Intel's Optane SSD Compatible With NVMe; Could Boost MacBook Storage Speeds By 1000x 76
More details have emerged about Intel's Optane, a new kind of memory and SSD that utilizes 3D Xpoint. The upcoming 3D Xpoint technology, which is supposedly 10 times denser than DRAM and 1,000 times faster than flash storage, will be compatible with NVMe, a storage protocol that allows an SSD to make effective use of a high-speed PCIe. Several MacBook Pro models already support NVMe technology. Apple is often among the first companies to adopt emerging standards and technologies, which has led many to believe that the Cupertino-based company might leverage Intel's Optane solid state drives for super fast performance speeds in its next batch of laptops. Apple is expected to announce the refreshed MacBook lineup sporting Intel Skylake processor later this year.
Only Apple? (Score:3)
And the technology won't benefit non-Apple computers?
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That's not true. The Mac Pro does not have an optical drive.
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not 1000X anytime soon (Score:3)
This headline is very misleading. Yes, 3D XPoint itself is 1000 times as fast as flash. But it's limited by the interface speed. Using the PCIe-NVme interface, the Optane SSD will be about 7 times as fast as a flash SSD. To take advantage of the full 3D XPoint speed, there will have to be a new, custom interface, and probably some software and operating system changes. All this is great but the headline is jumping ahead of the linked stories.
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WHAT!?!? Everybody knows you never go full USB3!
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Not really. Not usually. They abandon things ahead of when people think they should but then it usually turns out they were right. Floppies, serial ports, vga, these things dragged on forever, festooned on the sides of PC laptopos and desktops. The early use of postscript is why desktop publishing was so uniform on macs compared to PC, but in doing that they sort of abandoned the drivers for many other printiers. excessive ports on PCs didn't really make them more versatile it meant widespread impatab
Re:Only Apple? (Score:5, Insightful)
at any IT conference, you can easily spot the macbook user by the bag full of adaptors they carry with them.
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Oh, upgrading the projector is nothing. It's the cost of replacing the wires in the wall that gets expensive.
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And the people who put wires in the wall (or make the intermediary systems those wires connect through) were still putting in VGA a decade after it make sense to do so.
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Where I work:
a) VGA is the most common video port on the laptops issued by the company. (2nd most common is mini-DVI.)
b) VGA is the most likely to get you a image at the native resolution of the variety of displays at a reasonable refresh rate without any jittering.
So putting in VGA is a sign that interfaces are chosen based on what makes sense, rather than religion.
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What makes you think these rooms had installations done in the past decade? We're not all 3 year old start-ups building out brand new lease spaces with $200/SF upfit budgets. Some of these locations I work in are 100 year old buildings with 6 thick reinforced concrete floors and solid masonry walls. When you see what it costs to get new wiring, half the time the owner just says "Fuck it, get me another easel and a giant Postit pad," or "we'll paint on the wall with tree sap and crushed beetles instead."
Re:Only Apple? (Score:5, Informative)
If by "among the first" you mean later than Dell [samsung.com] and pretty much at the same time as Asus [techpowerup.com], Gigabyte [gigabyte.com], MSI [msi.com], and every other first tier motherboard manufacturer.
Search this list [laptopmedia.com] for laptops which had the interface well before Apple introduced it in their line.
Among the first... more like among the all.
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FTFY.
Where they really move the industry needle is shaking off yesterday's abrasive crusties. I give them full marks for death of the floppy.
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Apple is just often among the first to adopt the coolest and most fresh hi-tech.
Well, that didn't help 1394/Firewire become popular, sadly.
Will world leaders use this too? (Score:1)
I think that the full headline should have been,
Will Intel's optante cure cancer when they use next years apple computers to write legislation on comptuers 1000x faster? Ot maybe the headline should be
Will a new generation of porn addiction begin when downloaded videos start 1000x faster using Intel's optane?
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Intel's new Optane SSDs are so fast, you achieve orgasm even before your porn videos files are opened.
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all i care about is: will it be fast enough for in-place execution? can we finally eliminate the need for ram AND storage? i like the idea of HP's "machine"
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all i care about is: will it be fast enough for in-place execution? can we finally eliminate the need for ram AND storage? i like the idea of HP's "machine"
Since DRAM isn't fast enough for in-place execution, why do you care? All computers have multiple storage tiers: registers, cache, RAM, etc.
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i expect this kind of post on a mac fanboi forum
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And the technology won't benefit non-Apple computers?
