AnandTech/Intel S3700 Roundtable Discussion & Webcast Videos Live
by Anand Lal Shimpi on November 16, 2012 11:16 AM EST- Posted in
- Cloud Computing
- Storage
- IT Computing
- SSDs
- Intel
Intel invited me to attend SC12 and participate in a webcast for the launch of its new DC S3700 SSD. I joined Roger Peene from Intel's SSD Solutions and we talked about the S3700 as well as answered your questions live. If you missed the webcast, you can find the pre-recorded video here. There's a great question about the future of NAND we discussed on the webcast that I'd highly recommend paying attention to.
Prior to the webcast, I had the chance to sit down with Arbin Kumar (responsible for Intel SSD reliability and validation), Allison Goodman (lead engineer on the S3700) and Roger Peene (Marketing Director for Intel's Datacenter SSD Solutions) once again to discuss the S3700 in greater detail. The discussion in the video below is from the first day I really learned about the S3700's architecture. The full discussion took several hours but the video below distills a lot of it down to 7 minutes. If you want to hear about the S3700 from the folks who actually had a hand in building the drive, I strongly suggest watching the video. Update: The video is back up.
Finally, at SC12 Intel rented a replica of the original series bridge from the starship Enterprise which we used as a backdrop for the webcast. Prior to the webcast airing, we had some fun on the bridge which you can check out in the gallery below.
At the end of the day it was a pretty fun experience. I learned quite a bit about Intel's NAND Solutions Group through this whole process. The SSD business is pretty unusual in that it's built around a replacement to a highly commoditized product (mechanical storage). It's surprising that we even have folks who typically play in high margin products even in this industry, but without them the market would be much worse off. I still remember what things were like with SSDs prior to the X25-M and even for the 12 - 18 months after its launch. The S3700 showed that there's still room for innovation even within the constraints of 6Gbps SATA, which should tide us over until SATA Express shows up.
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mayankleoboy1 - Saturday, November 17, 2012 - link
can we have a transcript of this please ?mckirkus - Saturday, November 17, 2012 - link
Great moment in the 2nd video (12:00) when he asks Anand "So is this the new gold standard for a SSD for you?" You could almost imagine the Intel market team, fingers hovering over the mouse button, press release ready with "AnandTech calls the S3700 the new Gold Standard in SSDs!"They're either underestimating Anand's understanding of this technology or their year end bonuses are somehow tied to getting talking points injected into this discussion.
Either way, this is a great product, and I finally feel comfortable going to our IT director with a solution to our database performance woes.
truk007 - Sunday, November 18, 2012 - link
Love the effort, but I have to agree... it seemed mildly scripted or directed. Like a late night info-commercial.Keep doing them though. Hope more companies contribute.
jb510 - Sunday, November 18, 2012 - link
This kind of reminds me Intel's early marketing push behind light peak. It's smart of them to reach out to early adopter / tech savvy voices on things like this with thier engineering staff at then microphone and they're getting good at it.I like that Anand got to talk with them so extensively with them, but the 7 min version does feel a bit "promotional". As a one off/occasional thing I think it does an OK job of fitting in on AT as long as it doesn't become a frequent thing. I kind of expect SOME talk of harswares failings/limitations and where something could improve on this site.
Smackalope - Sunday, November 18, 2012 - link
Disappointed with the video. Unless I missed some hidden content, the video was mostly a marketing piece for Intel. This is how I envision any one marketing their new product. Was hoping for more technical content.zappb - Monday, November 19, 2012 - link
Not talking about the SSD!JellyRoll - Monday, November 19, 2012 - link
This is obviously sponsored content from Intel, and brings into question the accuracy of any "reviews" from Anand. It is hard to believe content when it is obviously sponsored. Sites that feature sponsored content should reveal that information at the top of the review, as true enterprise websites do.zappb - Monday, November 19, 2012 - link
I think nerves came across as sales - They were nervous at the start of the round table, there was no scrip - definitely no script."Our customers, Great Product, Customers Asked and We delivered to Our Customers, Because They Asked Us For it, and now they have it! "etc...and then they echo each other, Anand tried to ground it a bit, but there was no beer around the table to help....
McSteel - Monday, November 19, 2012 - link
So Intel is promoting a well-thought-out, high-quality product. Anand helps them do it. I don't have a problem with that, and neither should you people. Test methodology is the same for all reviewed SSDs that are directly compared. I seriously doubt anyone is fabricating screenshots or posting false results... This video was supposed to be more about direction and design philosophy, rather than technical Q&A. Besides, the DC S3700 has already been put through it's paces, with relevant tech details published. Talking about it again would've been redundant, don't you think?Allison is cute BTW
JellyRoll - Monday, November 19, 2012 - link
If he is part of the team promoting a well-thought-out, high-quality product, he shouldn't be posting "impartial reviews".He then becomes a spokesperson for said product.
This is why actors say "My name is XXX, and I endorse this product:", it is about credibility.