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  • Bullwinkle-J-Moose - Wednesday, January 10, 2018 - link

    Intel needs to back the endurance claims with a warranty better than a Samsung 850 Pro

    At least match the 10 year warranty at the prices you will be asking
  • Jhlot - Wednesday, January 10, 2018 - link

    Underwhelming. New products are hard but, I would have like to see Intel move faster on capacity and pricing.
  • shabby - Wednesday, January 10, 2018 - link

    It's almost like it's intentional, release low capacity drives at a price that the market can barely accept and hope for the best, its not like intel needs the money here.
  • Reflex - Wednesday, January 10, 2018 - link

    Can't wait to see second gen. 250/500GB options as a primary drive would be fantastic when prices get reasonable.
  • tuxRoller - Wednesday, January 10, 2018 - link

    I hope Intel tackles something like optane memory again, but this time have it attached to a ddr bus. Keep the kernel + userspace (base) with read + exec permissions (unless there's an update) and then dynamically load the remainder as needed. This would allow for more aggressive very low power states transitions and close to instant resume (with firmware help of a new sleep state beyond s5).
  • Reflex - Wednesday, January 10, 2018 - link

    I believe this was already in the plans, I know they intend modules for DDR slots, and I believe stateless memory is part of the long term goal.
  • tuxRoller - Wednesday, January 10, 2018 - link

    I'd heard about the ddr modules coming at some point (hopefully this year) but I wasn't aware that they were pursuing the computing model I had in mind. Thanks for the info.
  • Amandtec - Thursday, January 11, 2018 - link

    These products are currently the wrong use case because they are trying to sell something to enthusiasts who already have SSD or to OEM's who don't want to add $30 to their b.o.m.

    How about:
    1) Integrate the 3d xpoint controller into the CPU to reduce costs.
    2) Build into the cheaper intel processors ($100 and below) that unless they have 4-8GB of 3xpoint they don't run. This will add $5-$10 to the cost and make them seem super fast to the average use who just does email, Facebook and Office.
  • Amandtec - Thursday, January 11, 2018 - link

    Or use 3dxpoint as cache on the hard drive device instead of dram (it 6x cheaper so include 6x as much - say 4GB at cost of $5 + controller.
  • emvonline - Friday, January 12, 2018 - link

    @amandtec: Ruin your microprocessor sales by forcing people to buy storage that no one wants at this time. Sorry... i suggest delivering an actually decent fast storage product. we will need to wait for Samsung to deliver that apparently. Intel can buy it from Samsung
  • Pinn - Wednesday, January 10, 2018 - link

    Will they throttle like my samsung m.2 ssd's? That would be the 950's that didn't plain fail.
  • mkozakewich - Wednesday, January 10, 2018 - link

    SSDs have terrible low-queue-depth performance, and due to the page sizes they also have terrible low-transfer-size performance. If you're writing thin chains of tiny files, something like this is many times better than an SSD (even the Samsungs).
  • Pinn - Wednesday, January 10, 2018 - link

    awesome. i'll probably pick up an xpoint card due to nightmares with m.2 throttling. i actually rock the intel 750 card 1.2TB, which is solid. tested not to throttle well past 10G (128G ram disks are fun). i can adjust my capacity downward pretty easily. used to worry about 128g creating a 128g pagefile, but i think they don't do that now.

    thanks.
  • Endo3739 - Wednesday, January 10, 2018 - link

    Any mention of compatibility with BitLocker hardware encryption? (i.e. eDrive, IEEE 1667)
    The absence of this is the only thing stopping me going M.2 NvMe on all my systems.
  • Bullwinkle-J-Moose - Thursday, January 11, 2018 - link

    Bitlocker can be run on any drive
    You are only Drive limited when you jump though Microsofts hoops like a trained Rat

    For example : BitLocker without TPM

    Use the Windows key + R keyboard shortcut to open the Run command, type gpedit.msc, and click OK.
    Under Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates.
    Expand Windows Components.
    Expand BitLocker Drive Encryption and Operating System Drives.
  • Bullwinkle-J-Moose - Thursday, January 11, 2018 - link

    DOH
  • Bullwinkle-J-Moose - Thursday, January 11, 2018 - link

    Bitlocker can be used on any drive without a TPM chip

    Use the Windows key + R keyboard shortcut to open the Run command, type gpedit.msc, and click OK. Under Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates. Expand Windows Components. Expand BitLocker Drive Encryption and Operating System Drives.

    On the right side, double-click Require additional authentication at startup.

    Select Enabled. Make sure to check the "Allow BitLocker without a compatible TPM (requires a password or a startup key on a USB flash drive)" option.

    Click OK to complete this process.
  • Endo3739 - Thursday, January 11, 2018 - link

    Yeah, I know how to do that. I'm not talking about TPM hardware. ;)

    BitLocker can encrypt a drive in two ways:

    1.Software encryption. You can always do this, but it takes time and imposes a speed penalty. (Also, depending on who you talk to, it causes a dramatic increase in drive wear)

    2. Hardware encryption. This directly interfaces with the SSD's existing encryption (I think all SSDs are encrypted as a wear-leveling mechanism, but now that I've gone looking I can't find a reference for that). Hardware encryption is instantaneous and has no penalties for speed or wear, but requires eDrive/IEEE 1667 compliance.
  • msabercr - Friday, January 12, 2018 - link

    Intels three digit model numbers typically will not have Pro features like OPAL, therefore no E-drive support. Only the pro lines with the 4 digit naming convention(I.E. Intel SSD Pro2500) have Opal options and typically Edrive is reserved for OEM specific configurations.
  • Lolimaster - Thursday, January 11, 2018 - link

    Intel really needs to open optane for use on AMD platforms (the only one worthy to be bough right now).

    118GB is enough for OS, apps, some oldish games and not worry about having the pagefile there.
  • IntelUser2000 - Thursday, January 11, 2018 - link

    Lolimaster,

    the platform support Intel listed for Optane only applies for the caching feature. Otherwise, it behaves as a regular NVMe drive.
  • Lolimaster - Thursday, January 11, 2018 - link

    Naisu
  • Kvaern1 - Thursday, January 11, 2018 - link

    Ok...but does Intel RST support > 60GB cache drives?
  • iwod - Thursday, January 11, 2018 - link

    The Problem with Comment on Anandtech site is that they are not linked to the Forum software, hence it is hard to track down if my questions ever get answered.

    1W idle, now that is much better. Is this because of new controller? Previously Intel were using the SSD DC Controller hence the power consumption wasn't suitable for Notebook.

    If it is a new Controller, is this specifically made for XPoint? Can Idle get lower to 0.1W range? How much energy is required to store pure XPoint only? ( Minus the Controller )

    Can we expect higher Seq speed per chip in the future, current this is lacking behind NAND.
  • msabercr - Friday, January 12, 2018 - link

    The previous version of Optane memory didn't support low power states, ergo high power consumption. Optane m.2 storage enabled LP states and improve power consumption during idle as well as increased capacity. PCIe x2 is also not very power heavy
  • emvonline - Friday, January 12, 2018 - link

    the price for a 58GB (WTF?? was Intel unable to set the capacity to a prime number?) will be about $110. Will people pay that amount if they can only detect the difference in synthetic benchmarks (You cant tell the difference from a SSD in file load times or boot times on this). I can get a 280GB SSD for the same price.

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