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Intel has announced two 3D XPoint products positioned as caches for consumer desktops. The M.2 modules store 16 GB for $44 ($2.75/GB) or 32 GB for $75 ($2.34/GB):
Intel just announced two new products that bring Optane technology to the consumer desktop. Optane is loosely defined as the company's products built with 3D XPoint technology, a next generation non-volatile memory structure built from the ground up to reduce latency. The new Optane Memory products will ship in two capacities (16GB and 32GB) and give users access to a whole new performance tier--as long as you have the supporting technology in place, mainly a 200-series chipset.
Pricing for Optane Memory M.2 2280 modules start at just $44 (16GB) and peak at $75 (32GB). The operating system recognizes the new products as addressable storage, just like a regular hard disk drive or solid-state drive. Intel told us that support for the drives as cache starts with the latest 200-series chipset products that feature an additional four PCI Express lanes over the older 100-series chipset.
The magic happens when you enable a "modified" version of Smart Response Technology and build a cache array with the Optane Memory standing invisibly in front of an HDD or SSD. The Optane Memory becomes a cache device that accelerates I/O for data retained in its memory structure from previous I/O requests.
Compare with the previous story about a 3D XPoint SSD for the enterprise: First Intel Optane 3D XPoint SSD Released: 375 GB for $1520. Many more of us could find $44-75 to blow on this cache.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Thursday March 30 2017, @04:18PM (5 children)
> Many more of us could find $44-75 to blow on this cache.
Except that most of us would need a new PCB and processor that support it... Which we don't currently have because Intel hasn't given us good reasons to upgrade in years, and we're looking at new shiny affordable Zen.
Not so cheap, suddenly...
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday March 30 2017, @06:37PM (4 children)
Spend the money on standard DRAM (used as cache) and then hard-disc. It's mainly the booting that is slow which is a lesser problem with operating systems designed for always on.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Friday March 31 2017, @10:02AM (3 children)
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday March 31 2017, @10:11AM (2 children)
Solution, buy a computer that can take more DRAM?
There's also devices that takes standard DRAM and present it as a real harddisk with battery backup. Dunno if it's cheaper than flashdisk (SSD).
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Friday March 31 2017, @11:44AM (1 child)
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday April 01 2017, @02:10PM
Perhaps DRAM--SATA modules would be an option?
(can be configured as swap etc to be used as memory)