Intel Gives Its Optane Memory Cache Drives a PCI Express Boost

TAIPEI—Intel has announced a new family of Optane Memory caching SSDs here at Computex. The update to the M10, Optane Memory M15, has four PCI Express (PCIe) lanes, two more than its predecessor, which means that it's capable of greater throughput bandwidth. In theory, this should translate to a more responsive product.

The M15 will come in three size varieties: 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB, all in the M.2 80mm (Type-2280) form factor. That's all much like Optane Memory M10, but Intel has made some significant improvements to the newer modules. (An Optane Memory module supplements a boot hard drive, or more rarely an SSD boot drive, to store commonly used files in its faster onboard memory.)

The M15 is rated for faster sequential read and write speeds versus the M10. While the older model could handle up to 1,450MBps (read) and 640MBps (write), the Optane Memory M15 can manage a maximum of 2,000MBps and 900MBps, respectively. Random performance has also increased too, from 250K and 140K input/output operations per second (IOPS) to 450K and 220K (again, that's reads and writes). The efficiency of the low-power states has also been improved, with the M15 switching in and out of sleep faster and lowering the L1.2 deep-sleep mode to under 5mW, versus the previous generation's 11mW.

In other aspects, the Optane Memory M15 is the same device as the M10. The M15 has an 365 terabytes written (TBW) endurance rating and a five-year warranty, and it supports all of the existing software Intel already has for the M10 series.

Intel has also coupled its Optane Memory technology with its Rapid Storage Technology (RST) driver, which it says improves overall system responsiveness. The M15 modules continue to require a "Kaby Lake" or newer processor and platform to be used in a caching mode.

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We don't yet have pricing or availability for the new caching SSDs yet, but Intel projects they'll arrive in the middle of Q3. Until then, we'll just have to wait.

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