Micron today announced 3D XPoint memory will be 4-5 times more expensive than NAND memory. The technology, also known as Intel Optane, promises to be more than 1000 times faster than NAND. Micron also announced it will market 3D XPoint as QuantX. Due to the price level Micron will only target its QuantX based products to data centers and enterprises.
Micron's Vice President, Storage Emerging Memory, Jon Carter stated during the currently held Flash Memory Summit that he believes Micron will make its first XPoint based revenues in the second half of 2017. By 2018 the technology should become more mainstream and by 2019 3D XPoint should see its breakthrough.
Demand isn't an issue, according to Carter, he stated that many companies are already demanding 3D XPoint based products.
Intel who markets 3D XPoint products as Optane does believe it can bring the technology to consumer products. A recent roadmap shows the chip giant hopes to release the first Optane based SSDs together with its Kaby Lake CPU generation, at the end of 2016. Carter expects that Intel won't be able to release the first Optane SSDs this year but in the first quarter of 2017.
3D XPoint is developed by Intel and Micron and the technology should combine the speed of RAM memory with the storage capacity of NAND memory. It should be 1000 times faster than NAND and today we learned it will be 4-5 times more expensive.
