Kristu Jyoti College of Management and Technology, Changanacherry
Intel’s 3D XPoint
A revolutionary breakthrough in Memory Technology
Jose Jestin George, MCA-S5, Kristu Jyoti College of Management and Technology
 tube filled with mercury and plugged at each end with a quartz
Abstract— The explosion of connected devises and digital
services is generating massive amount of new data. For this data
to be useful, it must be stored and analyzed very quickly. 3D
XPoint technology is an extensively new class of non-volatile
memory technology that can help turn immense amount of data
into valuable information in real time. With up to 1000 times
lower latency and exponentially greater endurance than NAND.
3D XPoint technology can deliver game changing performance
for big data applications and transactional workloads. Its ability
to enable high speed, high capacity data storage close to the
processor creates new possibilities for system architects and
promises to enable new applications.
3D XPoint technology innovative , transistor less cross point
architecture creates a three dimensional check board where
memory cells at the intersection of word lines and bit lines
allowing the cells to be addressed individually. As a result, data
can be written and read in small sizes, leading to fast and
efficient read / write processes.
Index Terms— 3D XPoint, NAND, Flash Memory.
I. INTRODUCTION
In computing, memory refers to the computer
hardware integrated circuits that store information for
immediate use in a computer; it is synonymous with the term
"primary storage". Computer memory operates at a high
speed, for example random-access memory (RAM), as a
distinction from storage that provides slow-to-
access information but offers higher capacities. If needed,
contents of the computer memory can be transferred
to secondary storage, through a memory management
technique called "virtual memory". An archaic synonym for
memory is store.
In the early 1940s, memory technology often permitted a
capacity of a few bytes. The first electronic programmable
digital computer, the ENIAC, using thousands of octal-base
radio vacuum tubes, could perform simple calculations
involving 20 numbers of ten decimal digits which were held in
the vacuum tube accumulators.
The next significant advance in computer memory came
with acoustic delay line memory, developed by J. Presper
Eckert in the early 1940s. Through the construction of a glass
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crystal, delay lines could store bits of information in the form
of sound waves propagating through mercury, with the quartz
crystals acting as transducers to read and write bits. Delay line
memory would be limited to a capacity of up to a few hundred
thousand bits to remain efficient.
Two alternatives to the delay line, the William’s tube and
Selectron tube, originated in 1946, both using electron beams
in glass tubes as means of storage. Using cathode ray tubes,
Fred Williams would invent the Williams tube, which would
be the first random-access computer memory. The William’s
tube would prove more capacious than the Selectron tube (the
Selectron was limited to 256 bits, while the Williams tube
could store thousands) and less expensive. The Williams tube
would nevertheless prove to be frustratingly sensitive to
environmental disturbances.
Efforts began in the late 1940s to find non-volatile memory.
Jay Forrester, Jan A. Rajchman and An Wang developed
magnetic-core memory, which allowed for recall of memory
after power loss. Magnetic core memory would become the
dominant form of memory until the development of transistor-
based memory in the late 1960s.
Developments in technology and economies of scale have
made possible so-called Very Large Memory (VLM)
computers.
II. CURRENT MEMORY TECHNOLOGIES
The term "memory", meaning "primary storage" or "main
memory", is often associated with addressable semiconductor
memory, i.e. integrated circuits consisting of silicon-
based transistors, used for example as primary storage but also
other purposes in computers and
other digital electronic devices.
Most semiconductor memory is organized into memory
cells or bistable flip-flops, each storing one bit (0 or 1). Flash
memory organization includes both one bit per memory cell
and multiple bits per cell (called MLC, Multiple Level Cell).
The memory cells are grouped into words of fixed word
length, for example 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 or 128 bit. Each word
can be accessed by a binary address of N bit, making it
possible to store 2 raised by N words in the memory. This
implies that processor registers normally are not considered as
 Kristu Jyoti College of Management and Technology, Changanacherry 2

memory, since they only store one word and do not include an
addressing mechanism. Typical secondary storage devices
are hard disk drives and solid-state drives.
