Intel’s Optane H20 is the latest attempt at “hybrid” laptop storage
Intel has a new consumer-targeted storage product, called Optane H20—as in H twenty, not water. The new device is an M.2 2280 format drive, using QLC (Quad Level Cell) NAND storage running behind an Optane cache layer.
This isn't Intel's first try at an Optane-backed hybrid SSD—the first, 2019's Optane H10, made its way into a few consumer laptops but didn't make much of a splash. H20 is a second try, with a significantly improved QLC SSD and NAND controller.
Conventional NAND SSDs store data by maintaining charge levels in individual cells aboard a solid-state medium. How much data each individual cell stores is configurable and has dramatic impact upon the cost, performance, and longevity of the NAND as a whole. The simplest NAND storage type, single-level cell (SLC), is the highest performing—with only two discrete voltage levels to deal with ("on" and "off"), cells can be written to and read from with high speed and accuracy. It's also the most durable form of NAND formatting, since increasing "sloppiness" in charge levels as the cells become worn isn't much of a factor.
