Intel announces its fastest Optane SSD yet

Intel announces its fastest Optane SSD yet

Intel has announced a new Optane SSD for use in data centres. The Optane P5800X uses PCIe 4.0 and is claimed to be three times faster than its predecessor.

The new SSD achieves sequential read and write speeds of 7.2 and 6.2 gigabytes per second respectively. Furthermore, the SSD achieves 1.5 million IOPS in both 4K random reads and writes. With a combined use case 70 percent reads and 30 percent writes, Intel claims that the SSD achieves 1.8 million IOPS.

Solution for performance bottlenecks

“The fundamental thing that Optane does as an SSD is fix performance bottlenecks in other slower media … most people think of hard drives as being a slower media, but believe it or not, both SATA SSDs and NVMe NAND SSDs are getting slower on a key metric, which is 70/30 read/write random performance,” David Tuhy, vice president and general manager of Intel data centre Optane storage division, said.

Tuhy has a point. In an effort to build the largest possible SSDs as cheaply as possible, manufacturers are increasingly using techniques to increase data density. Techniques such as TLC and QLC allow multiple bits to be stored per memory cell, but this is at the expense of speed and lifespan.

Lifespan and capacity

The lifespan of the P5800X has also improved compared to its predecessors. The SSD could handle 67 percent more writes per day and have a 40 percent better quality of service than the P4800X.

The Intel Optane P5800X is available in 400GB, 800GB, 1.6TB and 3.2TB storage capacity variants. It uses the U.2 form factor for server applications. The SSD is now available, although Intel is still working on a version for OEM customers.

Tip: Intel selling NAND-business to SK Hynix