There are two main kinds of semiconductor
memory, volatile and non-volatile.
A. Volatile memory
Volatile memory is computer storage that only maintains its
data while the device is powered. Most RAM (random access
memory) used for primary storage in personal computers is
volatile memory. RAM is much faster to read from and write
to than the other kinds of storage in a computer, such as
the hard disk or removable media. However, the data in RAM
stays there only while the computer is running; when the
computer is shut off, RAM loses its data.
Volatile memory contrasts with non-volatile memory, which
does not lose content when power is lost. Non-volatile
memory has a continuous source of power and does not need
to have its memory content periodically refreshed. Examples
of non-volatile memory are flash memory (used as secondary
(memory) and ROM, PROM, EPROM and EEPROM memory
(used for storing firmware such as BIOS).
Disk memory is what holds all of our files and programs when
not in use. It is the memory we are all most familiar with.
We want to design computers that can store lots of data AND
operate very fast. However, when we build memory storage
devices, there is a trade-off between speed and memory. Either
you can build very large memory, like your spinning disk hard
drive, or very fast memory, like the registers in your CPU.
Memory Hierarchy lets us have the best of both worlds - speed
and size. You have a small amount of ultra-fast memory, a
larger amount of slower memory, and a huge amount of very
slow memory. By cleverly choosing what data to store in
which type of memory, we can appear to have a huge amount
of very fast memory.
Chip designers have to know a ton about how to pass data
from registers to caches, from cache to main memory, and
from main memory to the hard disk. Low-level programmers
need to be aware of how memory management works if they
want to write programs that manipulate lots of data quickly.
Memory hierarchy describes each level of computer storage
by response time. For example your RAM is faster to access
than your hard drive so it is above it in memory hierarchy. It is
important to note that capacity and complexity are intricately
related.

B. Non-volatile memory
A. Internal register:
Non-volatile memory (NVM) is a type of computer memory
that has the capability to hold saved data even if the power is Internal register in a CPU is used for holding variables and
turned off. Unlike volatile memory, NVM does not require its temporary results. Internal registers have a very small
memory data to be periodically refreshed. It is commonly used storage; however they can be accessed instantly. Accessing
for secondary storage or long-term consistent storage. data from the internal register is the fastest way to access
memory.
Non-volatile memory is highly popular among digital media;
it is widely used in memory chips for USB memory sticks and
digital cameras. Non-volatile memory eradicates the need for
relatively slow types of secondary storage systems, including
hard disks.Non-volatile memory is also known as non-volatile
storage.
Examples of volatile memory are primary storage, which is
typically dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), and
fast CPU cache memory, which is typically static random-
access memory (SRAM) that is fast but energy-consuming,
offering lower memory areal density than DRAM.

III. MEMORY PYRAMID

Memory hierarchy a concept that is necessary for the CPU

to be able to manipulate data. This is because it is only able to
get instructions from cache memory. Cache memory is located
on the processor chip, and is the fastest kind of memory. As a
result of this, it is also the smallest, meaning that we cant hold
all of our processes in it at once. So we use RAM. RAM is
much larger than cache memory, but not located directly on
the CPU, so it is slower. Instructions are loaded into RAM
until the CPU needs them. They are only held as long as
power is supplied, and this is why we need Disk memory. Figure: Memory Hierarchy in Computer.
 Kristu Jyoti College of Management and Technology, Changanacherry
B. Cache memory:
The basic purpose of cache memory is to
store program instructions that are frequently re-referenced
by software during operation. Fast access to these instructions
increases the overall speed of the software program. As the
microprocessor processes data, it looks first in the cache
memory; if it finds the instructions there (from a previous
reading of data), it does not have to do a more time-consuming
reading of data from larger memory or other
data storage devices. Most programs use very few resources
once they have been opened and operated for a time, mainly
because frequently re-referenced instructions tend to
be cached. This explains why measurements
of system performance in computers with
slower processors but larger caches tend to be faster than
measurements of system performance in computers with faster
processors but more limited cache space. Multi-tier or
multilevel caching has become popular
in server and desktop architectures, with different levels
providing greater efficiency through managed tiering. Simply
put, the less frequently access is made to certain data or
instructions, the lower down the cache level the data or
instructions are written.
