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Optane will be seen as a really big main memory by the OS and that's it. So, I don't get why there will be severe changes in software..

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Optane is not durable enough to survive as main memory, hence use cases using it as primarily read memory to avoid wearing out the cells with writes.

Take a look at how cagey Intel is acting about Optane: https://www.semiaccurate.com/2018/05/31/intel-dodges-every-q...

This is the same behaviour as with Intel's LTE chips, where promised features keep slipping (much to Apple's dismay).

SemiAccurate's singing a different tune this year, now that Intel has stated that the Optane DC Persistent Memory modules are warrantied for 5 years regardless of workload. Intel's gotten write endurance up to sufficient levels for use as main memory, though if you use those DIMMs as memory rather than storage, then your DRAM will be used as a cache.

The new DIMMs Intel is putting out have a RAM cache in front of the optane memory that will absorb all the churn plus a wear leveling algorithm on the writeback side. It has big enough capacitors to put all its data away in the event of power loss.

https://www.storagereview.com/intel_optane_dc_persistent_mem...

All of which looks to solve the wear problem even if it means higher price and latency.

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