SOLVED: What Is Intel Optane Media?

Three years ago we wrote a two articles discussing Intel Optane Technology:

1. What is Intel Optane and Does Optane Run Faster Than SSD?

2. Everything You Need To Know About Intel Optane & Optane DC

but now Intel is trying to promote Intel Optane Media.  Which begs the question, what is the difference between Intel Optane Technology and Intel Optane Media?

What is Intel Optane Media?

Intel Optane Media is simply the silicon chips that Intel uses to make Intel Optane Technology parts.  As you can see in the graphic below, Optane Media one of four parts to an Intel Optane Technology solution:

Intel sales pitch says that Optane is:

One of the most significant memory and storage advancements in the last 25 years

The point here is that while nearly all memory / storage improvements are iterative, Optane really is a physically different product than traditional NAND or DRAM.

Why Is Optane Media Faster than NAND Flash Memory?

Optane Media is much faster than NAND because data stored in Optane does not need to be deleted before it is written to again.  Intel calls this feature Write In Place.  Because of this, Optane also does not need to waste cycles on Garbage Collection which is the process of removing old/deleted bits from NAND flash, which is required before it can be re-written to.

Can Optane Media Be Use For both RAM and For Storage?

Yes, Optane media could be used to replace your hard drive or it can be used for a super fast RAM depending upon the controllers used to manage it.