First Optane SSD with 3D XPoint showed-off by Intel

375GB Optane SSD focused on data centre demands

Intel has unveiled its first data centre SSD using the 3D XPoint technology it first showed off almost two years ago.

The company claims that the 3D XPoint technology in the newly launched Optane DC P4800X SSD, which combines SSD storage with memory, will make it faster and more dense than any other class of SSD.

Specifically, it claims that it is as much as 1,000 times faster than the NAND architecture featured in most flash memory cards and SSDs.

Naturally, the company is focusing the technology first on the more profitable data centre market than the highly competitive PC market.

The technology comprises a transistor-less cross-point architecture, hence the name. This creates a 3D checkerboard where memory cells sit at the intersection of word lines and bit lines, allowing the cells to be addressed individually. This means that the data can be written and read in small sizes, leading to faster and more efficient read/write processes.

Intel's first 3D XPoint product, the Optane DC P4800X SSD, is aimed at the data centre, with the firm claiming that it fills a gap created by costly DRAM and lacking NAND performance.

According to Intel, the P4800X is roughly five to eight times faster than leading SSDs at low queue depths, making it "ideal for critical applications with aggressive latency requirements".

What's more, the company says that it will allow for 2GB/s random read and write speeds, and terms of pure throughput, Intel says the drive is roughly three times as fast as its DC P3700 drive - an NVMe drive capable of delivering 2,800MB/s sequential read and 2,000MB/s sequential write speeds.

Intel's Optane SSD, which the firm claims will be particularly useful for analytics and machine learning, also offers improved QoS scales transactions, resulting in up to 10x more transactions per second at same service, or up to 91 per cent lower cost per transaction.

The P400X, which will initially clock in at 375GB via a PCIe card of U.2 drive, will consume 12-14 watts under a heavy load, which is slightly more power-efficient than competing high-end NAND solutions.

"The Intel Optane SSD DC P4800X is the first product to combine the attributes of memory and storage," the company claimed.

"With an industry-leading combination of high throughput, low latency, high QoS and ultra-high endurance, this innovative solution is optimised to break through data access bottlenecks by providing a new data storage tier."

The Intel Optane DC P4800X SSD is available now for $1,520, albeit in limited availability. The firm says that a 750GB PCIe model, alongside a 375GB model in the U.2 form factor, will b released in the second half of the year.

Intel also has a 1.5TB PCIe card, and 750GB and 1.5TB U.2 models, in the works.