Famous hardware leaker HXL Published what is purported to be Intel’s Optane Persistent Memory roadmap. This slide details the company’s upcoming Persistent Memory 300 series modules, codenamed Crow Pass, for Intel’s next-generation Sapphire Rapids and Emerald Rapids processors.
Intel’s Optane PMem 300 series Crow Pass modules use a DDR-T2 interface featuring data transfer rates from 4000 MT/s to 4400 MT/s, resulting in a significant performance boost over their predecessors. This gives 2R1W random bandwidth up to 3 GB/s and 2R1W sequential bandwidth up to 6 GB/s per module.
Additionally, Intel promises opportunistic bandwidth increases of up to 25% per CPS. The new module is significantly faster than the previous module, but still consumes about 15W.
Intel continues to offer Optane persistent memory modules in 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB capacities. Also, Intel’s upcoming Eagle Stream platform will feature an 8-channel memory subsystem, thus supporting up to 4TB of his 3DXPoint memory.
Another improvement to Intel’s Crow Pass module is compliance with FIPS140-3 Level 2 requirements. However, on the hardware side, the module continues to use AES-256 encryption like its predecessors.
Although Intel has officially abandoned its Optane memory business and has no new SSDs based on 3DXPoint memory, the company still plans to release 4th and 5th Gen Xeon Scalable processors, codenamed Sapphire Rapids and Emerald Rapids. These Optane PMem modules are slated to serve Intel’s Xeon Scalable platform in the coming years, when there is a massive need for relatively cheap memory near the CPU.
