Intel pushes Turbomemory, even with SSD

DURING ALL THE IDF desktop and storage talks, something nagged: One would think that, with ever cheaper, faster and more reliable SSD drives, the idea of a small "Turbo Memory" or "Flash Cache", would be passe by now. But Intel hasn't given up on such an idea. Not only is it very much present as a recommended Montevina notebook platform option, but it's there also further evolution of it for the desktop.

The newly updated Turbo Memory 1.7 spec, aimed at Nehalem desktop platforms has quite a few improvements. For instance, the old Vista-controlled ReadyBoost is replaced by "User Pinning" - a move from OS control of its caching and contents to user setup, with direct control of which applications to cache, i.e. "pin down" before Micro$oft's ReadyDrive boot speedup, And it adds 4GB capacity.

That size lets you cache pretty much all the apps you'd want to use during a typical session even in 64-bit Vista, and most of the OS too. The default Intel 4GB SKU would allocate close to 1GB to the OS, and 3GB to the apps. Oh boy, if it was Linux, you could boot the whole shebang from a 4GB drive - gives you an idea of how much more efficient Linuxen are...

Notice it is a 2GB RAM Vista configuration used here - not something to recommend. Looking at DRAM prices currently, we'd have invested first in doubling that RAM to 4GB, and then add the flash cache. But the boost might not be that impressive.

Now these are simple PCI-E x1 devices, rather than SATA, with more direct access to the rest of the system and potential for even lower latencies, depending on the controller Intel provides. However, our feeling is that, with SSDs getting this fast and affordable, there isn't that much point adding the Turbomemory on the desktops. Also, repeated cache fills and clears multiply the amount of writes across that flash compared to a SSD drive where the app, once installed, is always there - and we all know too much writing isn't good for flash memories, yet.

On the other hand, the whole topic may become moot, once the Ibex Peak mainstream Nehalems appear this time next year, with ONFI Flash DIMM slot on every mainboard - the SSD and Turbomemory functions might end up merged, in a 32+GB device sitting directly off South Bridge at full flash die speed. µ