The end of the DAX experiment [LWN.net]

The end of the DAX experiment

Posted May 2, 2019 17:52 UTC (Thu) by brouhaha (subscriber, #1698)
In reply to: The end of the DAX experiment by Cyberax
Parent article: The end of the DAX experiment

Intel Optane DC persistent memory is supposed to be available next month, at around $900 for a 128G DIMM or $2700 for a 256G. Some retailers are taking preorders. No SCIF needed. :-)

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The end of the DAX experiment

Posted May 2, 2019 17:57 UTC (Thu) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link] (4 responses)

I'll believe it when I see it.

Also, the quoted prices are actually _worse_ than the straight DRAM price.

The end of the DAX experiment

Posted May 2, 2019 21:48 UTC (Thu) by josh (subscriber, #17465) [Link] (3 responses)

Not according to https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-optane-dimm-prici...

What DRAM pricing are you basing that on?

The end of the DAX experiment

Posted May 2, 2019 21:54 UTC (Thu) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link] (2 responses)

Tom's pricing states that the 128Gb version is going to cost $695.

You can buy that much DRAM (one stick!) for around $500, though in the form of multiple sticks.

The end of the DAX experiment

Posted May 2, 2019 22:09 UTC (Thu) by josh (subscriber, #17465) [Link]

You can't get a single 128GB stick for anywhere close to that. Memory prices aren't linear by size.

The end of the DAX experiment

Posted May 2, 2019 22:12 UTC (Thu) by farnz (subscriber, #17727) [Link]

Multiple sticks doesn't help when you're DIMM slot limited, though - a single 128 GiB stick is still a lot more than the price of a single Optane 128 GiB stick.

Also, for the sort of systems that can take Optane, you'd be using RDIMMs; a quick check shows that 128 GiB of RDIMM DDR-4 is around $800, and takes 4 slots of the typical 16 you have on a board. So Optane is cheaper than DRAM, but not by a huge amount.