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Intel Micron unveil new 3D XPoint Non Volatie Memory NVM for servers storage

3D XPoint NVM persistent memory PM storage class memory SCM


Storage I/O trends

Updated 1/31/2018

This is the first of a three-part series on Intel Micron unveil new 3D XPoint Non Volatie Memory NVM for servers storage announcement. Read Part II here and Part III here.

In a webcast the other day, Intel and Micron announced new 3D XPoint non-volatile memory (NVM) that can be used for both primary main memory (e.g. what’s in computers, serves, laptops, tablets and many other things) in place of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), for persistent storage faster than today’s NAND flash-based solid state devices (SSD), not to mention future hybrid usage scenarios. Note that this announcement while having the common term 3D in it is different from the earlier Intel and Micron announcement about 3D NAND flash (read more about that here).

Twitter hash tag #3DXpoint

The big picture, why this type of NVM technology is needed

Server and Storage I/O trends

  • Memory is storage and storage is persistent memory
  • No such thing as a data or information recession, more data being create, processed and stored
  • Increased demand is also driving density along with convergence across server storage I/O resources
  • Larger amounts of data needing to be processed faster (large amounts of little data and big fast data)
  • Fast applications need more and faster processors, memory along with I/O interfaces
  • The best server or storage I/O is the one you do not need to do
  • The second best I/O is one with least impact or overhead
  • Data needs to be close to processing, processing needs to be close to the data (locality of reference)


Server Storage I/O memory hardware and software hierarchy along with technology tiers

What did Intel and Micron announce?

Intel SVP and General Manager Non-Volatile Memory solutions group Robert Crooke (Left) and Micron CEO D. Mark Durcan did the joint announcement presentation of 3D XPoint (webinar here). What was announced is the 3D XPoint technology jointly developed and manufactured by Intel and Micron which is a new form or category of NVM that can be used for both primary memory in servers, laptops, other computers among other uses, as well as for persistent data storage.


Robert Crooke (Left) and Mark Durcan (Right)

Summary of 3D XPoint announcement

  • New category of NVM memory for servers and storage
  • Joint development and manufacturing by Intel and Micron in Utah
  • Non volatile so can be used for storage or persistent server main memory
  • Allows NVM to scale with data, storage and processors performance
  • Leverages capabilities of both Intel and Micron who have collaborated in the past
  • Performance Intel and Micron claim up to 1000x faster vs. NAND flash
  • Availability persistent NVM compared to DRAM with better durability (life span) vs. NAND flash
  • Capacity densities about 10x better vs. traditional DRAM
  • Economics cost per bit between dram and nand (depending on packaging of resulting products)

What applications and products is 3D XPoint suited for?

In general, 3D XPoint should be able to be used for many of the same applications and associated products that current DRAM and NAND flash-based storage memories are used for. These range from IT and cloud or managed service provider data centers based applications and services, as well as consumer focused among many others.


3D XPoint enabling various applications

In general, applications or usage scenarios along with supporting products that can benefit from 3D XPoint include among others’. Applications that need larger amounts of main memory in a denser footprint such as in-memory databases, little and big data analytics, gaming, wave form analysis for security, copyright or other detection analysis, life sciences, high performance compute and high-productivity compute, energy, video and content severing among many others.

In addition, applications that need persistent main memory for resiliency, or to cut delays and impacts for planned or un-planned maintenance or having to wait for memories and caches to be warmed or re-populated after a server boot (or re-boot). 3D XPoint will also be useful for those applications that need faster read and write performance compared to current generations NAND flash for data storage. This means both existing and emerging applications as well as some that do not yet exist will benefit from 3D XPoint over time, like how today’s applications and others have benefited from DRAM used in Dual Inline Memory Module (DIMM) and NAND flash advances over the past several decades.

Where to read, watch and learn more

Storage I/O trends

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

What This All Means

First, keep in mind that this is very early in the 3D XPoint technology evolution life-cycle and both DRAM and NAND flash will not be dead at least near term. Keep in mind that NAND flash appeared back in 1989 and only over the past several years has finally hit its mainstream adoption stride with plenty of market upside left. Continue reading Part II here and Part III here of this three-part series on Intel and Micron 3D XPoint along with more analysis and commentary.

Disclosure: Micron and Intel have been direct and/or indirect clients in the past via third-parties and partners, also I have bought and use some of their technologies direct and/or in-direct via their partners.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

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Removing complexity and cost to drive return on innovation the new ROI

Storage I/O trends

Removing complexity and cost to drive return on innovation the new ROI

There is no such thing as an information recession however there the realities of economic challenges in IT data centers also known as information factories.

Likewise, people and data are living longer with increased dependency on information being available and reliable when needed. Hence the need for data infrastructures that protect, preserve and serve information in a cost-effective productive way.

Return on innovation, the new ROI, doing more with what you have without compromise
Driving return on innovation (the new ROI) to support growth

A common challenge for organizations of all size is how to support business and data growth while working within budget constraints without compromising on customer service expectations. Simply cutting cost at the price of reliability, availability, serviceability or performance is not an option for most environments.

