Intel introduces first SSDs with Optane memory for desktops

Intel has released its first SSDs based on its Optane, or 3D Xpoint, memory for desktop PCs and workstations. The Optane SSD 900P is an NVME SSD that comes on the market with 280GB and 480GB storage capacity.

The Optane 900P is a high-end SSD that is mainly intended for applications where a lot of storage is required, such as 3D rendering, simulations and loading games. Intel emphasizes the advantages of its Optane memory in terms of low latency, random read and write at low queue depth, and write endurance.

The sequential read and write speeds of the Optane 900P are comparable to those of other high-end SSDs based on nand memory, and the consumption of the SSD makes them unsuitable for laptops, writes AnandTech, which has a review of the 900P publishes.

The site concludes that only in niche applications is the disk loaded enough to outweigh the benefits against the high price compared to NAND SSDs. As an example, the site mentions the use of a scratchdisc by workstations that work with large data sets.

They are not the first Optane products to be announced by Intel. The Optane DC P4800X was already released at the beginning of this year, including a write endurance of thirty instead of the ten write cycles per day of the 900P. For desktops, Optane memory modules of 16GB and 32GB already appeared in March, which serve as cache memory and can support both the RAM and the HDD or SSD to improve the performance of a system.

Intel has high hopes for Optane, which combines the benefits of dram, such as low latency, with the storage capacity of flash. The memory is based on the phase change principle, where bits are stored by physical changes in a medium. The chips have a Cross Point Array Structure and memory cells in structure can be directly addressed.