hitachi ultrastar ssd400s ssd.jpgLeveraging more than 50 years of design and qualification experience, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) today announced its new Ultrastar solid state drive (SSD) family. The new Ultrastar SSD400S family comes in 100GB, 200GB and 400GB capacities, featuring both 2.5-inch 6Gb/s Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and 3.5-inch 4Gb/s Fibre Channel (FC) interfaces. As the world’s first jointly developed SAS and FC enterprise-class SSDs, the Ultrastar SSD400S family combines Hitachi’s proven enterprise hard disk drive (HDD) expertise with Intel®’s extensive capabilities in developing high-endurance 34-nanometer (nm), single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash memory and advanced SSD technology. This combination provides unique value to customers who are increasingly looking to tiered storage as a method of managing the escalating performance, capacity, endurance and reliability demands of today's data centers.

“Hitachi’s strategic investment and commitment in the enterprise market is evident with the new Ultrastar SSD family. Our new SSD product family not only symbolizes our market opportunity to serve evolving cloud data center infrastructures, but also delivers value to our customers in terms of increasing data center performance and reducing total cost of ownership,” said Mike Cordano, executive vice president of Worldwide Sales and Marketing, Hitachi GST. “We have a strong track record of working with global enterprise customers and are proud to report favorable responses to the Ultrastar SSD400S family. With qualifications now underway, we anticipate volume shipments to commence in the first half of 2011.”

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Toshiba Storage Device Division (SDD), the pioneer in small form factor hard disk drives (HDDs), today announced two new 2.5-inch HDD models designed for rugged 24-hour continuous operation in computing, industrial, and other extreme environments. The new models – the 100GB SATA interface MK1060GSCX and the 80GB PATA interface MK8050GACY – offer exceptional reliability and performance across wide temperature, altitude, and vibration ranges, making them excellent choices for use in industrial equipment such as ATMs, digital surveillance, factory automation, and ruggedized PCs.

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Designed for extended periods of operation, the MK1060GSCX and MK8050GACY feature a “case temperature” range of -15 to +70 degrees Celsius – the widest temperature range for 24/7 power-on operation in the HDD market. Both drives also have an expanded operating altitude range and offer better resistance to vibration when compared to standard HDD models.

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Sonic Solutions today announced the integration of the RoxioNow platform into HDTV chipsets from leading system-on-chip (SoC) maker Trident Microsystems, Inc. With built-in RoxioNow capabilities, consumers of Trident-based HDTVs can enjoy instant access to a wide array of premium entertainment offerings streamed directly to their sets over the Internet, including new-release movies and hit TV shows. By partnering with Trident, whose customers include some of the world's best-known television brands, the agreement continues Sonic's string of successes in extending RoxioNow support across the broadest possible range of televisions, set-top boxes, media players, and mobile devices.

"Consumers want to combine the quality from their digital TVs with the variety and flexibility they receive from streaming," said Dirk Wieberneit, SVP & General Manager of Trident's TV business unit. "RoxioNow provides us with an ideal ready-made solution to give them what they want. Building RoxioNow into our HDTV SoCs makes it easy for our customers in the DTV market to take advantage of the explosive growth in demand for high-quality streamed video content."

Trident's highly integrated, programmable SoC semiconductors act as the brains for DTV and other digital media displays, providing image processing and optimization for video and computer graphic signals. Sonic's broad implementation on device chipsets is expected to result in RoxioNow-powered storefronts appearing on over 95% of all connected BD and HDTV consumer electronics devices shipping over the next several years.

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According to market research, USB 3.0 is expected to become the new mainstream transfer interface by next year and quickly replace USB 2.0. In light of the growth potential within this market, PQI has followed up the recent release of its highly praised USB 3.0 Traveling Disk—the Cool Drive U368—by unveiling the USB 3.0 Cool Drive U339V Traveling Disk, the lightest drive of its kind available on the market today. In addition to showing off its product development capabilities and design prowess to the marketplace once again, this is also a reflection of PQI’s continuous commitment to meeting user needs. The latest model features a high transfer speed USB 3.0 interface, backward compatibility with USB 2.0, and even more power efficiency. A single chip manufacturing process enables the exterior to be slim and graceful and, at only 13g, it is the lightest device of its kind in the industry.