Driving data center and data infrastructure sustainability

The solution is to find and remove complexity and thus remove costs. How to carry out the above goal is to leverage various tools and techniques to streamline IT and data infrastructures in creative ways.

Cloud, virtual and traditional computing building blocks image, servers, storage, networking hardware and software
Core IT building blocks (servers, storage and networking, hardware and software)

With data storage along with servers, networks and associated software management tools being the fundamental building blocks for traditional, virtual and cloud environments, it makes sense to apply some focus there.

How you use different tools and technologies to address various challenges while enabling your organization to be more effective and productive will decide your return on innovation, the new ROI. The new ROI is a companion reflecting qualitative business benefits vs. traditional black and white quantitative spreadsheet numbers based indicators.

garbage in, garbage out roi tco
Watch out for Garbage In, Garbage Out ROI and TCO analysis

Return on innovation reflects how various tools and technologies, joined with different processes, procedures, and best practices and people skills are combined to address a problem or challenge and enable some benefit. An example is deploying storage optimization techniques to support growth by finding and removing complexities, boosting effectiveness (as well as efficiency) without negatively affecting productivity.

Where financial based ROI looks at a number that may show impacts to customer service, return on innovation highlights the business benefit (e.g. perhaps non-financial) such as getting more work done in same amount of time or keeping customers satisfied.

Keep in mind, that when you can find and remove complexity, cost savings are the usual benefit vs. finding and moving or masking problems that end up costing more over time.

Ok, nuff said (for now)

Cheers
Gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

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Buzzword Bingo 1.0 – Are you ready for fall product announcemnts?

Ever play IT buzzword bingo or perhaps you have and not realized it?

Anyone can play, its easy and you don’t even need to know or understand the words or terms.

Its actually quite common and very easy, it goes like this, someone perhaps a vendor, var, media, analysts, pundit, blogger, twitter, customer/user, financier or whomever starts rattling of terms, phrases and acronyms in a discussion until some says or yells, “Bingo”, that is what I want or want to talk about or that applies to what Im interested in.  Buzzword bingo can be multi-directional, it can be played by customers and vendors alike, it can be played via product announcements, articles, white papers, blog posts, videos, presentations or webcasts you name it.

So lets give it a try with a simple version to get started, oh, some of the acronyms have multiple meanings as well just to make the game more interesting, so remember, yell bingo when something resonates, ready? Ok, let’s go with 8 Gb Fibre Channel (8GFC), 10GbE, AVO, Agent-less, Authentication, Archiving, Backup, Backup Service Provider (BSP), BC/DR, Buffer, Bus, Benchmarking, Blade servers, Bulk Storage, CAS, Capacity Planning, Capacity per watt, CDP, Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE), CIFS, Cloud, cloud computing, cloud storage, cloud it, cloud confusion, clusters, Clustered Storage, CNA, Compliance, Compression, Converged Networks, Cores, Driver, Data Center Ethernet (DCE), DLP, Domain, D2D2D, Data management, Data migration, De-duplication, De-dupe debates, Dual Boot, DPM, eDiscovery, Energy Star, EPA, Environmental Health and Safety (EHS), Encryption, Event Correlation, eWaste, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), FCBB, File management, FLASH or flash, Gateway, Green, Grid, Hash table, Index, HA, Hypervisor, hyperv, HAL, I/O Virtualization (IOV), Inband, Inline, ITIL, InfiniBand, Infrastructure Resource Management (IRM), IOPS per watt, IPM & MAID 2.0, iSCSI, LAN, Look aside buffer, MAN, Mhz, Multi-Protocol Storage, Managed Service Processors, Provider (MSP), MIBS, MLC, Meta, NAS, NFS, NPVID, OS, Over clocking, Optimization, Partitions, Para-virtualization, PCIe, Policy Management, POTS, POST, Post processing, PIROMA, Power Cooling Floor-space EHS (PCFE), PCI SIG IOV, Pin count, Pin out, Pun up, Performance, pNFS, Removable Hard Disk Drive (RHDD), RAID 6, RAM, Replication, RoHS, Replication, REST, SAN, SaaS, SRA, SRM, SAS, SATA, Security, SLC, Snapshots, SMIS, SNMP, SOAP, SRM, SSD, Stack, Tape, Threads, Thin Provision, Tier 0, Unstructured data, VCB, VM, Vmworld, Virtualization, virtual memory, Vmotion, VMware, vcpu, VTL, WAN, WAAS, WADS, WAFS, WADM, Web 2.0 or xaaS (replace x with whatever letter you like, kind of like xSP ;) ).

Any bingos yet? Ok, enough is enough, will leave it here for now, maybe a future post for Buzzword Bingo 2.0 will include more technical terms and acronyms or excerpts from industry trade group dictionaries such as SNIA or glossaries such as those from mine and other books .

With a plethora of upcoming announcements, rest assured, there will be plenty of opportunities to brush up on buzzword bingo so get ready, practice and enjoy your next game.

Check out the news and portfolio as well as interesting links page to learn more about related topics.

Ok, nuff said.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved