Can Intel’s speed-boosting Optane technology really supercharge your PC?

By Jon Gabay, contributing writer

It seems that with its Optane technology, Intel is trying to introduce a new paradigm in the way in which we understand, see, and use computers. It’s not uncommon for vendors to exaggerate the importance of claims and marketing messages to stir up controversy or to make people believe that sliced bread is really something worth getting excited about. That may be what’s happening here.

The basic intent of the Optane technology and architecture is to create a smart cache that lives between a CPU and a hard disk. By learning and anticipating the processor’s needs, readily available data can be presented without latency. Intel claims a 28% increase in overall performance with a 14% increase with hard drive access performance. But numbers can say anything.

Intel’s introduction positions its new and advanced Optane 3D Xpoint memory technology as the solution to today’s computer slow-down issues. The bottleneck that they cite is memory. The image they convey is that the common computer slowdowns that we experience are due to inefficiently designed computers with old and outdated memory architectures.

To promote the technology, Intel has populated its website with video overviews. Basically, though, Intel’s videos are dumbed down for easy consumption by the masses; they’re not particularly useful for the engineer. Worded carefully, the architectural enhancement that Intel claims as the solution to this slowdown is for the times when a CPU and hard disk need to access and work with large data sets. They also claim that modern memory is just too slow and inefficient in this application.

But is that so? Modern memory is fast and dense, especially compared to state-of-the-art memory from just a little while ago. Synchronous DRAM, for example, can perform double- and quad-rate transfers, and densities are continuing to increase, albeit it not as quickly as in the past. Static cache RAM, too, is plenty fast to keep a processor well fed — even those running at GHz rates using multi-cores. In the end, it’s more of a throughput issue, not a speed issue.

The missing ingredient appears to be non-volatility at higher speeds, which can bring something to the party if it’s fast enough that it doesn’t need to be cached using higher-speed SRAM or even DRAM. It’s true that denser memory pools and non-volatility allow more complex operations and let programs do things that were previously not possible. Take GPS and mapping, for example. Without the modern densities on non-volatile memory technologies, these common and everyday accepted devices would not be feasible, especially with the feature packed versions we’ve gotten accustomed to.

While row and column matrix architecture and 3D semiconductor fabrication techniques are not new, the fast and dense non-volatile transistor-less memory cells may propel Optane technology as a mainstay between hard disks and CPUs going forward. Image source: Intel.

This brings up another point about Intel’s Optane announcements. The new memory technology that Intel references is perhaps the most interesting part of the announcement. The “revolutionary architecture approach” about using a row and column topology is perhaps targeted to high school students who are unaware that every memory device, keyboard layout, display technology, and so on rely on a matrix such as this. Simply put, there’s nothing new here.

Also, 3D semiconductor architecture is not a new or revolutionary concept, either. Although requiring more masks and a costlier fabrication process, 3D fabrication can and has been taken to many layers. The 3D stackup of the Optane matrix does carry with it some improvements in density, though, because row or column wires can now be re-used in a three-dimensional array instead of just two.

Optane’s fast and dense non-volatile transistor-less memory cells that do not need to be refreshed is perhaps the announcement most worthy to be mentioned. Still, ferroelectric memory had this benefit years ago but never really flourished in any high-speed and high-density way.

Often times, however, it is the combination of existing as well as new technologies that makes something news-worthy. That may be the case here. By combining the modified memory architecture with the 3D and transistor-less, non-volatile memory devices, Optane does seem to provide a performance boost in the use of large files.

In reality, though, for many users, the most common causes of computer slowdown are communication latencies end to end. The network is the computer, and with a world wide web, data from multiple sources needs to feed our processors, and often times, we have to wait. Another major source of slowdown is the malware, adware, and the dozens of agencies, corporations, and individuals that have their fingers on our cookies to monitor, scan, or halt our computer’s activities. Also, many modern programmers write sloppy software that does not use or access memory efficiently compared to coding techniques of years ago. This may reduce resources and performance, even at an accumulating level.

“Intel used to be a leader in memory technology early on,” said communications expert and former editor-in-chief at Integrated Circuit Magazine,Alex Mendelson. “The introduction of Optane represents Intel’s steps to become a value-added memory supplier.” But does it merit the kind of excitement that Intel is promoting?

Perhaps a higher Optane memory fueling our next-generation devices and infrastructure backbones will help to streamline performance for what’s to come. More emerging memory-intensive applications like 3D holographic imaging and higher-speed communications may benefit, although they might also simply flesh out other bottlenecks. Optane will, thus, at least benefit some applications, but likely not all. In any case, though, to Intel: thanks for the memory.

Since studying electrical engineering, Jon Gabay has worked with defense, commercial, industrial, consumer, energy, and medical companies as a design engineer, firmware coder, system designer, research scientist, and product developer. As an alternative energy researcher and inventor, he has been involved with automation technology since he founded and ran Dedicated Devices Corp up until 2004. Since then, he has been doing research and development, writing articles, and developing technologies for next-generation engineers and students.