memory to market next year under the brand name Optane.

Optane will be 7 times faster than today's solid state drives. Optane drives will include

a specialized software stack, Intel’s custom storage controllers, and the 3D Xpoint memory.

3D XPoint doesn’t just boost speed: it increases storage density, too. Its stacked design keeps

things compact, and the memory doesn’t need to make room for transistors. 3D XPoint can

read from or write to individual memory cells by simply altering voltages.

Intel says the technology is affordable enough that Optane drives will be made available

next year for uses ranging from large corporate data centers to lightweight laptops. They

would improve gaming, supercomputers, and data analysis.