There are three recent Intel announcements that are quite interesting. The first is about 4 recent detailed technical publications, the second is about a maximum Optane capacity doubling, and the third is about a new 3D XPoint fab, in collaboration with Micron.

Of most interest to me personally is the level of detail of the technical publications that include specific BIOS settings and software configuration tips. This is very handy stuff, and along with Shrout Research, should be really helpful as I perform some very basic tests of my new 900P in my Xeon D-1541 system. These tests will include:

multi-vendor storage vMotions between SATA3 (Samsung 850 EVO), M.2 NVMe (Samsung 960 PRO), and U.2 NVMe (Intel Optane 900P) datastores, stopping to test the Windows VM's disk performance at each hop. I may also be able to add an AIC NVMe (Intel Optane 900P) to the mix soon, including 900P to 900P tests across Intel X557 10GbE. I may also be able to add a U.2 drive to M.2 adapter cable test to the mix soon. I hope to experiment with vSAN, meanwhile, here’s one initial (unsupported) 900P test by Brad Lay that’s looking promising so far, using HCIBench by VMware Labs.

1) Intel has now published a series of blog posts about evaluating the performance of Intel® Optane™ technology for the data center:

I know I'm looking forward to trying out the VMware ESXi recommendations, likely on the Intel Optane 900P Series that I recently bought, and hopefully on an Intel Optane P4800X Series in the future.

2) Intel's new P4800X capacity announcement:

3) Intel's new fab announcement:

Intel and Micron Increase 3D XPoint Manufacturing Capacity with IM Flash Fab Expansion News Byte

November 13, 2017

Today, Intel and Micron announced the completion of an expansion to Building 60 (B60) at the IM Flash facilities in Lehi, Utah. The expanded fab will produce 3D XPoint™ memory media, a building block of Intel® Optane™ technology that includes Intel® Optane™ memory for clients, the recently announced Intel® Optane™ SSD 900P Series and new capacities and form factors of the Intel® Optane™ SSD DC P4800X Series.

VMware Storage vMotion with vSphere Client [HTML5] is easier than vSphere Web Client [Adobe Flash]

Xeon D-1541 boot time tests featuring Windows 10 on Intel Optane SSD DC P4800X Series NVMe SSD

VMworld 2017 US - at Intel, Juan Fernandez shows NVMe SSDs, Ruler & Optane P4800X in PCIe & U.2

All P4800x articles.

All NVMe articles.

Intel Optane SSD 900P Series is the latest in 3D XPoint NVMe hotness, should be great for home virtualization lab enthusiasts

Oct 31 2017

How to find NVMe SSD firmware versions in a VMware ESXi 6.5 Server

Aug 05 2017

VMworld 2015 - The video interviews

Sep 09 2015 Intel's Ken LeTourneau and I discuss SSDs and the vSAN qualification process.

Intel Optane Storage Performance and Implications on Testing Methodology

Oct 27 2017 by Shrout Research at Shrout Research The new Intel Optane SSD 900P offers workstation and enthusiast consumers a new level of performance for storage. But offering incredibly fast response times and low latency puts a unique emphasis on storage testing methodology, system configuration, and software design. Our Optane white paper focuses on the impact and issues of legacy testing as well as the value of measuring low queue depth performance.

The Intel Optane SSD 900P 280GB Review Oct 27 2017 by Billy tallis at AnandTech Who is the Optane SSD 900P for?

With a price per GB a little over twice that of the the fastest flash-based consumer SSDs, the Optane SSD 900P is an exclusive high-end product. For most desktop usage, drives like the 960 PRO are already fast enough to make storage no longer a severe bottleneck. The most noticeable delays due to storage performance on a 960 PRO are when moving around large files, and the Optane SSD doesn't offer any significant improvement to sequential transfer speeds. Random writes can be a challenge for flash-based SSDs, but volatile write caches and SLC caches allow them to handle short bursts with very high performance.

Supermicro AOC-SLG3-2E4R and Supermicro AOC-SLG3-2E4 Differences

May 30 2015 by Patrick Kennedy at STH

For a thorough look at the subtleties of M.2 NVMe benchmark testing, and an overview of why NVMe is better than SATA in very measurable ways.