The drives will be faster than an I/O interrupt, but don't fret, your internet speed is the bottle neck. Oh wait, we are going to communicate via laser beam on fibre to the ISP.
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Pshh...I'm upgrading to Twisted Vortex Beams.
Ha ha ha, no. (Score:3)
I'm pretty sure someone messed up the numbers, because they don't make any sense.
The current MacBook Pro has an SSD that is only 10x slower than its RAM in terms of data rate (not in terms of latency of course). This new SSD would be 100x faster than the RAM, which would be pointless.
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Sorry (Score:1, Interesting)
Since when is disk/SSD speed the bottleneck for non-server systems?
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Ok, I'll bite.
A lot of us use Laptops (luggables) as portable servers. With 32Gb of RAM and an i7 we can run many VM's.
I'm working on one at the moment. 1 Oracle VM, 1 SQLServer VM, 2 Application VM's. Total Disk Space > 200Gb. My current laptop is an HP Elitebook. 17in Screen and 3.5Gb of SSD.
The faster the storage the better IMHO.
If apple would support 32Gb of Ram I'd move to a MacBook.
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Shoot I am running 8 vms now. My cpu has not ever gone beyond 20% like ever lol. However, I got the i7 k series which do not support VT-d which means it uses software for disk access without IOMMU by can virtualize everything else with hyper-v. My host Win 8.1 reports a 390MS for disk access. My server 2k12R2 guests report 3250 MS latency.
So a slower i5 with vt-x and vtd on a type 1 hypervisor can perform the best. I could trade my i7k to an i7S but I surprisingly do not need a faster cpu to my astonishment
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Since the time that processes claim at least the amount of ram as 'swap image' on the swap space.
And: since the time that every tab in a web browser is its own process.
So my 8GB ram laptop conquers 8GB of disk space for every process, browser tab or ordinary process.
Luckily they don't use so much space and optimize usage. Nevertheless about 200GB of my 512GB flash SSD is occupied by 'processes' on the swap file.
Nevertheless switching tabs is no longer instant but takes up to 3 seconds. Faster disks make tha
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Learn to swim (Score:1)
Apple is often among the first companies to adopt emerging standards and technologies ... Apple is expected to announce the refreshed MacBook lineup sporting Intel Skylake processor later this year.
Oh wow. And yet I can order a Lenovo T560 right now that has a Skylake processor (i7-6600U) and a PCIe-NVMe SSD (that can be easily swapped out for an Optane or any other NVMe SSD you want). Let me just wait until later this year for Apple to lead the way, though.
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What counts as "among the first companies" though? Does 5th place still count?
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What counts as "among the first companies" though? Does 5th place still count?
They were among the first to adopt USB, and thunderbolt. They did lag a bit on USB2, but eh. So did most PCs. That they are using old CPUs right now doesn't really change that they are often among the first to adopt new technologies.
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"Among the first" is weak language. It could feasibly refer to major hardware manufacturers or even operating systems (considering how few there are, that's a really weak statement, but still technically true.)
Eventually... (Score:5, Informative)
The fanboy with stars in his eyes is completely ignoring the fact that Intel has shown first 3D XPoint products that are just twice as fast as flash-based SSDs. The 1000x density and speed factors he's slobbering over are projected ceilings, which will take years to achieve in actual hardware.
Also: So fucking what. (Score:1)
If you got a PC and want this SSD you'll have it, if you don't you won't. Free choice.
Guess an alternative head-line would be: .."
"Future Macbook buyers will be forced to buy ridiculously expensive SSD-drive"
alternative
"Finally! Now you can get an Intel Octane drive with your Macbook too!"
Or
"Why the fuck aren't the latest and greatest Macbooks equipped with
Of course it's likely user-exchangeable in this case even in a Mac but you get the point...
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The 1000x density and speed factors he's slobbering over are projected ceilings, which will take years to achieve in actual hardware.
Ah, just like the 10 GHz P4 that was just on the horizon, as the Networst architecture was designed for clock speeds rather than real-life performance and efficiency.
mac (Score:1)
The fastest processors and GPU available three years ago. As long as you buy the most expensive product.
Sensible chuckle (Score:2)
Apple is often among the first companies to adopt emerging standards and technologies, ... Apple is expected to announce the refreshed MacBook lineup sporting Intel Skylake processor later this year.
Yes, Skylake. The technology that's been shipping since fall of last year.