C. Main Memory
The memory unit that communicates directly within the
CPU, Auxiliary memory and Cache memory, is called main
memory. It is the central storage unit of the computer system.
It is a large and fast memory used to store data during
computer operations. Main memory is made up
of RAM and ROM, with RAM integrated circuit chips holing
the major share.
RAM: Random Access Memory
DRAM: Dynamic RAM, is made of capacitors and
transistors, and must be refreshed every 10~100 ms. It is
slower and cheaper than SRAM.
SRAM: Static RAM, has a six transistor circuit in each cell
and retains data, until powered off.
NVRAM: Non-Volatile RAM, retains its data, even when
turned off. Example: Flash memory.
ROM: Read Only Memory, is non-volatile and is more like a
permanent storage for information. It also stores the bootstrap
loader program, to load and start the operating system when
computer is turned on. PROM (Programmable
ROM), EPROM (Erasable PROM) and EEPROM (Electrically
Erasable PROM) are some commonly used ROMs.
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D. Hard disk:
A hard disk is a hardware component in a computer. Data is
kept permanently in this memory. Memory from hard disk is
not directly accessed by the CPU, hence it is slower. As
compared with RAM, hard disk is cheaper per bit.
E. Magnetic tape:
Magnetic tape memory is usually used for backing up large
data. When the system needs to access a tape, it is first
mounted to access the data. When the data is accessed, it is
then unmounted. The memory access time is slower in
magnetic tape and it usually takes few minutes to access a
tape.
IV. INTRODUCTION TO 3D XPOINT
3D XPoint is memory storage technology jointly developed
by Intel and Micron Technology Inc. The two vendors have
described this new technology as filling a gap in the storage
market between dynamic RAM (DRAM) and NAND flash.
The current mainstream memory technologieshave been
around for decades. While the cell designs have evolved over
the years to allow scaling to 20nm and below, the fundamental
physics behind DRAM and NAND operation haven't changed
a bit and both technologies have their unique technological
limitations. DRAM offers nanosecond-level latency and
unlimited endurance, but this comes at the cost of large cell
size, cell volatility, and power consumption. Since DRAM
cells need to be constantly refreshed, the cells don't retain data
in an off state, requiring quite a bit of power and making
DRAM unsuitable for permanent storage. NAND, on the other
hand, has much higher latency (especially write operations)
and has a limited number of write cycles, but the cells are non-
volatile and the structure is much more efficient, enabling low
cost and suitability for storage.
Combining DRAM and NAND at the system-level
architecture provides the best of both worlds, which is why
modern computers use DRAM as a memory/cache and NAND
for storage. However, there's still a latency and capacity gap
between DRAM and NAND, so the question arises: what if
you were to combine the best of DRAM and NAND at the
silicon level? The mission of next generation memory
technology across the industry has been to develop a new type
of memory that provides low latency and high endurance
while offering a small and scalable cell size.
We have seen numerous startups, such as Crossbar and
Nantero, discuss and demonstrate their next generation
memory technologies, but we have yet to see the established
DRAM and NAND vendors come out with their solutions.
Intel and Micron are here to change that with the
announcement of their new 3D XPoint (Cross Point) non-
volatile memory technology this week.
 Kristu Jyoti College of Management and Technology, Changanacherry
V. 3D XPOINT ARCHETECTURE
The 3D XPoint technology innovative, transistor-less cross
point architecture creates a three-dimensional checkerboard
where memory cells sit at the intersection of word lines and bit
lines, allowing the cells to be addressed individually. As a
result, data can be written and read in small sizes, leading to
fast and efficient read/write processes.
Cross Point Array Structure:
Perpendicular conductors connect 128 billion densely
packed memory cells. Each memory cell stores a single bit of
data. This compact structure results in high performance and
high density.
Stackable:
The initial technology stores 128Gb per die across two
stacked memory layers. Future generations of this technology
can increase the number of memory layers and/or use
traditional lithographic pitch scaling to increase die capacity.
