micron logoToday, Micron Technology, Inc. announced a new addition to its expansive portfolio of flash storage products, providing a purpose-built solution for cost-sensitive consumer applications seeking high performance and reliability. The new TLC NAND is built on their 16-nanometer (nm) process and delivers a balanced set of features for applications like USB drives and consumer solid state drives. The market appetite for TLC is projected to be strong throughout 2015, constituting almost half of the total NAND gigabytes shipped.

Micron's 16nm process—recognized by TechInsights as the Most Innovative Memory Device and 2014 Semiconductor of the Year—is a mature and proven storage technology, making it an excellent foundation for a reliable TLC design. TLC, or triple-level cell, is a technology that fits three bits in every flash data cell, creating greater cost and size efficiency.

Customers of the technology will benefit from Micron's extensive design support team, who act as trusted advisors to ensure smooth qualification and optimal end-solution performance. Key flash customers and ecosystem partners worldwide have already begun working to integrate this new NAND with their latest designs, ensuring quick adoption in end applications.

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kingston microduo 3cKingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced the release of DataTraveler microDuo 3C USB Flash drive. DataTraveler microDuo 3C has a dual interface that works with both standard USB Type-A (3.1, 3.0, 2.0) and USB Type-C ports. USB Type-C is an up and coming reversible connector standard that allows for slimmer and sleeker devices in the future. It enables a single port to function as a point for data transfer, video output, charging and even power external devices.

DataTraveler microDuo 3C is an ideal way to provide up to 64GB of extra storage for the very latest smartphones, tablets and Mac computers while also working with current generation devices. Shipping later this month, the simple plug-and-play drive offers fast USB 3.1 performance with read speeds up to 100MB/s and write speeds up to 15MB/s. The lightweight and small-form factor DataTraveler microDuo 3C complements portable devices and is easily transportable.

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patriot ep pro microsdhcPatriot, a leading manufacturer of USB Flash, mobile accessories, computer memory and SSDs, announced the release of the latest addition to its 4K capable cards, the EP Pro microSDXC Class 10, UHS-I U3 card.

Compliant with the latest SD Association specifications for Class 10 UHS-I U3 cards, it is perfect for 4K recording. The Patriot EP Pro microSDXC Card reaches speeds of up to 95MB/s read and 80MB/s write. Capable of capturing a range of video and still images the EP Pro microSDXC can shoot video in Full HD, Ultra HD and 4K2K as well as capture continuous still image shooting in HD. Ideal for the extreme sports enthusiast, outdoorsmen and professional photographers the EP Pro microSDXC Card is the ideal choice for the latest action camera, Android smartphone or tablet.

“The EP Pro microSDXC Card will provide customers with the fastest in the industry performance for the abundance of 4K capable, UHD enabled multimedia devices available on the market” Said Meng J. Choo, Product Manager at Patriot. “Customers will now be able to unlock the potential of their top-shelf devices.”

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crucial logoCrucial, a leading global brand of memory and storage upgrades, today announced significant updates to its Storage Executive tool. The new version (3.20) features Momentum Cache, an intelligent caching feature that can enhance burst performance by up to 10x, and allows users to extend SSD lifetime by reducing redundant writes. The tool uses idle memory for caching as needed, and installs easily via the Storage Executive interface.

In addition to the new features, Storage Executive also allows users to:    

  • Update to the latest firmware
  • Monitor drive's temperature and health
  • Reset the drive's encryption password
  • Easily check how much storage has been used

"We want everyone to enjoy the benefits of solid state storage," said Jonathan Weech, storage marketing manager, Crucial. "Software that optimizes performance and keeps Crucial SSDs running efficiently is another example of how we make upgrading easy."

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qnap logoAt Computex Taipei 2015, QNAP Systems, Inc. (at Stand J0118) demonstrated the world’s first Thunderbolt NAS, the unique search tool “Qsirch”, a hybrid approach to virtualization with Virtualization Station and Container Station, the new QTS 4.2 operating system, multi-zone multimedia system, and various new and popular feature-rich Turbo NAS models for home and businesses. QNAP also cooperated with HGST, Seagate, Toshiba and WD at Computex 2015 to showcase joint solutions of QNAP NAS with a wide range of HDDs and SSDs.

Thunderbolt 2 Turbo vNAS TVS-871T optimizes high-speed and flexible connectivity

QNAP TVS-871T, the world’s first DAS/NAS/iSCSI SAN triple solution, features the incredible power of Thunderbolt 2 and enables simultaneous 4K video transfer and display. Featuring Thunderbolt and Ethernet dual network, the TVS-871T allows users to flexibly share files across multiple devices simultaneously.

With two Thunderbolt 2 ports available on the TVS-871T, users can flexibly arrange the connection of their computer workstations with the TVS-871T and its storage expansion enclosures based on their needs and benefit from high accessibility, optimal collaboration and seamless expansion. The TVS-871T is also a perfect match for Thunderbolt-equipped Mac users for 4K workflow, file storage and backup.

