Intel Technical Marketing Engineer Frank Ober demonstrated the new generation of Intel Optane SSDs. These units have been baptized as Alder Stream and curiously they are based on the PCIe 4.0 interface. Intel does not currently have support for this connection interface on its commercial or professional processors, nor does it plan to do so.
The first image of this unit is curious, since the PCB is covered by a large aluminum casing. This would indicate that this unit suffers from significant thermal problems. But it is not exclusive to the company, we have seen how all M.2 SSDs with PCIe 4.0 interface use generous heatsinks.
[amazon box="B07RL812DW"]Intel shows an Optane SSD under PCIe 4.0
As we mentioned, Intel doesn't currently offer any processors or motherboards that support PCIe 4.0. It's worth noting that the company has repeatedly stated that this interface offers no advantages. Furthermore, the roadmap only shows Tiger Lake processors for laptops with this interface. We don't know if the company has anything else up its sleeve.
Currently only AMD processors offer support for the PCIe 4.0 interface. This means that developers, lacking Intel platforms with PCIe 4.0, have to test these units with EPYC, Threadripper and Ryzen processors.
As it has been announced, these Intel Optane units in SSD format under PCIe 4.0 will be only for Data Centers. We do not know if they have a platform compatible with this interface for that segment. The positive is that it uses next-generation 3D Xpoint memories.
These new SSDs from Intel should hit the data center market in the second half of the year. Right at the moment Tiger Lake @ 10nm processors with PCIe 4.0 interface are released. As far as we know, they are the only family of processors with support for this interface and they have nothing to do with Data Centers.
Source: TH
