
Intel Optane Memory H10 Hybrid Drive - Feature Specifications

When in January we announced a brand new Intel product called Optane Memory H10, combining the Optane cache and the QLC 3D NAND drive, we could not pamper the readers with specifications and details - then they simply did not exist. It is known that any secret is ever revealed, especially if it is, in general, not a secret. Last week, Intel officially published the specifications for the H10 - and now we are happy to list them.
As already mentioned, the H10 will be produced in three versions: with 16 GB Optane and 256 GB NAND, as well as 32 GB Optane and 512/1024 GB NAND. In any configuration, the drive is made in the form factor M.2 2280 with one-sided placement. If you look at the map, you can see that Optane and NAND components occupy approximately equal areas on it.

Each of the two controllers received two PCIe 3.0 lanes; The caching mechanism provides simultaneous writing and reading with Optane and NAND, which allows to achieve a speed of 2.4 GB / s for sequential reading. All specifications are given in the table.
Form factor | single sided M.2 2280 |
NAND controller | Silicon Motion SM2263 |
NAND memory | Intel 512Gb 64L 3D QLC |
Optane Controller | Intel SLL3D |
Optane memory | Intel 128Gb 3D XPoint |
QLC NAND Volume | 256-1024 GB |
Optane Volume | 16-32 GB |
Speed of the last. reading | up to 2400 MB / s |
Speed of the last. records | up to 1800 MB / s |
Speed 4kB case reading | 32k IOPS with QD = 1 55k IOPS with QD = 2 |
Speed 4kB case records | 30k IOPS with QD = 1 55k IOPS with QD = 2 |
Consumption in idle L1.2 | <15 mW |
Warranty | 5 years |
Durability on record | 300 TB for a 1024 GB drive |
As you can see, the random read speed of the hybrid drive is significantly higher than that of the “ordinary” QLC NAND, say, Intel 660p. On the other hand, it is much inferior to the speed of Optane. This is the trade-off between capacity and performance.
As for the hardware requirements, officially the Intel Optane Memory H10 is supported by 8th generation Intel Core mobile processors and motherboards based on Intel 3xx chipsets. To boot from H10, you will need to update the firmware of the motherboard. The cost of the drive, unfortunately, has not yet been announced, but there is very little left to wait.