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SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash storage solutions, today launched two new, USB 3.0 flash drives – the 128GB SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.0 Flash Drive, the world’s smallest USB 3.0; and the 256GB SanDisk Ultra USB 3.0 Flash Drive, SanDisk’s highest capacity USB flash drive to-date. The new offerings enhance SanDisk’s award-winning USB line-up with impressive capacities and performance, delivering speeds up to 10 times faster than a standard USB 2.0 drive. With these higher capacities, consumers can now save more of their favorite videos, photos and music on their laptops, TVs, gaming consoles or other entertainment systems.

 sandisk ultra usb3 flash drive angle

“The quality of content consumers create and consume continues to increase, generating higher demand for more sophisticated digital storage,” said Philippe Willams, director of product marketing, SanDisk. “With remarkable USB 3.0 speed and compact designs, our new high-capacity USBs let users enjoy even more of their favorite content without having to even think about running out of space. SanDisk is constantly engaging in new ways to leverage our flash memory expertise and deliver innovative, reliable solutions that really make a difference in consumers’ daily lives.”

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sandisk cloudspeed eco gen ii ssdSanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash storage solutions, at Computex Taipei 2015 today announced its new CloudSpeed Eco Gen. II SATA SSD, a purpose-built storage device for cloud service providers with up to 2TB capacity. This new SSD is now sampling with select hyperscale customers. Based on 15nm NAND flash, the new CloudSpeed Eco Gen. II SSD delivers greater storage density with 3x the streaming bandwidth vs. hard disk drives (HDDs). Designed as a drop-in replacement for HDDs, CloudSpeed Eco Gen. II provides datacenters with a lower cost-per-square-foot for hyperscale applications such as analytics, media streaming and content repositories.

Cloud Data Services, such as Big Data Analytics, SaaS, IaaS and PaaS environments, are driving radical data center transformation. The number of connected ‘things’ is set to explode, with Gartner forecasting this number will reach 25 billion by 2020, generating a deluge of data that will need to be analyzed in real-time. Micropayments, online commerce and similar applications are read-intensive and require high data throughput and scalable storage capacity.

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SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash storage solutions, today entered the portable SSD market with a family of high-performance drives, including the SanDisk Extreme 900 Portable SSDs, the world’s fastest line of Type C-based portable SSDs; and the SanDisk Extreme 500 Portable SSDs, the company’s new pocket-sized, rugged drives. The SanDisk Extreme 900 drives feature speeds of up to nine times faster than a portable hard drive, while the SanDisk Extreme 500 drives offer speeds up to four times faster. These powerful solutions are ideal for photographers, videographers, creative professionals and tech enthusiasts looking to move massive files at phenomenal speeds, helping them save time and simplify work processes at the office or out in the field.

sandisk portable ssd

“As a recognized leader in developing solutions for professional photographers and videographers, we designed this game-changing family of offerings to provide our customers with even greater speeds and capacities to keep up with rapidly increasing demands for high-quality content,” said Dinesh Bahal, vice president, product marketing, SanDisk. “Whether a professional or amateur, this level of portability, speed and capacity is exceptional, and we believe it will transform the way people create and produce high quality video content—ultimately saving them time and money.”

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QNAP Systems, Inc. continues its partnership with Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) to announce the 5-bay TS-563 Turbo NAS. With an AMD Embedded G-Series quad-core 2.0GHz SoC processor and up to 16GB RAM, the TS-563 features AES-NI hardware-accelerated encryption, SSD cache acceleration, AMD-V virtualization, and optional 10GbE connectivity that allows small and medium businesses to build private clouds suitable for high-speed networks and application-intensive environments. The TS-563 is available at a budget price to maximize ROI and will be showcased at Computex Taipei 2015.

qnap ts-563 nas

“The TS-563 is our most affordable 10GbE-ready quad-core NAS with hardware-accelerated encryption and virtual machine support. It is a fast and scalable NAS solution designed for optimizing business applications and satisfying quickly-growing data storage needs while providing 10GbE readiness for budget-conscious organizations and professionals,” said Jason Hsu, product manager of QNAP.

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sony logoSony Corporation of America (SCA) today announced that it has acquired Optical Archive Inc. (OAI), a company that specializes in optical storage systems for the data center market.  The acquisition is made by SCA on behalf of Sony Corporation.

With Sony, OAI will leverage its experience and capabilities in data center hardware design, supply chain operations and systems integration with Sony's expertise in optical disc and manufacturing technology to develop new optical disc library systems that will meet the technological demands from the growing cold archive market.

The term "cold archive" refers to a class of data that must be retained over a long period of time but isn't accessed frequently, such as cloud-based photo storage and data retained for legal or regulatory reasons. Cold archive is the largest and fastest growing portion of the data center storage market.

"This acquisition marks the beginning of our commitment to this growing market," said Terushi Shimizu, Senior Vice President and Deputy President, Device Solutions Business Group, Sony Corporation.  "Optical disc libraries will provide many advantages to customers who are currently using tape or hard drive technology to store cold data, such as lower costs, extremely durable media life, and higher data throughput rates. We plan to leverage and expand our existing optical disc production lines in order to accommodate the growing demand for this media."

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