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And talk about speed! With a high transfer speed USB 3.0 interface, transfer speeds are 10 times faster than current USB 2.0, which effectively saves time by effortlessly storing large picture and video files. On the outside, the USB 3.0 Cool Drive U339V features a sleek iron-grey color scheme coupled with the high quality and texture of an aluminum alloy casing. And with an exquisite brushed surface treatment, the U339V gives off a stylish tech vibe. To meet the storage capacity needs of different consumer segments, PQI offers capacity options which range from 8GB to 64GB.

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Kingston Digital Europe Ltd, an affiliate of Kingston Technology Company Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced the release of the new Kingston DataTraveler R500, a stylish, fast and rugged USB Flash drive. The Kingston DataTraveler R500 provides users with high-speed data transfer rates and a durable rubberized casing protecting the drive from scratches and general wear.

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“This is the ideal solution for users such as photographers or graphic designers who want to store and share high-definition photos or videos, large documents, presentations or music”, said Steve Hall, European Product Development of Flash. “This is the ultimate USB Flash drive for those who desire fast transfer rates and a sturdy design.”

The Kingston DataTraveler R500 provides high data transfer rates of up to 30MB/s read and 20MB/s write. It is available in capacities of 16-, 32- and 64GB. The Kingston DataTraveler R500 is backed by a five-year warranty, 24/7 tech support and Kingston’s legendary reliability.

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Just in time for the holiday buying season, Intel Corporation has lowered prices and introduced a new model of its award-winning Intel Solid-State Drive (SSD) product line. SSDs can replace hard disk drives in a PC and provide a substantial performance boost for a notebook or desktop PC, making SSDs one of the hottest new waves in personal computing.

For shoppers looking for the latest high-tech gadget for that intensive PC user or gamer, Intel SSDs can help improve overall system performance by up to 56 percent. SSDs can replace or complement a traditional hard drive in a notebook or desktop PC and deliver noticeably faster computer performance when booting up, opening files and running software applications. With no moving parts, these SSDs deliver greater reliability and consume less power than conventional hard disk drives (HDDs).

“Every Christmas, consumers are looking for the latest tech gadget; this year, with prices dropping, the solid-state drive is becoming more mainstream and can make the single greatest improvement to PC performance,” said Troy Winslow, director of product marketing for the Intel NAND Solutions Group. “With an SSD, tech shoppers can give the gift of a technology makeover that will help speed up, or breathe new life, into a current PC by just swapping out the hard drive for an SSD.”

New suggested U.S. resell pricing for the Intel X25-M Mainstream SATA SSD is now $199 for an 80 gigabyte (GB) drive, which provides plenty of space to store the operating system, multiple office and personal applications, as well as thousands of songs, photos, video and other data. Users can double the storage capacity with a 160GB X25-M drive for $415. The company has also added a new 120GB version of the Intel X25-M for $249, which offers the best dollar-per-GB value in the Intel X25-M SSD line.

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micro center 64gb g2 series ssd.jpgMicro Center, one of the nation's leading computer retailers, announced today the availability of their second generation Solid State Drive (SSD) featuring the SandForce SF-1200 Processor from SandForce Inc., the pioneer of SSD Processors that enable standard NAND Flash deployment in enterprise, client, and industrial computing applications. The latest Micro Center branded 64GB SSD leverages innovative SandForce DuraClass technology to provide enterprise-class capabilities for cost-sensitive client PC and laptop applications with a low $99.99 introductory price tag.

