Intel promised to revolutionise PC storage and memory[1] with its 3D Xpoint[2] technology as far back as mid-2015. 3D Xpoint is a new type of flash memory developed jointly by Intel[3] and Micron[4], and was touted as being 1,000 times faster and more reliable than the NAND flash used in current-day SSDs. Since then, Intel has launched only its Optane SSD DC 4800X[5] for data centres and the rather underwhelming Optane Memory[6] modules for PCs. Now, the company is finally ready with its mainstream Optane SSD 900P, which is aimed at enthusiasts and content creators who deal with large, complex, IO-intensive workloads.
According to Intel, the Optane SSD 900p is up to four times faster than today's best PCIe SSDs such as the Samsung SSD 960 Pro[7], with up to 22 times the endurance. However, it is most effective in specific situations, particularly random read and write performance at queue depths between 1 and 4, which Intel says is more representative of day-to-day workloads than the best-case scenarios that many synthetic benchmarks aim to achieve.
Other than gaming, Intel highlights engineering simulations and media creation as target workloads that benefit from the Optane SSD 900P. For example, rendering a 7-second scene of a swirling whirlpool with billions of particles took 6.3 hours on a test system with an Optane SSD 900P as opposed to 17.4 hours with a PCIe SSD. Intel points out that content creators can get their work done in less time, or use the same amount of time to render higher quality output.
The Optane SSD 900P will be available as a 280GB U.2 module or 280GB and 480GB PCIe cards. Intel...