Intel Optane for SSHD's?

[cbn]

I know the current Intel Optane Memory (8000p, 16GB and 32GB) which is available in M.2 form factor (PCIe 3.0 x 2) works only with Kabylake systems........but could the Optane memory also be integrated into a SSHD replacing the DRAM-less SSD controller and NAND with an Optane controller and Optane?

If so, then I would imagine the Intel Optane could be used with non-Kabylake systems?

 

[cbn]

Regarding SSHD, it is also used (16GB NAND) in SAS drives like the following newly released 15,000 rpm 900GB SAS drive from Seagate:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10726...rprise-performance-15k-hdds-with-nand-caching

and at the level of 32GB NAND in the 10,000 rpm drives:

http://www.seagate.com/www-content/...performance-10k-hddDS1785-8C-1607US-en_US.pdf

So I would assume the Optane (if integrate-able as SSHD) would also predictably be used there (and other lesser enterprise drives) as well.

Furthermore, I have read the SAS roadmap has 24 Gbps listed.....and wouldn't the Optane dovetail well with that?

 

[cbn]

Besides SATA 6 Gbps and SAS for interface.......there is also SATA Express and U.2.

So far I haven't seen a hard drive with U.2 interface, but WD actually did make some SATA Express drive prototypes:

http://www.wegotserved.com/2014/06/05/western-digital-debuts-sata-express-hard-drives/

 

[NTMBK]

The main problem with SSHD isn't the performance of the flash cache, it's the capacity. Optane would significantly reduce the capacity. Bad idea.

 

[cbn]

The main problem with SSHD isn't the performance of the flash cache, it's the capacity. Optane would significantly reduce the capacity. Bad idea.

3D Xpoint (ie, Optane) comes as a 128 Gbit die, so the minimum capacity would be 16GB.

P.S. The consumer SSHDs I have seen (FireCuda) only have 8GB of MLC NAND*. Keep in mind even a 32GB MLC SSD can only get 330 MB/s in Seq read and 40MB/s in Sequential Write. (With this noted the Seagate SSHDs actually don't write very often to the cache. Instead there is an algorithm that makes sure only the most frequently used data stays in the NAND.)

*The SAS hard drives mentioned in post #2 have 16GB and 32GB SLC NAND.

 

[cbn]

Maybe to reduce complexity a small portion of the optane could be allocated to replace the small DRAM buffer used by today's SSHD (re: 3D Xpoint, unlike NAND, is also a replacement for DRAM)

.....and perhaps the Optane based SSHD controller could even be an integrated design replacing both the separate hard drive and dram-less NAND controllers found in a typical SSHD.