"We're excited to offer Micro Center customers our second generation, high performance solid state drive with the top-rated controller in the industry—the SandForce SF-1200 Processor," said Ed Mershad, Micro Center Vice President and International Products Sourcing Manager. "We think the combination of great Micro Center support and service, award winning SandForce technology, and an introductory $99.99 price will open the door to mass-market adoption of SSDs in client PC and laptop applications."

The Micro Center 64GB SSD SATA II 2.5" G2 Series SSD with SandForce SF-1200 Series Controller is now available in all 23 locations across the nation as well as the easy-to-use online catalog. Key features include read and write speeds over 250MB/sec, DuraWrite technology to extend the life of the drive, RAISE™ technology for RAID-like data security in a single drive environment, and ultra-low power mode to maximize battery life.

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rimage 5400n disc copy station.jpgRimage Corporation, the industry-leading provider of on-demand CD/DVD/Blu-ray Disc publishing systems, has introduced the patent-pending Rimage 5400N Disc Copy Station, a new system designed to copy CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray Discs with the ease of a paper copier. The 5400N Disc Copy Station is now available for order through Rimage’s Value Added Reseller network.

Optical discs are increasingly replacing paper documents in business workflows. Often, this drives a need in companies of all sizes for functional replicates of original discs for documentation management, data distribution or the replacement of lost discs.

The 5400N Disc Copy Station makes creating working copies of existing discs as simple as inserting a disc to be copied into the system and pressing the “Copy” button. The Disc Copy Station photographs the disc label, reads the contents, records the contents on a blank disc, and prints a near-perfect replica of the original disc label. Multiple working copies of the original disc can be created as one job. This automated process eliminates the complex task of finding the original label and contents, creating or purchasing the original label from a past supplier, or manually writing information on the disc. Using the Disc Copy Station is faster than manual alternatives, which often tie up skilled professionals for hours.

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Apricorn today announced the introduction of its Mac Array, an easy-to-install, turnkey solution for instantly increasing your Mac Pro's processing power. Designed specifically for Apple Mac Pro systems, the Apricorn Mac Array internal SSD RAID bridges the gap between your computer's high capacity yet slow hard drive and your system's RAM, acting as virtual memory, for a performance increase of up to 10 times. Aimed at the ever growing creative market, the Mac Array is the ideal tool for high performance applications such as video editing, animation and image processing, providing a measurable performance increase that can slash render times to a mere fraction of the usual time.

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Built around four high performance 128GB solid state drives on Apricorn's specially designed SATA PCIe Host Card, the Mac Array's unique form factor adds a total of 512GB of virtual memory to your system, yet uses only one internal full length PCIe X4 slot, keeping the other slots and drive bays free for expansion. Fully configurable, the Mac Array can be used singularly or for the ultimate boost - in tandem with a second or even third Mac Array for even greater performance.

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QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading manufacturer of world class NAS servers today expanded their hugely popular Business Series Turbo NAS lineup with the addition of a new 8-drive desktop model, TS-859 Pro+ Turbo NAS. The TS-859 Pro+ incorporates Intel's new D525 dual-core Atom CPU with 1.8GHz clock speed and 1GB RAM, which can achieve up to 116MB/s transfer rates (FTP/Samba reads) while maintaining guaranteed lower power consumption. The Turbo NAS provides up to 16TB of extremely large storage capacity (using 2TB hard drives and single disk volume/JBOD configuration), and is targeted for business users and workgroups who need a tower server to fit in their office environment for backup and sharing of enormous amount of documents, digital pictures, videos, and applications.

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Meanwhile, the TS-859 Pro+ has been certified as compatible NFS and iSCSI datastore with fully VMware Ready, Citrix Ready and Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V clusters compliant. QNAP continues its industry-leading iSCSI support for server clustering and virtualized environments including support for MC/S, MPIO, SPC-3, and thin provisioning. With built-in iSCSI initiator and target service, network storage can be virtually expanded by simply adding additional QNAP Turbo NAS units to the network and adding virtual volumes, up to 8 per device.

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