{"id":80221,"date":"2015-08-19T03:00:12","date_gmt":"2015-08-19T01:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=80221"},"modified":"2015-08-19T03:00:55","modified_gmt":"2015-08-19T01:00:55","slug":"intel-unveils-optane-ssds-7-times-the-performance-of-traditional-ssds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/hardware\/80221-intel-unveils-optane-ssds-7-times-the-performance-of-traditional-ssds","title":{"rendered":"Intel unveils Optane SSDs: 7 times the performance of traditional SSDs"},"content":{"rendered":"

SSDs, fast as they may be, are still much of a muchness \u2013 based on NAND Flash<\/a> technology and sporting a number of technical disadvantages.<\/p>\n

Chiefly among those are shorter life spans than mechanical hard drives, owing to the limited number of times flash memory can go through program-erase cycles, and a lot of required background processing and optimisation that needs doing every time a deletion call is made.<\/p>\n

The finite write\/rewrite nature of flash memory, as well as the fact that entire blocks need to be erased, rather than individual bits, meaning a lot of time is wasted moving around files that need to be kept to other blocks, really hampers SSD progress.<\/p>\n

3D stacking and an evolution of the technology has allowed for larger and larger, and generally more reliable SSDs, take Samsung’s V-NAND process as an example<\/a>. But there’s only so far you can take the technology.<\/p>\n

Intel, in partnership with Micron, knew that all too well and has developed 3D Xpoint Memory as a result.<\/p>\n

And the Optane drives they power should blow us away.<\/p>\n

\"3D<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Announced last month, 3D Xpoint Memory<\/a> offers some very serious advantages over NAND Flash.<\/p>\n

1000x the endurance and speed, and 10x the density is nothing to scoff at, but it gets better.<\/p>\n

Owing to the multiple uses of 3D Xpoint, Intel has announced that along with all new SSDs, they’re working on DIMMs<\/a> as well, so we may very well see 3D Xpoint-powered RAM in the future.<\/p>\n

For the moment, however, we’re interested in the SSDs \u2013 for now, the RAM isn’t all that viable for home PCs. Fast as 3D Xpoint is, DRAM<\/a> is a heck of a lot faster.<\/p>\n

We also care about their new SSDs because Optane SSDs, Optane being the name given to components powered by 3D Xpoint, creams traditional SSDs.<\/p>\n

These are the facts:<\/p>\n