New memory technology

[KansasSooner]

Intel, Micron announce new 3DXPoint memory type that's 1,000 times faster than NAND | PCWorld

A more in depth explanation here:

3D Xpoint memory: Faster-than-flash storage unveiled - BBC News

 

[packerzrule]

I have been leaking memory for about 10 years now so this sounds right up my alley

 

[WizardHawk]

At least unlike most of these breakthrough announcements they actually have working units created. Good stuff.

 

[KansasSooner]

I have been leaking memory for about 10 years now so this sounds right up my alley

Maybe you need some of the snake oil from jellyfish that is supposed to improve memory. They advertise it on TV all the time...I think.

 

[TP76]

Wonder how this will affect the other fabs - Samsung's nand business is enormous.

 

[WizardHawk]

Well they have time to figure out what to do next. This might be available next year, but it did say there is going to have to be substantial changes to the rest of the PC to make use of it as SATA and other parts of the bus are going to be way too slow to utilize it.

 

[KansasSooner]

My guess is we'll see kind of hybrid use of it before it becomes mainstream in PCs.

 

[WizardHawk]

Well they could start with low cost SSD's that may not go full speed for the technology, but are a hell of a lot more reliable than what's out there. Drive the HD market to explode.

 

[KansasSooner]

As fast as my PC is booting from SSD I can't imagine how much faster it could be with the newer memory. I think it takes longer for the BIOS to finish now than it does for Windows to load...

 

[WizardHawk]

Yeah, that's why new SSD's with this technology likely wouldn't be any faster, but if they are cheaper to make and higher density in a smaller package and are less prone to requiring TRIM to prevent cell loss it would still be worth seeing products in this line roll out. I'd love a decent cheap 2T SSD that didn't have cell degradation issues.

 

[KansasSooner]

I'd love a decent cheap 2T SSD that didn't have cell degradation issues.

I read about those issues in a tech paper recently. The fear is really over blown according to the paper in that it would take 5-6 years for any of it to start to have an effect on permanently stored data and even then it could be recoverable for some time afterward.

 

[WizardHawk]

I've had 2 SSD's go bad. Whether it was due to just crappy equipment or something else, it's hard to risk anything critical on those blasted things for me. I now use them as cache only. Not wasting more money on such disappointments.

 

[KansasSooner]

And there is a program that can check your SSD for degradation, I tested my 5 year old drive and it passed with flying colors. Now if I can just remember what the hell it is called I'll post a link for it later.

 

[KansasSooner]

Download SSD Read Speed Tester - MajorGeeks

It's found at MajorGeeks but I think I got it from the manufacturer myself. I like it in that it isn't a destructive test...

 

[KansasSooner]

it's hard to risk anything critical on those blasted things for me.

I don't keep any data on them that is critical. Just the OS. My data is stored on a standard HD, backed up to another HD, and if really critical copied to either USB or CD-ROM. (Use to rely on tape but had too many tapes crap out and each new version of Windows required new hardware for tape it seemed. )

 

[TP76]

Last time I used tape, I was administering a Novell Server (early 90's?). That's old school KS.

 

[KansasSooner]

I started with tape on IBM mainframes and DEC VAX, kept with it until the demise of Windows 98 when CD-ROM finally became reliable and fast.

 

[WizardHawk]

Hell, we used tape at one of my jobs all the way through XP. HD's were still too pricey to use as backup and they required a swap out for every day of the week plus weekly/monthly backups with some of those going off site.

Drives are so cheap anymore that there's almost no reason to consider tape for anything. We rotate out some external drives as well as having some of our backups going to NAS, but DFSR even renders some of that unnecessary.

 

[TP76]

I did use VAX/VMS system in college back in the early/mid 80's - dialing the wayback machine a bit