You’ve probably heard of Optane memory if you’ve been keeping up with the most recent Intel news. You’ve come to the right place if you’re unsure of what that is or why it matters. The forthcoming storage technology from Intel, called Optane, can compete with SSDs while remaining reasonably priced. Speed is the first thing that comes to mind when we think of SSDs. Solid state drives have advanced considerably from being able to deliver speeds of 500 MB/s on SATA-based SSDs to being able to deliver speeds of up to 2500 MB/s on PCIe-based NVMe SSDs. The mechanical hard drives that offer terabytes of storage space for less than $100 are being phased out by these high speed drives. This is where Intel Optane comes into play, and that is precisely what we will go over in depth today. Consequently, without further ado, let me to explain what Intel Optane Memory is:
What Is Intel Optane Memory?
A non-volatile memory technique known as 3D XPoint is used in Intel’s future Optane Memory technology, which seeks to make mechanical hard drives more faster for a reasonable price. Intel hopes to achieve great system responsiveness and speed with Optane without sacrificing the user’s system storage capacity. They achieve this by combining a standard mechanical hard disc with a lightning-fast cache memory. In essence, the most recently accessed data—which includes Windows OS files, gaming data, and much more—is stored in a high-speed SSD cache. As a result, systems still using mechanical hard drives can be significantly faster without breaking the bank.
What Is 3D XPoint?
A non-volatile memory device called 3D XPoint claims to close the enormous performance and latency gap between DRAM and NAND flash. The development of 3D XPoint began three years before to the July 2015 announcement by Intel and Micron Technology. You should take Intel’s assertion that 3D XPoint is 1000 times quicker than NAND Flash with a grain of salt. Physical limitations and the high cost of DRAM, which have long constrained data centre architecture, have been thought to be solved by it. Intel’s own Optane drives are the first storage devices to utilise 3D XPoint technology. The Optane-based memory is still regarded as one of the fastest currently in production, despite not being as quick as some of the top-tier NVMe SSDs on the market.
How Does Optane Perform?
The first Optane drives were unveiled by Intel at CES earlier this year in 16GB and 32GB versions, with the promise of acting as cache memory and accelerating conventional hard drives. Although this is the case, Intel is also developing bigger capacity SSDs based on Optane Memory, such as the 375GB Intel Optane SSD DC P4800X Series. The more powerful Optane drives were recently benchmarked by Intel and compared to the nearly three-year-old Intel SSD DC P3700, which is based on NAND flash. Optane drives may not achieve the performance levels Intel has promised, at least not in practical applications, but they nevertheless have enough promise to become the storage solution of the future.
The Optane-based P4800X was roughly 7-8 times faster than the previous P3700 in an average data block with 70% load and 30% write, according to Intel’s benchmarks. According to Intel, Optane performs at its peak when doing random reads and writes, with rates reaching up to ten times that of ordinary SSDs.
Optane SSDs also perform exceptionally well in terms of latency. There is now a big difference in latencies between DRAM and NAND memory. By providing significantly lower latencies than NAND memory and just ten times greater latencies than DRAM, Optane fills the gap between NAND and DRAM. Considering that Optane is non-volatile memory, this is a significant improvement.
Additionally, according to Intel, Optane memory will offer up to 4.42 times as many I/O operations per second as a NAND-based NVMe SSD.
Why Does Intel Optane Matter?
One of the main reasons Intel’s Optane memory is significant is that it has the potential to revive the use of our outdated mechanical hard drives. It can greatly speed up our system and enhance responsiveness while cost-effectively employing Optane as a cache memory and the hard drive as primary storage. Yes, you no longer have to buy PCIe-based NVMe SSDs for hundreds of dollars. These M.2 form factor Optane cache discs fit simply into the M.2 slot on the motherboard of your computer. The 375GB Optane-based solid state drive, however, is so quick that it can double as RAM. Well, if that doesn’t get your attention, I’m not sure what will.
Release Dates and Pricing
As we already mentioned, 16GB and 32GB versions of the Optane cache memory will be sold in an M.2 form factor for $44 and $77, respectively. That’s a modest price for a device that can accelerate your reliable mechanical hard drive by up to 14 times. Additionally, it might increase the total speed of your PC with an HDD by 28%. The availability of these drives is anticipated to begin on April 24.
Additionally, more expensive Optane-based drives are in development. Consider the Intel SSD DC P4800X Series, which is significantly more expensive than even the Samsung 960 Pro, the fastest NVMe SSD in the world, at a whopping $1520. Only a few Intel customers can presently purchase the P4800X through the early ship programme; however, by the second half of 2017, it will be more widely accessible. By the end of this year, greater capacity models with capacities of 750GB and 1.5TB should also be available in PCIe and U.2 form factors.
Device Support for Octane
Almost all Kaby Lake processors—with the exception of Pentium and Celeron CPUs—will support Intel Optane. Intel Optane memory is incompatible with Skylake processors, even the most expensive ones. The majority of older motherboards are also not supported. Optane memory technology is supported by updated BIOS on modern motherboards from motherboard makers including ASUS, MSI, and Gigabyte. The full list of compatibilities is available right here.
Additionally, Intel Optane Memory is primarily intended for desktop PC use, with compatibility for mobile devices like smartphones and notebooks to follow.
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Is Optane The Future of Storage?
After reading the entire essay, you probably have that question on your mind right now. The answer, in my opinion, is that Optane has a lot of potential, but only time will tell if it will replace current storage technologies as the standard. We will be able to do some real-world performance testing once it is out to determine their true capabilities. Right now, our only option is to believe Intel’s audacious claims. What do you think about Optane technology from Intel? Are you ecstatic? Post your thoughts in the comments section below to let us know.
