Intel Optane

Optane was Intel’s bet that 3D XPoint could rewrite the memory hierarchy: not quite DRAM, not NAND, but close enough to matter for databases, AI feature stores, and oversubscribed RAM pools. The P4800X arrived in 2017 as a pricey PCIe card; PMem followed for byte-granular persistence.

Client Optane Memory tried to make spinning disks feel snappy; H10/H20 married Optane with QLC NAND on one M.2 stick. Datacenter buyers piloted; hyperscalers were selective. Micron’s 2021 exit from 3D XPoint left Intel alone at the fab.

By July 2022 Intel told the market to stop waiting for the next generation. Inventory and warranty support continued on published schedules, but the brand is archival—important for understanding 2017–2022 SCM hype, not for 2026 greenfield designs.

Two discontinued specifications pages do not share one performance line. The 375 GB, 2.5-inch SSD DC P4800X page prints sequential bandwidth up to 2400 MB/s read and 2000 MB/s write, 550000 and 500000 4K random IOPS, and lifetime writes of 20.5 PBW (30DWPD) or 41.0 PBW (60DWPD). Its performance section names no queue depth or latency. The 512 GB Persistent Memory 200 Series module page prints DDR-T, AES 256 bit, and 0°C to 85°C, and does not print bandwidth, latency, or endurance. [optane-p4800x-375-spec] [optane-pmem-200-512-spec]

Article 000055895, which lists the Persistent Memory 100 Series modules, says PMem for Cascade Lake Xeon Scalable processors can be Memory Mode, App Direct Mode, or Mixed Mode. In Memory Mode the PMem is volatile system memory and DRAM is a cache. App Direct Mode maps PMem as byte-addressable persistent memory in the system physical address space. Mixed Mode splits capacity between those two, and Block over App Direct uses a block translation table for power-fail write atomicity. Those mode names are not printed on the 512 GB 200 Series specifications page. [optane-pmem-modes]

The 900P brief’s up to 550,000 / 500,000 4KB random read/write IOPs and read/write latency <10 µs /< 10 µs are an IOMeter 1.01 result on one Windows 10 x64 version 16299.309 system (Core i9-7900X, BIOS 2.0, 32GB (4x8GB) DDR4 at 3000 MHz). Footnote 1 names no 900P capacity and no test date. That is not the P4800X specifications row, which prints 550000 and 500000 IOPS with no latency. Operating temperature 0° C to 70° C is measured by SMART, and Copyright © 2018 Intel Corporation stays on the footer with the legal disclaimer. [optane-900p-brief] [optane-p4800x-375-spec]