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Micron Abandons 3D XPoint Memory Technology
- posix_me_less 6y agoXPoint has only one use case, write-intensive small drives, e.g. filesystem metadata, because of its better latency and durability as compared to NAND flash. It makes no sense as a DRAM replacement or extension, because a) it is tricky to set up and hard to get software that can take advantage of such slower RAM b) at those TB memory sizes, DRAM is of comparable cost. This will probably kill it in year or two as it is unprofitable for Intel. The only way this tech survives is if Intel opens it to the whole ecosystem.
- ksec 6y agoOne of the problem for 3D XPoint was that it never lived up to its initial promises. It seems somehow everything Intel presented in ~2014 to 2019 has either been the worst marketing mistake, lying by omission or flat out fraud. Latest Optane is finally close to their initial promise [1], 100 DWPD ( Drive Writes Per Day ), 1.5M IOPS, 7.2GB/s Seq Read, ~6us latency. And a 2022-23 Gen 4 product with PCIe 5.0 / 15GB/s and sub 2us Latency. No more excuses for I/O bottleneck. Although last time I pull some figures from both Micron and Intel's financial statement suggest Intel is losing money on Optane even discarding the financial penalty paid to Micron. Suggesting Optane isn't a sustainable business as it currently stands. So it needs either larger volume and better unit economics. Something I cant infer to happen within the next 3-4 years. [1] https://www.servethehome.com/new-intel-optane-p5800x-100-dwpd-ssd-dominates-pcie-gen4/ https://www.servethehome.com/new-intel-optane-p5800x-100-dwp...
- baybal2 6y ago3D flash killed it.
- wtallis 6y agoI think it's simpler and more accurate to say that 3D XPoint memory can't live up to its initial promise while stuck behind a PCIe link and block storage abstraction. The DIMM version does a much better job of showing off the performance and endurance advantages over flash, but Intel was two years late delivering that. But either way, the fact that it's also unprofitable and can't keep the fab busy is a serious problem with no clear solution unless Intel can come up with a breakthrough in scaling 3DXP density.
- ksec 6y agoYes I really really want to see 3DXP at least survive in some form. And AFAIK only Facebook and a small handful of other vendor are using it. Eagerly waiting for your Micron 176L write up / interview :)
- Pet_Ant 6y agoI would love to see it it in a low end netbook where the entire storage can be used as RAM
- posix_me_less 6y agoWhat would be the point? Make slow hardware even slower? Or slightly faster, by keeping DRAM and replacing SSD with costly XPoint? It makes no sense.
- fomine3 6y agoIt's sad but totally expected. Any spinoffs?
- moistbar 6y agoThe article doesn't mention Intel getting out of the game, so I imagine you'll be able to get Optane for at least a little longer.