That’s the bombshell that Intel and Micron just announced via a joint press conference held earlier today. Crooke jokes that in simulating and testing the new materials for the 3D crosspoint memory they could have used the technology to aid in far more detailed views of how the materials would perform.
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However while there are similarities in concept the technologies are very different in terms of their capability and targeted market.
The companies developed 3D XPoint to complement DRAM and NAND. But unlike those chips – and like NAND flash memory – the new chips will retain data even after they’re powered off, the companies say.
Intel and Micron are producing sample wafers and had one to show off at the webinar today to show that the new technology is actively being produced. (Editor’s Note: It was mentioned that we will see this technology in the market place in 2016.).
It’s so fast, in fact, that Intel touts the technology as being capable of working as both system memory and storage. If I had to guess, it’ll be huge companies with data-driven needs like Amazon, Facebook or Microsoft that will initially put the technology to use in the real world.
3D XPoint memory offers up to 10 times greater density than DRAM, which means manufacturers could include more RAM memory on a device without worrying about taking up too much space that could otherwise be used for battery purposes.
“For decades, the industry has searched for ways to reduce the lag time between the processor and data to allow much faster analysis”, said Rob Crooke, senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group. This capability could allow for faster, more efficient I/O. On top of that, any applications that require low-latency storage will also benefit from 3D XPoint.
It’s called 3D XPoint memory because it has two layers – that’s the 3D angle – and crosspoint because the 1-bit cells are located at the intersections of word lines and bit lines, meaning the cells can be addressed individually.
“One of the most significant hurdles in modern computing is the time it takes the processor to reach data on long-term storage”, Mark Adams, president of Micron, said in a statement. Intel also says the cross-point architecture allows smaller amounts of data to be written or read in each transaction than is common with NAND. Each memory cell stores a single bit of data.
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The 3D Xpoint design has a Cross Point memory structure that is 3D stackable (up to 2 layers right now). Hence, the partners are initially targeting the memory technology at high-performance SSD storage. This eliminates the need for transistors, increasing capacity while reducing cost. Massive in-memory databases will greatand faster system recovery time since this memory is non-volatile the data doesn’t go away when the power is removed. 3D XPoint is in production now and is the first new category of memory introduced in over 25 years.