Selector:
Memory cells are written or read by varying the amount of
voltage sent to each selector. This eliminates the need for
transistors, increasing capacity and reducing cost.
Fast Switching Cell:
With a small cell size, fast switching selector, low-latency
cross point array, and fast write algorithm, the cell is able to
switch states faster than any existing nonvolatile memory
technologies today.
In their 2015 announcement of the technology, Intel and
Micron claimed 3D XPoint would be up to 1,000 times faster
and have up to 1,000 times more endurance than NAND flash,
and have 10 times the storage density of conventional
memory. Early products are faster and more durable than
NAND and denser than conventional memory, but they
haven't lived up to the full extent of the vendors' claims.
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VI. HOW 3D XPOINT MEMORY WORKS
3D XPoint has a different architecture from other flash
products. It's reputed to be based on phase-change
memory technology, with a transistor-less, cross-point
architecture that positions selectors and memory cells at the
intersection of perpendicular wires. Those cells, made of an
unspecified material, can be accessed individually by a current
sent through the top and bottom wires touching each cell. To
improve storage density, the 3D XPoint cells can be stacked in
three dimensions.
Detailed descriptions from Intel of how Optane works are still
notable by their absence—the company seems to have said
more about what Optane isn't than what it is—but a basic
picture is slowly being built from what Intel and Micron have
said about the technology. The memory has a kind of three-
dimensional (hence "3D") lattice structure (hence "XPoint").
Stackable layers have wires arranged in either rows or
columns, and at the intersection of each row and column is the
actual storage element: an unspecified material that can
change its resistance to different values. The details of how it
does this are unclear; Intel has said it's not a phase-change
material, and it's different from HP's memristor tech, but it
hasn't said precisely what it is.
The value stored in each data cell can also be written and
rewritten relatively easily. NAND flash requires a very high
voltage to erase each cell, which allows a cell to be written
only once (flipping its value from a 1 to a 0) before it needs to
be erased again. 3D XPoint cells, by contrast, can have their
resistance (and hence stored value) updated between 1 and 0
and back again without needing any erasure step.
Each cell stores a single piece of data, making a cell represent
either a 1 or a 0 through a bulk property change in the cell
material, which modifies the cell's resistance level. The cell
can occupy either a high- or low-resistance state, or changing
the resistance level of the cell changes whether the cell is read
as a 1 or a 0. Because the cells are persistent, they hold their
values indefinitely, even when there is a power loss.
Read and write operations occur by varying the amount of
voltage sent to each selector. For write operations, a specific
voltage is sent through the wires around a cell and selector.
This activates the selector and enables voltage through to the
cell to initiate the bulk property change. For read operations, a
different voltage is sent through to determine whether the cell
is in a high- or low-resistance state.
3D XPoint has the ability to write data at a bit level, an
advantage over NAND. All the bits in a NAND flash block
must be erased before data can be written. In theory, this
capability enables 3D XPoint to have higher performance and
lower power consumption than NAND flash.
Critically, the resistance change is persistent. Once a cell has
had its value set, it'll continue to hold its value indefinitely,
 Kristu Jyoti College of Management and Technology, Changanacherry
even if system power is removed. While we don't know how
the resistance change works, one thing that we do know is that
unlike DRAM, each data cell does not need any transistors,
which gives rise to Optane's next important property: it's a lot
denser than DRAM, with Intel and Micron variously claiming
a density improvement of four to ten times.
VII. FEATURES OF 3D XPOINT
A. Speed and performance
With the 3D XPoint architecture, data no longer has to be
stored in 4 KB blocks using a slow, file I/O stack. The new
technology enables small amounts of data to be written and
read, making the read/write process faster and more efficient
than NAND. Initial products using the 3D XPoint technology
bear this out, though not at the speed and performance levels
Intel and Micron promised when they rolled out the
technology.
While not as fast as DRAM, 3D XPoint has the advantage of
being nonvolatile memory. From a performance and price
standpoint, 3D XPoint technology falls between fast, but
costly DRAM and slower, cheaper NAND flash.
