Intel Shows Optane SSD Publicly For The First Time

Rob Crooke was scheduled to speak at the Intel Keynote event here at Computex 2017, but he was no where to be found. Instead, Intel presented us with several first sightings that ranged from new Core i8 processors to modular systems smaller than a portable hard disk drive. The most interesting part for storage freaks, though, was a sweet, sweet Optane SSD.

This is the first time that Intel publicly discussed the new Optane SSD. We were there to capture the brief moment. The video above starts with a demonstration of Optane Memory in a face-off between an Optane-accelerated HDD and a "vanilla hard disk drive." Once the brief demo was finished, the speaker pulled an Optane SSD.

The drive has what appears to be black tape over the label. It may be a P4800X enterprise SSD in disguise, just to show a representation of what's to come. The real story is that an Optane SSD is in the works, and it will be the fastest consumer SSD ever released to the public. We don't expect it to be cheap, but we're excited about the technology and what it will deliver for those willing to invest to reach the ultimate computing experience.

Chris Ramseyer
Contributor

Chris Ramseyer was a senior contributing editor for Tom's Hardware. He tested and reviewed consumer storage.