I thought I could throw away my DRAM and SSD, but it looks like for now it's just another cache level.
This is also what I thought they were marketing. The day this happens, it'll be big.
Optane Memory – A bridge between DRAM and storage
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Re: Optane Memory – A bridge between DRAM and storage
#12It looks to be an accelerator cache for HDDs, but slower than an SSD, with fairly low capacity. And it requires a 7th gen intel processor, so this isn't a performance boost for older PCs either. Exactly who is this aimed at?
Looks faster than an SSD to me. From the FAQ:
"Q4: Will Intel Optane memory also accelerate an SSD? If so how much?
A: Yes. Intel Optane memory can be used to accelerate any type of SATA-based storage media, including SATA SSDs, However, the performance benefit of adding Intel Optane memory will be greater on slower storage devices like an HDD versus a relatively faster storage device like a SATA-SSD. Additional performance data is forthcoming"
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-tech...
Re: Optane Memory – A bridge between DRAM and storage
#13A cache for spinning hard drives? Pass.
Re: Optane Memory – A bridge between DRAM and storage
#14I think a lot of this next generation solid state storage level memory is going to wind up being ill suited for the dominant interconnect standards (e.g. DDR, SATA, or PCIe). I also really wonder if it isn't going to take a really long time for the relevant parts of the existing software stack to see serious development to effectively exploit this stuff.
Re: Optane Memory – A bridge between DRAM and storage
#15I thought I could throw away my DRAM and SSD, but it looks like for now it's just another cache level.
I think it will be a bit different once they start selling DIMMs. I'm looking forward to seeing how that works out.
It seems like that could be pretty useful in a laptop, if your RAM was nonvolatile, wake from sleep would be truly instantaneous, you'd think (and it would survive your battery dying).
Re: Optane Memory – A bridge between DRAM and storage
#16Anandtech, as usual, has a good article:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/11227/intel-launches-optane-me...
> The Optane Memory products are squeezing into a relatively small niche for limited budgets that require a lot of storage and want the benefit of solid state performance without paying the full price of a boot SSD. Intel notes that Optane Memory caching can be used in front of hybrid drives and SATA SSDs, but the performance benefit will be smaller and these configurations are not expected to be common or cost effective.
It doesn't sound that fast. Looks to be "slower" (throughput-wise) then modern NVMe drives (i.e. Evo 960 and obviously smaller) and clearly trying to bridge a price gap. Is the upside that it can act as an additional cache level without OS support? I remember the first time I used Intel Rapid Storage Tech (aka RST) ... it was also the last time as it's was convoluted with minimal (or no?) upside on Linux.
As an "enthusiast" I'm assuming that my Linux desktop with plenty of RAM + NVMe backed lvmcache will perform better.
I also assume that my laptop with reasonable RAM (because DDR (self)refresh sucks enough power to annoy me) + high performance NVMe drive also won't benefit.
Is this just marketing fluff?
Re: Optane Memory – A bridge between DRAM and storage
#17I think this is Intel's 3D Xpoint memory finally coming to market. It's supposed to be faster and more reliable than ssd
Re: Optane Memory – A bridge between DRAM and storage
#18I thought I could throw away my DRAM and SSD, but it looks like for now it's just another cache level.
They're a long way from realizing the full potential of the technology. Right now they're hugely limited by the interconnect. Also, if they reach some of the goals they've been talking about, it might need differently-designed operating systems to really work.
Re: Optane Memory – A bridge between DRAM and storage
#19Reaction to 2nd video: It is like a kitchen, and a panty, with a sous-chef which is like a conveyor belt. I mean if this runs ruby and also uses knife, how fast could this really be. ;)
Re: Optane Memory – A bridge between DRAM and storage
#20Anandtech, as usual, has a good article: http://www.anandtech.com/show/11227/intel-launches-optane-me... > The Optane Memory products are squeezing into a relatively small niche for limited budgets that require a lot of storage and want the benefit of solid state performance without paying the full price of a boot SSD. Intel notes that Optane Memory caching can be used in front of hybrid drives and SATA SSDs, but the…
Interesting comment from Anandtech [0]
> Keep in mind that consumer NVMe SSDs that boast throughput of 2GB/s or more generally do not reach their peak at low queue depth. Optane is supposed to be able to drive 1200MB/s read throughput at low queue depth (not sure why they listed QD4), so there is potential for some performance improvement here. Most consumer workloads never get out of low queue depth territory, so this could have some small real world benefit. Write throughput, however, is critically low.
> More importantly, these Optane drive are gear more towards lowering latency than transferring large files. Where HDDs access the data on the order of 10s of mS and SSDs access data on the order of 1mS (give or take), Optane should be able to access data on the order of 1s - 10s of uS. Where Optane will be useful is high numbers of small file accesses (DLLs, library files, etc.).
> That all said, I'd just as soon leave all the extra complications, compatibility issues, and inconsistencies on the table and get that 2 GB/s sdd that you mentioned until Intel figures out how to make these more compatible and easier to use without requiring a "golden setup". I don't want to buy a new W10, Kaby Lake, 200 series based system just to use one of these. My current W7/W10/Ubuntu, Skylake, 100 series system should work just fine for a good while yet.
[0] http://www.anandtech.com/comments/11227/intel-launches-optan...