By now, you\u2019ve seen the word \u201cOptane\u201d bandied about on VentureBeat (such as here and here) and probably countless other places \u2014 and for good reason. Intel, the maker of all Optane products, is heavily promoting the results of its decade-long R&D investment in this new memory\/storage hybrid. But what exactly is Optane, and what is it good for? (Hint: Massively memory-hungry applications like analytics and AI). If you\u2019re not feeling up to speed, don\u2019t worry. We\u2019ll have you covered on all the basics in the next few minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bottom line<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Optane is a new Intel technology that blurs the traditional lines between DRAM memory and NAND flash storage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Optane DC solid state drives provide super-fast data caching and agile system expansion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Capacity up to 512GB per persistent memory module; configurable for persistent or volatile operation; ideal for applications that emphasize high capacity and low latency over raw throughput<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Strong contender for data centers; future for clients. Costs and advantages are case-specific, impacted by DRAM prices. Early user experience still emerging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, let\u2019s dive into some more detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Media vs. memory vs. storage<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, understand that Intel Optane is neither DRAM nor NAND flash memory. It\u2019s a new set of technologies based on what Intel calls 3D XPoint media, which was co-developed with Micron. (We\u2019re going to stumble around here with words like media, memory, and storage, but will prefer \u201cmedia.\u201d) 3D XPoint works like NAND in that it\u2019s non-volatile, meaning data doesn\u2019t disappear if the system or components lose power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, 3D XPoint has significantly lower latency than NAND. That lets it perform much more like DRAM in some situations, especially with high volumes of small files, such as online transaction processing (OLTP). In addition, 3D XPoint features orders-of-magnitude higher endurance than NAND, which makes it very attractive in data center applications involving massive amounts of data writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When combined with Intel firmware and drivers, 3D XPoint gets branded as simply \u201cOptane.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, is Optane memory or storage? The answer depends on where you put it in a system and how it gets configured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Optane memory<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Consider Intel Optane Memory, the first product delivered to market with 3D XPoint media. Available in 16GB or 32GB models, Optane memory products are essentially tiny PCIe NVMe SSDs built on the M.2 form factor. They serve as a fast cache for storage. Frequently loaded files get stashed on Optane memory, alleviating the need to find those files on NAND SSDs or hard drives, which will entail much higher latency. Optane memory is targeted at PCs, but therein lies the rub. Most PCs don\u2019t pull that much file traffic from storage and don\u2019t need that sort of caching performance, And because, unlike NAND, 3D XPoint doesn\u2019t require an erase cycle when writing to media, Optane is strong on write performance. Still, most client applications don\u2019t have that much high-volume, small-size writing to do.
\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Optane SSDs: Client and data center <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next came Intel Optane SSDs and Data Center (DC) SSDs. Today, the Intel Optane SSD 8 Series ships in 58GB to 118GB capacities, also using the M.2 form factor. The 9 Series reaches from 480GB to 1.5TB but employs the M.2, U.2, and Add In Card (AIC) form factors. Again, Intel bills these as client SSDs, and they certainly have good roles to play under certain conditions. But NAND SSDs remain the go-to for clients across most desktop-class applications, especially when price and throughput performance (as opposed to latency) are being balanced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Things change once we step into the data center. The SKUs don\u2019t look that different from their client counterparts \u2014 capacities from 100GB to 1.5TB across U.2, M.2, and half-height, half-length (HHHL) AIC form factors \u2014 except in two regards: price and endurance. Yes, the Intel Optane SSD DC P4800X (750GB) costs roughly double the Intel Optane SSD 905P (960GB). But look at its endurance advantage: 41 petabytes written (PBW) versus 17.52 PBW. In other words, on average, you can exhaust more than two consumer Optane storage drives \u2014 and pay for IT to replace them \u2014 in the time it takes to wear out one DC Optane drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Optane DC Persistent Memory<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lastly, Intel Optane DC Persistent Memory modules (DCPMM) place 3D XPoint media on DDR4 form factor memory sticks. (Note: There\u2019s no DDR4 media on the module, but DCPMMs do insert into the DDR4 DIMM sockets on compatible server motherboards.) Again, Optane media is slower than most DDR4, but not much slower in many cases. Why use it, then? Because Optane DCPMMs come in capacities up to 512GB \u2013 much higher than DDR4 modules, which top out at 64GB each. Thus, if you have applications and workloads that prioritize capacity over speed, a common situation for in-memory databases and servers with high virtual machine density, Optane DCPMMs may be a strong fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The value proposition for DCPMM was stronger in early 2018 and early 2019, when DRAM prices were higher. This allowed DPCMMs to win resoundingly on capacity and per-gigabyte price. As DRAM prices have plummeted, though, the two are at near-parity, which is why you now hear Intel talking more about the capacity benefits in application-specific settings. As Optane gradually proves itself in enterprises, expect to see Intel lower DCPMM prices to push the technology into the mainstream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As for total performance, DCPMM use case stories and trials are just emerging from the earliest enterprise adopters. Intel has yet to publish clear data showing \u201cOptane DCPMMs show X% performance advantage over DRAM-only configurations in Y and Z environments.\u201d This is partially because server configurations, which often employ virtualization and cross-system load sharing, can be very tricky to typify. But it\u2019s also because the technology is so new that it hasn\u2019t been widely tested. For now, the theory is that large DCPMM pools, while slower than DRAM-only pools, will reduce the need for disk I\/O swaps. That will accelerate total performance above and beyond the levels reduced by adopting a somewhat slower media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By now, you\u2019ve seen the word \u201cOptane\u201d bandied about on VentureBeat (such as here and here) and probably countless other places \u2014 and for good reason. Intel, the maker of all Optane products, is heavily promoting the results of its decade-long R&D investment in this new memory\/storage hybrid. But what exactly is Optane, and what is it good … Continue reading “Optane 101: Memory or storage? Yes.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[491],"class_list":["post-600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hardware","tag-optane-101"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":601,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600\/revisions\/601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}