New Class Of Memory

Intel formally introduced the Optane DC persistent memory modules late last week, an entirely new class of memory and storage technology designed to sit between storage and memory and provide expanded memory capacity and faster access to data. Unlike SSDs, which plug into a PCI Express slot, Optane DC is built like a thick memory DIMM and plugs into the DIMM slots. Many server motherboards offer as many as eight DIMM slots per CPU, so some can be allocated to Optane and some to traditional memory. That’s important because Optane serves as a cache of sorts, storing frequently accessed data in its memory rather than forcing the server to fetch it from a hard disk. So, server memory only has to access Optane memory, which is sitting right next to it, and not a storage array over Fibre Channel. The new memory modules will ship to select customers later this year and will become generally available in 2019.

The modules will be available in 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB capacities. However, they'll be compatible only with Intel's Xeon Scalable server processors, which is their latest generation based on the Skylake architecture. By expanding affordable system memory capacities [greater than 3 terabytes per CPU socket], end customers can use systems enabled with this new class of memory to better optimize their workloads by moving and maintaining larger amounts of data closer to the processor and minimizing the higher latency of fetching data from system storage. Intel’s persistent memory will be available in capacities up to 512GB per module. Optane memory is also persistent, like flash memory, so it can retain data even on a restart. Intel noted that with Optane DC persistent memory, a restart of a NoSQL in-memory database went from minutes to seconds compared to a DRAM-only cold restart.

Today, virtually all data center memory modules are based on a technology known as Dynamic Random-Access Memory, or DRAM. Intel doesn't make DRAM, nor has it publicly signaled an intent to do so anytime soon, but it hopes to capture data center DRAM share by selling memory modules based on its 3D XPoint non-volatile memory technology. The advantage of these memory modules, according to Intel, is simple: 3D XPoint memory modules can have much greater capacity than DRAM-based memory modules, and 3D XPoint is non-volatile, meaning that data persists in the memory even when power is removed from it (this is why Intel is branding the memory modules Optane DC Persistent Memory). Traditional DRAM is volatile, meaning that the data in the modules goes away when power is removed.  These Optane DC Persistent Memory modules can't address the entirety of the server memory market -- DRAM is still much faster -- but Intel thinks that the served addressable market (SAM) for its Optane DC Persistent Memory modules will be roughly $8 billion by 2021. 

These new Optane DC Persistent Memory products should help Intel in two distinct ways. The first is that Intel will be able to sell memory products that it wasn't able to before. This means a contribution to revenue growth and a corresponding improvement in total gross profit. That's easily the most exciting part of this whole venture. Moreover, since this memory technology requires Intel's upcoming Cascade Lake processors to work, customers that find the company's value proposition with Optane DC Persistent Memory may be compelled to more rapidly transition to Intel's next-generation server processors sooner than they might have otherwise done. That upgrade cycle acceleration could help the company's data center group performance.