According to Intel, the P4800X drive performed five to eight
times faster than the company's NAND flash-based DC P3700
in internal tests at low queue depths using a mixed workload.
The P4800X can reach as much as 500,000 IOPS -- or
approximately 2 GBps -- at a queue depth of 11, Intel claimed.
Observers have speculated that the PCI Express (PCIe) bus
used by the P4800X is holding it back from the promised
speed of 1,000 times faster than NAND. Other system changes
thought to be needed for the 3D XPoint technology to meet
higher performance goals include segregating persistent from
nonpersistent memory when handling machine check errors
and using a compiler that enables persistent memory to be
declared, along with using link editors that can build that
memory into an application. The applications themselves must
be rewritten to eliminate file I/O and to use single instruction
and vector operations.
Nonvolatile 3D XPoint dual in-line memory modules
(DIMMs) that fit into DRAM slots and use the double data
rate bus also may help 3D XPoint reach its full performance
potential.
B. Cost:
As of August 2017, the 375 GB Optane P4800X add-in card
is priced at $1,520, or $4.05 per gigabyte. By comparison,
Intel's 400 GB flash-based NVMe PCIe P3700 SSD is $879,
or approximately $2.20 per gigabyte.
Intel Optane memory for PCs is $44 for a 16 GB module and
$79 for a 32 GB module.
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C. Use cases
3D XPoint is used as an additional layer of storage between
flash and DRAM. It's a relatively common practice to tier
storage between hard disk drives (HDDs) and flash. High-
intensity data and applications that benefit more from high
speeds are stored on the flash layer, while data and
applications that are accessed less frequently are put on disk.
3D XPoint is another layer of storage above flash for data and
applications that need even greater speeds.
Intel expects the 3D XPoint Optane SSD will be used for
high-performance storage and caching, as well as to extend
and replace memory. According to the company's projections,
users will be able to increase server memory by as much as
eight times and displace DRAM by as much as a 10:1 ratio for
select workloads.
D. Extensions:
Intel has provided three ways to extend memory with 3D
XPoint Optane SSDs:
• via an operating system paging mechanism that moves data
out to the PCIe-attached SSD when DRAM fills for a
workload;
• via optimized applications; or
• via Intel's Memory Drive Technology supported on its Xeon
processors.
In the future, it will be possible to extend memory with the
3D XPoint DIMMs that Intel plans to release. Observers
speculate that 3D XPoint Optane, and particularly Optane
NVDIMMs, will be used to:
• expand the apparent size of DRAM;
• enable bigger, more-effective databases;
• help overcome big data network bottlenecks;
• facilitate high-performance computing applications;
• extend memory and boost instance storage performance in
the cloud;
• provide the storage capacity and speed that hybrid clouds
need; and
• possibly serve as primary memory tiers in hyper-converged
systems
E. Future possibilities:
3D XPoint drives excel at servicing random, transactional
data sets that are not optimized for in-memory processing. For
businesses that rely on complex, random analytics, 3D XPoint
drives would be useful for performing limited real-time
analytics on current data sets or for storing and updating
records in real time.
Intel clearly sees a broad range of other analytical uses for
its implementation of 3D XPoint. According to the company’s
Intel Optane web pages, the advance memory could be used
by retailers to more quickly identify fraud detection patterns,
 Kristu Jyoti College of Management and Technology, Changanacherry
by financial institutions to accelerate trading, or by healthcare
researchers to work with even larger data sets in real-time.[2]
Of course, none of this means NAND flash will be going away
any time soon. In fact, NAND flash will continue to be useful
for storing data that can be sequentially processed overnight.
But for time-critical analytics, 3D XPoint drives will take their
place alongside DRAM as part of a cost-effective continuum
of data processing options
VIII. APPLICATIONS
The Optane SSD Series is designed to enable data centers to
accelerate applications for fast caching and storage, increase
scale per server, and reduce transaction costs for latency-
sensitive workloads. Companies can also process larger data
sets to gain new insights that were unaffordable or impractical
with DRAMs. Intel is planning to release additional Optane
SSD options for both data centers and consumers over the next
several months.
