Intel lifted the kimono on its first market ready compact slot-format low capacity 'cache SSDs' at CES but in its earnings call, Chipzilla added it would be releasing Optane memory DIMMs to fit DDR4 slots in servers and PCs.

It is not clear what impact that 3D XPoint technology will have when used in place of RAM DIMMs. Intel has been talking about 3D XPoint memory for nearly two years.

Chipzilla claims that Optane will “completely rewrite the rules “of the hot-warm-cold storage pyramid" which determines data server performance. It is supposed to be as fast as DRAM but with similar costs to SSD NAND storage.

Servers with Optane should be able to expand the high performance hot storage capacity available. If they are added with Optane SSDs they should improve 'warm storage' performance for those on a budget.

In the earnings call, Intel claimed that Optane could change PC and server architectures. Lenovo, Dell, Intel and HP PCs and SuperO motherboards have been given Optane storage options.  Hexus has some pretty diagrams here to explain how it works