Intel Optane DIMM is very close to the performance of the DRAM memory used in DDR4 RAM

Robert Sole 16 December, 2018

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Intel's Optane DIMM development is going quite well and is almost up to DRAM performance and there could be improvements to these soon.

Intel Optane drives in the M.2 format are just the company's first step on the road to offering high-rate drives. They are currently in performance between DRAM memories and NAND memories. Currently they are only an intermediate step and the company is working on Optane DIMMs. We can say that these units will replace the current RAM. On occasion Intel has said that an Optane drive could be RAM and SSD at the same time.

Intel Optane DIMM, the replacement for DRAM closer than ever.

Optane currently offers great speed and is limited by PCIe lanes. In addition, all the elements between it and the processor, such as the NVMe controller, slow it down a lot. This new technology is characterized by having low read and write latency. To increase latency you need to be very close to the processor.

So Intel is working on Optane modules in DIMM format like current DDR4 memories. This allows this type of memory to be very close to the processor, which reduces latency.

Optane-based SSDs with an average read latency of 10.000 nanoseconds have already been developed. DIMMs based on these memories average a latency of 350 nanoseconds. This improves average latency by 28.5 times and leaves it at a performance close to DRAM memory. Notably, DRAMs offer latencies of less than 100 nanoseconds.

Optane DIMM for the home market.

These Optane-based DIMMs require special hardware and are for servers only. The idea of the company is to bring this technology to the general consumer public. Before this happens, especially Windows and Mac OS should take advantage of this technology. The first step is for them to take advantage of the use of non-volatile memories natively.

Many low-end systems where latency does not play a role could benefit. Storing your data on Optane, being non-volatile, could offer some important technical advantages.

Source: OC3D