Intel optane vs ssd: all the information

When we all thought that SSDs were one of the best inventions in the world of computing, Intel appears to leave them in diapers, the semiconductor giant works on the new 3D memory technology Xpoint that promises to be much better than the current NAND used in SSD disks, there is talk of a new generation of SSDs up to 1000 times faster than the current ones, so the change could be even greater than when the mechanical disks were obsolete. Intel Optane vs SSD: all the information

Intel Optane approaches the speed of RAM

The new 3D Xpoint technology comes under the brand name Optane, it is a new type of memory much faster than NAND (up to 1000 times) and it is also non-volatile so data is not lost when the power goes out. A speed 1000 times higher than NAND brings us very close to what RAM is capable of offering.

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The latter can open the door to a radical change in the way today's computers are made, imagine for a moment that the separation between RAM and storage disappears. With this, in the not too distant future we could buy a new computer with a memory of 1 TB (to put a figure) and that it can be used as RAM or as storage indifferently. This may seem like a dream but Optane is the fundamental piece that can bring us this change that some users will have dreamed of so much. The computer would have access to huge amounts of RAM without slowdowns or loss of performance, something that would be one of the holy grails of computing.

Current SSDs kneel before Optane

For now Intel is quite tight on Optane and provides the information dropper. Micron is Intel's partner in the development of Optane and has shown a prototype at the latest Flash Memory Summit. The test system used consisted of a beast made up of 64 GB of DDR4 memory and a 140 GB PCI Express 3.0 4x Optane module as a swap file.

A test was performed with SideFX Houdini to compare the Optane with an Intel 750 SSD, with the traditional SSD the rendering process took a total of 35 hours and the processor was on standby 70% of the time. Then the same test was done with Optane and the rendering time dropped up to 10 hours while the CPU was on standby only 20% of the time. With this data, Optane can be a revolution for imaging professionals who need to process huge amounts of data every day.

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In another test at the IDF in Shenzhen, we saw Intel play with an Optane unit passing data through a Thunderbolt 3 interface, the transfer rate reached 2 GB / s while the same test with a NAND-based SSD gave a 300 MB / s speed. Perhaps Intel has exaggerated when stating that Optane is 1000 times faster than NAND but nobody will deny that the difference in speed is evident, and that for now we have only seen prototypes and all new technology has a huge margin of evolution.

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Final words

Undoubtedly, Optane technology promises a lot, the bad thing is that we are going to live a situation very similar to that of the beginnings of current SSDs, we will see discs with very reduced capacities and at prohibitive prices. For this reason we will still have to settle for a few years with the current SSDs and for now we can only dream of seeing the RAM memory disappear from our systems.

What do you expect from Optane technology?