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Intel "launches" Optane for the consumer market

zMeul

source: https://www-ssl.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-technology/optane-memory.html

via: http://www.anandtech.com/show/11227/intel-launches-optane-memory-m2-cache-ssds-for-client-market?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

optane-memory-ready-badge-rwd.png.rendit

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The Intel Optane Memory SSD uses one or two single-die packages of 3D XPoint non-volatile memory to provide capacities of 16GB or 32GB. The controller gets away with a much smaller package than most SSDs (especially PCIe SSD) since it only supports two PCIe 3.0 lanes and does not have an external DRAM interface. Because only two PCIe lanes are used by the drive, it is keyed to support M.2 type B and M slots. This keying is usually used for M.2 SATA SSDs while M.2 PCIe SSDs typically use only the M key position to support four PCIe lanes. The Optane Memory SSD will not function in a M.2 slot that provides only SATA connectivity. Contrary to some early leaks, the Optane Memory SSD uses the M.2 2280 card size instead of one of the shorter lengths. This makes for one of the least-crowded M.2 PCBs on the market even with all of the components on the top side.

 

The very low capacity of the Optane Memory drives limits their usability as traditional SSDs. Intel intends for the drive to be used with the caching capabilities of their Rapid Storage Technology drivers.

 

doesn't all this sound familiar? it does ...

back in 2011 Intel introduced RST (Rapid Storage Technology), that allowed consumers to use a (small) SSD as cache for the main disk drive (HDD) trough one of RST's components (Smart Response Technology)

 

Intel Optane only works on 200 series mobos paired with a Kaby Lake CPU; also the controller needs to be set in RAID mode

 

these units will be available April 24th in 16GB and 32GB models

C7ZuFMt.png

 

oh .. and by the way, because I would assume people aren't clear on this: Intel Optane is not a disk drive - it can only be used as cache!

you cannot boot from it nor install anything on it - it's only visible by Intel's own ecosystem and hidden to the user

 

---

 

Intel Optane is based on 3D Xpoint nonvolatile NAND flash memory, a new type of memory that was co-developed by Intel and Micron

development started back in 2012 and 1st chips were manufactured in 2015

 

---

 

Intel made it quite clear the 3D Xpoint memory will not be available to 3rd parties: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-optane-memory-cache,33988.html

Edited by zMeul
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I'm just curious as to whether or not for booting up and launching applications whether or not they'll be any faster than most SSDs today.

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Damn, now Kaby Lake is starting to have a purpose... or maybe it's just Intel being Intel and limiting it to 7th gen because they can. Sad to have 6th gen stuff right now.

 

and you beat me to posting this :( 

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Just now, DocSwag said:

I'm just curious as to whether or not for booting up and launching applications whether or not they'll be any faster than most SSDs today.

you need some atomic clocks to measure the differences

NVMe SSDs are already quite fast

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1 minute ago, DocSwag said:

I'm just curious as to whether or not for booting up and launching applications whether or not they'll be any faster than most SSDs today.

buys an optane just to boot windows and launching minecraft is plain stupid, yet I can see some people will still do it

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3 minutes ago, deXxterlab97 said:

buys an optane just to boot windows

updated the OP because I think people aren't clear on it - Intel Optane is not visible to the user!

you cannot install Windows on it, Intel Optane is just cache for your main disk drive

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I'd be interested to do some testing on a 3D XPoint device...if I can get my hands on one (and compatible hardware).

 

By the way, Optane (3D XPoint) is NOT NAND. 

It is Resistive RAM (ReRAM) ..similar to what Crossbar, Inc. has been working on.

(Side Note: IBM has been researching in resistive computing [e.g. ReGPUs] for a few years now)

 

From the information I was able get (picking their brains) from the Intel Employees that were visiting my University a month back (keep in mind Optane was still under NDA at the time), it is using ~20 nm lithography / feature size. This is compared to ~ 16 nm used in 2D Planar NAND (e.g. TLC, MLC).

 

Samsung's V-NAND, put into simple terms, is just stacks of 2D Planar NAND.

If I recall correctly, V-NAND (at least for 1st generation) was using ~20 / 21 nm feature size.

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1 hour ago, zMeul said:

you need some atomic clocks to measure the differences

NVMe SSDs are already quite fast

 

1 hour ago, DocSwag said:

I'm just curious as to whether or not for booting up and launching applications whether or not they'll be any faster than most SSDs today.

because of he nature of optane it should make the Os much more snappier than ssds, because it can achieve higher speeds while only moving small amounts of data, ssds to achieve high speeds need to move a lot of data (e.g.:transferring files).

Allen from pcper was talking about this in he week that the server version came out.

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1 hour ago, zMeul said:

updated the OP because I think people aren't clear on it - Intel Optane is not visible to the user!

you cannot install Windows on it, Intel Optane is just cache for your main disk drive

thats the single biggest problem i have with the tech.

i would have bought one if it wasn't for that 

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3 minutes ago, cj09beira said:

because of he nature of optane it should make the Os much more snappier than ssds, because it can achieve higher speeds while only moving small amounts of data, ssds to achieve high speeds need to move a lot of data (e.g.:transferring files).

