Intel second-gen 3D XPoint memory may be delayed to 2021

Tom's Hardware analyzed the annual report of Intel and found out that second-generation 3D XPoint is unlikely to hit the market this year. The chip giant's annual report reveals that while 144-layer 3D NAND remains on track for 2020, the second-gen 3D XPoint based Alder Stream Optane DC SSD will only ship in the form of engineering samples in 2020. There's also no indication about when Barlow Pass will ship, that's the persistent memory version of the second-gen Optane. Intel only says that Barlow Pass is expected to achieve Product Release Qualification (PRQ) phase this year.

“With our Intel 3D NAND technology and Intel® Optane technology, we are developing products to disrupt the memory and storage hierarchy. The 4th generation of Intel-based SSDs are scheduled to launch in 2020 with 144-layer QLC memory technology. These SSDs are also Intel’s first NAND memory technology created independently by Intel since the conclusion of our partnership with Micron Technology, Inc. (Micron). The 2nd generation Intel Optane SSDs for data centers are scheduled to start shipping samples in 2020, and are designed to deliver three times the throughput while reducing application latency by four times. In addition, the second generation Intel Optane DC persistent memory is expected to achieve PRQ [Production Release Qualification] in 2020, and is designed for use with our future Intel Xeon CPUs.”