3D XPoint
Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2015 2:16 pm
The announcement of 3D XPoint technology by Intel-Micron last week (http://www.anandtech.com/show/9470/inte ... -than-nand) seems to be very interesting for chess engine developers and users. It is a storage technology in production that has a
lower latency than SSDs but higher than DRAM,
higher endurance than SSDs but lower than DRAM,
lower density than SSDs but higher than DRAM and
more expensive than SSDs, but cheaper than DRAM.
Furthermore alike SSDs but unlike DRAM it doesn't lose information when switching off the power.
I find it groundbreaking for the generation of endgame tablebases. Bit level access, low latency, high endurance and high densities are key here.
For the average chess engine it might help by providing larger hash tables, but here the gain won't be so apparent compared to the slightly slower but also cheaper and larger SSDs. As well as again faster on the fly access to endgame tablebases.
lower latency than SSDs but higher than DRAM,
higher endurance than SSDs but lower than DRAM,
lower density than SSDs but higher than DRAM and
more expensive than SSDs, but cheaper than DRAM.
Furthermore alike SSDs but unlike DRAM it doesn't lose information when switching off the power.
I find it groundbreaking for the generation of endgame tablebases. Bit level access, low latency, high endurance and high densities are key here.
For the average chess engine it might help by providing larger hash tables, but here the gain won't be so apparent compared to the slightly slower but also cheaper and larger SSDs. As well as again faster on the fly access to endgame tablebases.