Meet 3D Xpoint Memory: it’s 1000x faster than conventional SSD memory

The one thing SSDs don’t lack is speed. Capacity, sure; and they could be a little more affordable, but there’s no doubting their performance gains, especially over and above conventional HDDs.

Apparently, Micron and Intel don’t think SSDs are quite fast enough, having introduced an all new memory technology that, they claim at least, is 1000x faster than the memory currently powering SSDs, NAND Flash.

3D Xpoint, pronounced “3D Cross Point”, uses vertically stacked memory, in much the same way high bandwidth memory does, but with a number of key differences.

It’s actually capable of providing 10x the capacity of DRAM memory, which is a lot, but it’s also substantially slower – it’s not really suitable as a replacement for DRAM and other RAM alternatives.

3D Xpoint memory, however, is non-volatile, meaning that information remains after the power is switched off, making it suitable for long-term storage, much like NAND Flash. It’s also massively faster than NAND Flash.

3D XPoint Memory Diagram

That means the potential for much, much faster SSDs, drives so fast they might even eclipse current SSDs in the same way SSDs eclipsed HDDs.

But perhaps most importantly, even more so than raw speed, 3D Xpoint is far more durable than NAND Flash.

3D XPoint technology combines the performance, density, power, non-volatility and cost advantages of all available memory technologies on the market today. The technology is up to 1,000 times faster and has up to 1,000 times greater endurance3 than NAND, and is 10 times denser than conventional memory.”

The biggest issue with SSDs at the moment is that they aren’t nearly as durable as HDDs and require replacing after shorter time frames, 3D Xpoint should nullify that completely.

Throw in the fact that no moving parts are required, unlike HDDs, and 3D Xpoint-powered

SSDs may be the most durable drives yet, and without any performance woes – they’re faster than everything else in fact.

This new class of non-volatile memory is a revolutionary technology that allows for quick access to enormous data sets and enables entirely new applications.”

Just imagine the potential of near instantaneous drives with massive capacities. We are.