Western Digital Corp. announced today that it has completed the previously announced acquisition of the magnetic media sputtering operations of Hoya Corporation and Hoya Magnetics Singapore Pte. Ltd. for approximately $233 million. The acquisition will support anticipated growth in hard drive demand.
 
WD® has acquired the facilities, equipment, intellectual property and working capital of Hoya's media sputtering operations, based in Tuas, Singapore, as well as certain related equipment at Hoya's Nagasaka, Japan, research and development facilities. A multi-year commitment of Hoya glass substrate supply related to these operations was included in the agreement. Add a comment

ADATA Technology today introduced NH03 -- its first 3.5” external hard drive with the new-generation SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface, adding yet another high-performance storage solution in its complete USB 3.0 lineup. With the actual transfer rates reaching up to 140 MB/s, NH03 takes data transfer performance on external HDD to a whole new level.

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The SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface on the sleek-looking NH03 3.5” external hard drive is designed to deliver exceptional data transfer rates that was never seen on hard drives. With the addition of built-in TurboHDD USB software, the transfer performance is further accelerated, reaching up to 140 MB/s based on real-world test results. Users will able to experience a significant performance upgrade of at least 400% in terms of transfer speed compared to devices with conventional USB 2.0 interface. Meanwhile, SuperSpeed USB 3.0 is backward compatible with previous versions for greater flexibility and convenience in daily computing use.

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The age of USB 3.0 is almost here. Today, storage leader Thecus® Technology is proud to announce its first portable storage device featuring the new USB 3.0 standard – the D0204. With massive storage capacity in a tiny package no larger than a paperback book, the D0204 delivers impressive data security and performance with an integrated USB 3.0 port, making it the most powerful and versatile portable DAS on the market.

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The D0204 is a small and compact direct attached storage (DAS) device. Wrapped in a housing measuring a mere 86mm x 55.3mm x 132mm, the D0204 may appear to be a mere portable hard disk at first glance, but peering inside this tiny form factor reveals a powerful storage unit.

Headlining is its integrated USB 3.0 port at the back of the unit, which grants the D0204 data transfer speeds of up to 5Gb/s – ten times the speed of USB 2.0. With USB 3.0 built-in, users can transfer files to and from the device at unprecedented speeds with a USB 3.0-enabled computer. Of course, the D0204 is fully backward-compatible with USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 standards, which means you can use it with virtually any USB-equipped device.

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Addonics Technologies today announced an eSATA converter that provides a unique and easy way to connect any eSATA storage device to any USB 3.0 or USB 2.0 port.

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The Addonics USB 3.0 to eSATA adapter is compatible with external hard drives, SSD, optical drives with eSATA interface, and SATA port multiplier storage. It is an ideal accessory for notebooks, desktops, servers or any computer system.

Its compatibility with port multiplier means that any eSATA RAID storage, including Addonics RAID Tower / Rack with eSATA connection, can be instantly turned into a USB 3.0 external RAID storage system.

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Cirago International, a leading manufacturer of multimedia centers, storage and wireless solutions, today announced the launch and immediate availability of its exclusive new CDD2000 USB 3.0 Hard Drive Docking Station. As one of the first SuperSpeed USB 3.0 devices of its kind on the market, the CDD2000 allows home and business users to keep legacy hard drives in service for quick and easy access to archived data or expanded storage options.

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Featuring high-performance data transfer of up to 5 Gbps, the CDD2000 supports both 2.5" and 3.5" SATA I and II hard drives with plug-and-play ease and hot-swappable convenience. The sleek, contemporary design of the dock is unobtrusive on the desktop and its compact size makes for a small footprint.

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Sonic Solutions today announced the availability of the RoxioNow™ premium entertainment platform on MediaTek's advanced Blu-ray Disc SoC solutions as well as HDTV solutions. The integration will enable consumers to instantly stream a broad catalog of premium digital entertainment on next-generation devices from a range of manufacturers.

