Intel-Micron’s 3D Xpoint Technology Branding Announced, Launching 2016

[scolaner]

Intel/Micron's revolutionary Xpoint technology gets branding and a release window. Bonus: Onstage benchmarks. But still no word on the tech being used.

Intel-Micron’s 3D Xpoint Technology Branding Announced, Launching 2016 : Read more

 

[poochiepiano]

Is anyone else drooling right now?

 

[gangrel]

:: passes over the roll of paper towels::

I still kinda think that endurance is going to be an issue in terms of replacing RAM, as the amount of writes to main memory is high. Perhaps not; we'll see. But for anything less directly connected...wow. Major combination of endurance and capacity; speed's almost a bonus. Price will be the issue, but hopefully, with very high capacity, it might not be that bad.

 

[RobrtV]

::I still kinda think that endurance is going to be an issue in terms of replacing RAM, as the amount of writes to main memory is high.

Am I wrong in thinking that combining non-volatile storage and traditional RAM into one solution will eliminate the need for writes back and forth? If its already on the same device, you just read... no extra writes that you would traditionally see calling data into RAM

 

[gangrel]

For static data, but that's essentially the same as program code, you're potentially correct. Putting a system into standby/hibernate might require nothing; same with starting back up. The RAM is already loaded. Obviously, this is going to require special handling, but it does offer that potential.

But you might see systems with, say, 16 GB of this stuff, with a larger, cheaper storage. Then you'll need to load the 'RAM' for a new program.

 

[dkaplan73]

It's also worth noting that saving and CTRL-S would effectively be dead. Essentially RAM and storage would be one and the same. Everything is read/written in real time. No need to save.

 

[Daniel Ladishew]

This seems the perfect solution for SoC and embedded hardware. It would mean one less component for those solutions.
I have also long wondered when we would start to see mobos with integrated storage for OS installation, and this seems like it would fit that use case pretty well also. Imagine if your OS never had to touch a traditional storage device for all it's normal operations. We could see a second drastic increase in latency and performance of the OS similar to the adoption of SSDs.

 

[gangrel]

dkaplan: No. A save is a copy of the dynamic state...a snapshot. It's deliberately kept separate from the actual game/document/whatever, so changes *aren't* reflected. Also, it's still likely that Xpoint used as 'RAM' will be comparatively limited in size, at least for the time being. 'RAM' is read/written cell by cell. That gets to be more difficult as you increase size. You'll still generally see the model that programs have to get swapped in and out. This wouldn't have to be the case on more dedicated systems, tho.

 

[wardwing]

so if I am understanding this right, Xpoint is combining DRAM (Storage) and RAM (Memory) into one solution. Essentially creating a SSD/RAM hybrid? how is that any different from existing NVRAM?

this sounds like they are making what basically amounts to a really fast ram disk

 

[CaptnKirk]

so if I am understanding this right, Xpoint is combining DRAM (Storage) and RAM (Memory) into one solution. Essentially creating a SSD/RAM hybrid? how is that any different from existing NVRAM?

this sounds like they are making what basically amounts to a really fast ram disk

Well, yes, if you consider a 6tb drive that operates as memory too and runs at near DDR 4 speed as just a really fast ram drive...

My brother helped develop this and I knew nothing about it until the press release and even then he couldn't say a lot, but said it is most definitely a game changer.
There will be some interim solutions to implement it until an appropriate interface can be developed to really use it. Intel says they will have a module that is pin and electrically compatible with a DDR 4 socket available, but the CPU will have to have some different control systems integrated to use it that way. So expect a new type of CPU to use it, but they claim they will put out a Xeon that useless it with the ability to put 6tb in memory slots. The database possibilities are unfathomable.

 

[gangrel]

When I was doing a bit of review on relative speeds, I ran across an applicable point. Beyond speed, the other major difference between RAM and SSD is address mode. RAM is organized to read/write individual words; SSDs read/write blocks, usually 256 bytes these days. AMD64 allows 48 bits for virtual memory addressing, according to wiki; that still gives you 256 tb of directly addressable space. That's bloody huge. But it could be slower...if that matters. It might not.

But yes...database servers. In another sense we can have the return of Big Iron...take an 18-core Xeon, create maybe 14 VMs, each using a core by itself, and each with 30 gb of RAM. The other 5 tb are allocated as a 'disk' once a controller can handle this kind of split. The scientific computing possibilities are also crazy.