Why is Intel naming all of their new memory products Optane? Near as I can tell, Optane might refer to their m2 chip extension of SRT to boost mechanical drives, or might be a couple different lines of super fast SSD, or might be a dimm now? Somebody needs to talk to their branding & marketing dept, to stop calling everything the same name. It really makes looking up the specs confusing.

Re:Naming conventions

[Anonymous Coward]

they are naming all of their 3d xpoint derived products optane...

Re:Naming conventions

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is Intel naming all of their new memory products Optane?

You'll be able to buy RAM with Optane 87, Optane 89, or Optane 91. For high performance PC's you can get Optane 98 at specialty shops.

Re:Naming conventions

[thegarbz]

Why is Intel naming all of their new memory products Optane?

This may blow your mind, but it's because all their new memory products are based on the Optane (3D Xpoint) technology. Their marketing department is doing just fine showing that Intel is putting proprietary memory technology in their products.

I don't think anyone is at risk of having the SRT component confused with a memory DIMM just because it has Optane in the name. It's like complaining about the fact that new harddrives all have "solid state" in the title, they also cross a wide variety of form factors and performance metrics.

Re:Naming conventions - Pentane is taken

[mnemotronic]

Pentane is used for lava targets. Heptane and Septane are already spoken for. Enneatane don't fire nobody's rocket, not nobody, not nohow. Hentriacontadictakitane is available.