The Intel Optane memory module can be used to accelerate
any SATA storage device installed in a 7th-generation Intel
Core processor-based platform that is designated as “Intel
Optane memory ready.” The Optane add-in memory module
acts as a cache to increase performance in laptops and
desktops. According to Intel, the Intel Optane memory PC
accelerator module provides up to 2x faster boot, 5x faster
web browser launch, and 67% faster game launch.
The adoption rate for 3D XPoint memory will likely be
slow initially because the technology requires servers built on
newer processor chipsets. In addition, applications need to be
re-written to fully support 3D XPoint. But as enterprises
slowly modernize their servers and software, 3D XPoint drives
and memory will inevitably become a fixture in the data
center.
IX. ADVANTAGES
3D XPoint technology is unique because it combines the
density and non-volatility of NAND SSDs with speeds near
that of DRAM. That positions 3D XPoint drives into a new
storage tier, between volatile memory and non-volatile flash
SSDs.
Intel Optane SSDs aren’t yet at a speed or price-point that
will convince companies to swap out all their server DRAM
for 3D XPoint technology. But savvy IT admins will be able
to reduce costs by replacing some DRAM with Intel Optane
SSDs, and by using the new drives to enhance the
performance of their existing flash-based SSDs.
According to Intel, 3D XPoint technology delivers:
 Up to 10x more performance than NAND over a
PCIe NVMe interface.
 About 8x to 10x greater density than DRAM.
 Exceptionally high endurance, compared to NAND
SSDs.
 Latency measured in nanoseconds (close to DRAM)
as opposed to microseconds (SSDs) or milliseconds
(HDDs)
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X. DISADVANTAGES
According to the latest source, consumers will have to hold
their excitement of experiencing extremely high read and
write speeds, because 3D XPoint based SSDs might not be
able to achieve those speeds due to interface limitations.
Since SATA interfaces are unable to deliver the speeds that
PCI Express or DD4 interfaces are able to deliver, 3D XPoint
based storage products are going to be released in the
aforementioned interfaces. At this point, PCI Express 3.0 x4
can only offer bandwidth of up to 4GB/s. In contrast,
NVDIMMs are able to deliver potentially higher bandwidth
and ultra-low latency.
Another important thing is that this technology is in research
level. Performance and hardware limitations can be seen after
implementation.
XI. CONCLUSION
3D XPoint is a promising form of non-volatile memory
jointly developed by Intel and Micron. Intel claims that the
memory, which it's branding Optane for commercial products,
provides a compelling mix of properties putting it somewhere
between DRAM and NAND flash.
Intel clearly sees a broad range of other analytical uses for its
implementation of 3D XPoint. According to the company’s
Intel Optane web pages, the advance memory could be used
by retailers to more quickly identify fraud detection patterns,
by financial institutions to accelerate trading, or by healthcare
researchers to work with even larger data sets in real-time.
Of course, none of this means NAND flash will be going
away any time soon. In fact, NAND flash will continue to be
useful for storing data that can be sequentially processed
overnight. But for time-critical analytics, 3D XPoint drives
will take their place alongside DRAM as part of a cost-
effective continuum of data processing options.
REFERENCES
[1] "Intel Launches Optane Memory M.2 Cache SSDs For Consumer
Market". AnandTech. 27 March 2017. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
[2] McGrath, Dylan (28 Oct 2009), "Intel, Numonyx claim phase-change
memory milestone", www.eetimes.com
[3] Neale, Ron (14 Aug 2015), "Imagining What's Inside 3D
XPoint", www.eetimes.com
[4] "3D XPoint™ Technology Revolutionizes Storage
Memory", www.youtube.com (video, infomercial), Intel
[5] Smith, Ryan (18 August 2015), "Intel Announces Optane Storage Brand
For 3D XPoint Products", www.anandtech.com
[6] Peter Bright (March 19, 2017). "Intel's first Optane SSD: 375GB that
you can also use as RAM". Ars Technica. Retrieved March 31, 2017.