The optional Core i7+ model also includes Intel’s Optane cache memory, which works as a bridge between RAM and storage to speed up things like game load times.

Yuval Yarom, a researcher from the University of Adelaide, Australia, last year presented a way to use a cache memory side-channel attack to steal a victim’s Bitcoin secret key after observing about 25 Bitcoin transactions.

This is made possible by the inclusion of a modified version of the Atom Silvermont x86 cores as part of each Knights Landing ’tile’: the chip’s basic design unit consisting of dual x86 and vector execution units alongside cache memory and intra-tile mesh communication circuitry.

Seagate and Western Digital have often downplayed the importance of pure SSDs in the past and focused on either hybrid drives that use flash-based storage as cache memory riding on top of a HDD, or alternates to SSDs such as ethernet-connected drives or helium-filled storage drives.

The problem stems from a fundamental tenet of modern, multi-core processor design: shared cache memory.