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You are absolutely correct in the history to my recollection. But I'd challenge that it was a good idea as having multiple product lines better creates opportun
by bane 3y ago
You are absolutely correct in the history to my recollection. But I'd challenge that it was a good idea as having multiple product lines better creates opportunities for new and unique products in different spaces.
Optane is an example of where Intel tried to "fake it" but ended up producing a confused product that didn't leverage common industry knowledge in either the memory or solid state storage spaces. More towards a near future, Intel should be looking at compute-on-memory hardware, which promises to radically improve computation in a number of areas, and fundamentally would give them an "in" into neural network-like tech.
Similarly, the companies that do produce NAND and SSD technologies seem to have figured out how to make money in a commoditized and highly competitive market.
- scrubs 3y agoI agree! When memory became a commodity --- there are periods in markets when nobody confers distinction --- then maybe you keep your hand in to break even or small profit. But keep your eye on the next evolutionary step. Compute co-located with memory (non von Neumann) is that step. With the hw, there'd be an opening for a next gen OS to run it.
- mike_hearn 3y agoHow did Optane represent faking it? It was and still is the fastest persistent storage ever made, no? I thought they killed it because of the difficulty of manufacturing it.
- bane 3y agoIt died because the first generation of Optane devices failed to take the market by storm and instead of advancing the technology they simply exited the market, eating all of the prior investment. Why they failed to take the market seems to be both a combination of lousy marketing (is it a drive, or are they RAM replacements?), selling only enterprise-class products, high prices, and competition technology that is both "good enough" and beats it in all of the other areas. Spec-wise, a Samsung 2TB 990 Pro, is about as fast (sustained, IOPS, etc.), a 10th the price, and is coming from a manufacturer with a reputation of sustaining development and releasing newer, better products in that product-line. If the part fails, you're likely to not only replace it, but upgrade it for the same cost.
- andromeduck 3y agoIDK - I think the hyperscaler market should have been the target market but yeah more academia/open source accessibility would have been cool.