Intel offers twenty-one times greater endurance in 3D XPoint memories compared to MLC NAND Flash, as seen in the Intel Optane DC P4800X data sheet

Information on the specifications and performance of the new Intel Optane P4800X memory units has been leaked in various Chinese media. This PCIe Add-in-card drive is the company's first 3D XPoint SSD drive. If Intel follows the trend of releasing commercial versions of its SSDs for professional and industrial sectors, we could see a version of the NVMe DC P4800X for desktop shortly. Logically we must treat this information with a certain distrust, but normally these things are usually true.

The leak specifically refers to the name of the device and that it would use 3D XPoint type memories, something that gives this leak a certain veracity. It also stands out that it refers to the DC P4500 Cliffdale SSD unit, a unit that was unknown until now and for which there is no data.

Intel had planned to launch Optante SSD alongside the Kaby Lake desktop processors, but has opted to use these drives for cache storage for now. Cache storage increases performance over a standard hard drive, but in many cases, you could use a normal SSD. Intel has not disclosed when it will launch Optane to the general public, using it as the primary storage unit, for the general public.

It stands to reason that the first 3D XPoint-based storage drives were priced significantly higher than SSDs. This could have caused Intel to choose to launch units that perform cache functions for the consumer market, while continuing with the development of this technology and managing to manufacture cheaper units and thus have a much faster implementation in the market.

Within the professional market, the price is not usually taken into account, since power is sought and that is why for the professional segment of the data center, we find the Intel 375GB Cold Stream Optane DC P4800X unit. This SSD features a standard PCIe 3.0 x4 connection, offering 2400MB / s sequential read speeds and 2000MB / s sequential write speeds via NVMe interface. The data is spectacular, but it is not all that 3D XPoint can offer.

Something very interesting is that this 4800GB Optane DC P375X is up to twenty-one times stronger than a professional SSD due to the MLC NAND Flash drives they use. The Optane drive allows no less than thirty full writes per day and up to 12.300TB of total writes per day. Some units without a doubt, that when they are introduced in the general market, will wreak havoc among SSDs.