Allen from pcper was talking about this in he week that the server version came out.

that's in theory not in practice

Windows itself doesn't do much in terms or read/writes that it would greatly benefit from this

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4 minutes ago, cj09beira said:

thats the single biggest problem i have with the tech.

i would have bought one if it wasn't for that 

that's the biggest advantage of this tech because it will allow you to "speed up" your Terabytes HDD - sort of SSHD on steroids

 

we'll see how it actually performs in a month or so

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4 minutes ago, cj09beira said:

 

because of he nature of optane it should make the Os much more snappier than ssds

The specs that were listed appear to be no better than the Samsung 960 Pro, or even the 950 Pro. I have a 950 Pro, it doesn't feel any better than the 850 EVO I have in my laptop.

 

Plus most of the stuff you use in the OS should be living in RAM after a day of uptime.

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Can't believe people would spend $44 e-peen add on. I would never do such a stupid thing.

 


 

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Unless people are still rocking hard drives I cannot see a purpose for this. Especially if spending $77 on it.

 

You can buy a 240gb 840 on sale right not on newegg, that can be used for what ever you want and out perform this in terms of IOPs...which is the biggest factor when using cache..

 

Even with TBs of storage what is 32gb going to cache? I wish I could see any use for this.

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1 hour ago, M.Yurizaki said:

The specs that were listed appear to be no better than the Samsung 960 Pro, or even the 950 Pro. I have a 950 Pro, it doesn't feel any better than the 850 EVO I have in my laptop.

 

Plus most of the stuff you use in the OS should be living in RAM after a day of uptime.

The specs are clearly superior to the Samsung 960 Pro in certain areas, such as low-queue depth random IOPS, latency, and write endurance. But the performance is subject to the same diminishing returns you've noted with your 950 Pro vs. 850 Evo.

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29 minutes ago, mynameisjuan said:

Unless people are still rocking hard drives I cannot see a purpose for this. Especially if spending $77 on it.

notebooks will be rocking HDDs and with this, the could rock way bigger HDDs than 256/512GB SSDs

 

still needs to be tested tho, if it performs better than a NVMe drive it's a no brainer

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8 minutes ago, Sakkura said:

The specs are clearly superior to the Samsung 960 Pro in certain areas, such as low-queue depth random IOPS, latency, and write endurance. But the performance is subject to the same diminishing returns you've noted with your 950 Pro vs. 850 Evo.

well yeah and no

 

the thing with Optane would be if you can attach it to a large HDD and still get access speeds just as you would from a NVMe drive

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6 minutes ago, zMeul said:

notebooks will be rocking HDDs and with this, the could rock way bigger HDDs than 256/512GB SSDs

But this tech has been around since SSDs were a thing. Hybrid drives had 16gb SSD cache on 1TB+  drives and in real world performance doesnt improve on things you would be using that required the storage. Mainly people who have or need that much hop around so much in the drive that the cache isnt really storing anything that is used often.

 

It just not worth it. I would like SSD performance on everything and not let a card decide what needs to be fast. My hybrid drive drove me nuts back in 2011. Sometimes the pc was snappy but after loading up a game or viewing some movies windows would run like crap because it remove the windows cache even though the algorithm was supposed to prioritize frequently used files.

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5 minutes ago, zMeul said:

well yeah and no

 

the thing with Optane would be if you can attach it to a large HDD and still get access speeds just as you would from a NVMe drive

Which still doesn't give you much of an appreciable boost than from SATA SSDs. And if it's like SSHD's, you still have to touch the data often enough or constantly, otherwise it gets flushed out.

 

Apple's Fusion Drive is the only hybrid storage technology I've seen that actually makes sense to me.

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1 minute ago, mynameisjuan said:

But this tech has been around since SSDs were a thing. Hybrid drives had 16gb SSD cache on 1TB+

this is not the same thing, it works on a "similar" principle

 

to pass final judgement on it we need to see it in real world scenarios

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Just now, M.Yurizaki said:

Which still doesn't give you much of an appreciable boost than from SATA SSDs. And if it's like SSHD's, you still have to touch the data often enough.

yes, but the 32GB Optane is cheaper than a 250GB 850EVO and you can have a really big HDD

it also depends on how good is the Optane algorithm for pre-fetching data

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2 minutes ago, zMeul said:

yes, but the 32GB Optane is cheaper than a 250GB 850EVO and you can have a really big HDD

it also depends on how good is the Optane algorithm for pre-fetching data

I would rather get a 120 GB 750 EVO. 120GB isn't anemic for my use case and I can guarantee stuff I want to run fast lives on the SSD.

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Just now, M.Yurizaki said:

I would rather get a 120 GB 750 EVO. 120GB isn't anemic for my use case and I can guarantee stuff I want to run fast lives on the SSD.

120GB is small, I would not waste money on that SSD

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Just now, M.Yurizaki said:

To you maybe, but my 950 EVO is currently sitting at almost 190GB free out of the 256GB .

mine is at 193GB free, but I had games on it 

also, having a SSD with less than ~20% free space is going to increase the cell wear

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