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Specifications for an Intel 3D XPoint SSD Leak
Details about an upcoming Intel 3D XPoint SSD [tomshardware.com] for datacenters have leaked:
Multiple leaks in Chinese-language media apparently outline the performance specifications of Intel's forthcoming Optane P4800X Series Cold Stream PCIe Add-In-Card, which is the company's first 3D XPoint-powered SSD. If Intel follows its trend of releasing enthusiast variants of its enterprise SSDs, we could see the NVMe DC P4800X head to the desktop soon. We treat any leak with suspicion, but in this case we also found a declaration of conformity [intel.com] certificate on Intel's site. The document confirms the name of the device and that it uses 3D XPoint, thus lending some credibility to the leak. We also found a reference to an unreleased DC P4500 Cliffdale SSD series.
[...] The enterprise isn't as sensitive to high prices if the value proposition is compelling enough, and as such, Intel's 375GB Cold Stream Optane DC P4800X is destined for the data center. The SSD features the standard PCIe 3.0 x4 connection and offers up to 2,400/2,000 MB/s of sequential read/write throughput over the NVMe interface. Cold Stream also blows in with up to 550,000/500,000 random read/write IOPS. The performance figures, while impressive, do not entirely encompass the benefits of using 3D XPoint. The new speedy media offers amazing performance at low queue depths and unwavering mixed workload performance, which are the most important metrics for actual applications. We cover some of the finer points of the 3D XPoint performance profile in our 3D XPoint Guide [tomshardware.com].
The DC P4800X purportedly offers up to 30 DWPD (Drive Writes Per Day) of endurance, which measures how many times you can fill the drive per day over the warranty period. 30 DWPD is unheard of for NAND-based SSDs; the most endurant modern SSDs top out at 10 DWPD. The DWPD metric can be muddy due to differing capacities, but overall, the DC P4800X can absorb up to 12.3PB of data during its service life. Intel's 450GB DC P3520 SSD, which is NAND-based, can withstand only 590TB, so apparently, 3D XPoint offers almost 21x more endurance than NAND.
