Last year Intel announced a breakthrough in memory tech. The company was introducing so-called 3D XPoint technology, which fits nicely in the market somewhere between DRAM and SSDs. The new non-volatile dies were supposed to revolutionize computing, but instead their launch is getting significantly delayed.
According to Intel’s original marketing blitz, 3D XPoint technology not only allowed for significantly faster non-volatile memory, but also offered excellent memory density. This allows storage devices to be significantly smaller than existing models.
What was great about the whole announcement was that Intel’s new technology wasn’t just some proof-of-concept pipe-dream, but was instead in full production with a wide release scheduled for this year. Unfortunately, it looks like Intel has run into trouble and has silently and significantly postponed the launch of 3D XPoint tech.
Spotted by Motley Fool, Intel’s plans seem to have shifted, given that the upcoming server Skylake EP processors will not support 3D XPoint. Instead, it looks like the first server systems to support the new memory tech will be coming out as late as 2019.
This is very disappointing, given that earlier this year Intel was rumored to be working with partners on developing 3D XPoint SSDs and that its tech has been in testing for so long. Still, server-side support is one thing, consumer electronics is another. Here’s hoping we’ll still see this tech show up on the market so we can all ditch our slow, puny M.2 SSDs.
Source: Motley Fool Via: Hexus
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