Intel Optane H10 Delivers Hybrid 3D XPoint And QLC NAND Storage Solution
Intel has been pushing its Optane memory solutions as speedy supplements to traditional storage, be it a mechanical hard drive or a solid state drive—on supported systems, an Optane memory stick can supercharge the primary storage scheme. That's still a use case scenario, though looking ahead, Intel announced another Optane product, the Optane Memory H10 with solid state storage.
The new Optane Memory H10 is a storage drive in the M.2 form factor. It combines Intel's Optane memory with quad-level cell (QLC) 3D NAND flash memory into a single product. The concept is essentially the same as adding an Optane memory stick to a system to boost storage performance, except the H10 is basically an all-in-one solution—it's an SSD with Optane memory fused onto it.
"By combining Intel Optane memory with Intel QLC 3D NAND storage on a single M.2 form factor, this product enables Intel Optane memory expansion into thin and light notebooks, and other space-constrained desktop form factors—such as all-in-one and mini PCs," Intel explains.
Intel is not sharing a lot of fine grain details yet, such as what kind of performance we can expect or how much the new Optane Memory H10 series will cost. However, the company did reveal what capacities the H10 will initially be offered. They include...
- 16GB (Optane) + 256GB (QLC)
- 32GB (Optane) + 512GB (QLC)
- 32GB (Optane) + 1TB (QLC)
While we don't have any information on pricing, we expect these drives will cost more than traditional M.2 solid state drives of the same capacities, since they include Optane memory on the module itself.
It's not clear if Intel will offer these as standalone products at some point. At the outset, these will be offered in OEM systems from the likes of Dell, Lenovo, HP, Acer, Asus, and others, starting in the second quarter of this year.
