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

[AtW]

Ah, I wasn't sure if it was non-volatile.

Well if they can get it compact and reliable enough, with a large enough number of write/read cycles before it conks out, then yes it is a big deal.

It's claimed to have 1000 better endurance than flash, BIT ADDRESSABLE (so no sector reads), 1000 times quicker than SSD, highly dense - 10 times compared to 1 GB of RAM.

Very fast random access is key to be RAM-like, not exactly RAM, but non-volatile nature means lots of stuff can be stored reliably and randomly accessed direct from CPU. Phwoar

Worth reading more about it -

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/2...-ddr4-and-nand

Best part is that it should be available in 2016, rather than in 5-10 years.

[VectraMan]

If you can make non-volatile memory fast enough, then that changes everything. No need to "load" anything; the whole "disk" can be mapped into your address space.

[AtW]

If you can make non-volatile memory fast enough, then that changes everything. No need to "load" anything; the whole "disk" can be mapped into your address space.

Aye.

Sadly the endurance levels won't be good enough to replace RAM, however non-sector addressability of the stuff is very big thing, plus I reckon it's relatively low power (and thus heat) since unlike RAM it does not need electric charge to maintain states (hence non-volatility).

For example for games it could be used to generate really large off memory textures that will be loaded on demand - much quicker than even from SSD.

[AtW]

More here:

What a New Class of Memory Means for Future Applications