"Digitally delivered entertainment has become a must-have feature for connected devices," said Minto Yu, spokesperson of MediaTek. "With integrated support for services powered by RoxioNow, our BD as well as HDTV solutions combine the best in high-definition picture and audio enjoyment with a vast library of entertainment delivered instantly via the web."

"Our collaboration with MediaTek, a technology leader and major CE industry supplier, provides us with a tremendous opportunity to further expand our footprint on mobile devices," said Mark Ely, Executive Vice President, Strategy, Sonic Solutions. "Sonic is creating a vast network of connected consumer electronics that are compatible with RoxioNow powered services and provide consumers a far more flexible and convenient digital entertainment experience."

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seagate 3tb freeagent desk.jpgPutting more terabytes in the hands of consumers worldwide, Seagate, the leader in hard drives and storage solutions, today announced the world’s first 3 Terabyte (TB) external desktop drive. Available immediately, the 3TB FreeAgent® GoFlex™ Desk external hard drive helps to meet the explosive worldwide demand for digital content storage in both the home and the office. With 3TB of capacity people can store up to 120 HD movies, 1,500 video games, thousands of photos or countless hours of digital music.

A key addition to the company’s recently introduced GoFlex™ family of hard drives, the 3TB GoFlex Desk external drive couples immense capacity with the flexibility to adapt the drive’s USB 2.0 interface to a USB 3.0 or FireWire® 800 connection to meet varying performance and transfer speed needs. Consumers can easily create, store and access content from either a Windows® or Mac OS X computer on the GoFlex Desk external drive, thanks to an included NTFS driver for Mac.

“Consumer capacity demands are quickly out-pacing the needs of business as people continue to collect high-definition videos, photos and music,” said Dave Mosley, Seagate executive vice president of Sales, Marketing and Product Line Management. “Seagate has a tradition of designing products that break into new storage frontiers to meet customer requirements and the 3TB GoFlex™ Desk external drive is no exception–delivering the highest-capacity storage solution available today.”

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OCZ Technology Group, a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) and memory modules for computing devices and systems, releases the RevoDrive PCI-Express SSD, an innovative storage solution that focuses on both performance and affordability for consumers.  The new RevoDrive was developed to push the limits of economical SSD technology to deliver a revolutionary product with a remarkable price point. 

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Moving beyond the bottleneck of SATA II (3Gbps), the OCZ RevoDrive features a PCIe interface to deliver superior speeds over 500MB/s reads and random small file writes up to 80,000 IOPS, nearly twice the speed of other consumer SSDs. Thanks to a proprietary RAID 0 design, the RevoDrive maximizes data access and bandwidth to promote a faster, more responsive PC experience compared to not only hard drives, but other SSDs on the market. 

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Thermaltake, leading DIY chassis and storage enclosure brand, introduces the newest series of USB 3.0 SuperSpeed docking stations for all 2.5” and 3.5” HDDs, making it more convenient and easy to transfer large documents, pictures or movies between hard drives and computers. With support for hard drives of up to 2 TB capacity the Thermaltake BlacX 5G offers utmost storage convenience and flexibility for people on the move and those with huge data archives.

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Backward compatibility with USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 increase usage scenarios to even migrate data from older systems and make them available on the latest USB 3.0 SuperSpeed devices. The easy plug & play installation warrants for operation with Windows systems as well as Mac OS, while the premium shielded data cable does not only guarantee increased data safety but also boosts transfer rates up to 5.0 Gbps with USB 3.0 compatible devices.

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The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) today announced the finalization and release of the specifications for BDXL™, the new multi-layer recordable Blu-ray Disc™ format with up to 128GB of capacity. With the completion and approval of the specification, manufacturers can now obtain licensing information and license applications needed to begin production of the high capacity write-once and rewritable discs and hardware.

Targeted primarily at commercial segments such as broadcasting, medical and document imaging enterprises with significant archiving needs, BDXL™ provides customers with triple layer 100GB RE (rewritable) and R (write-once) discs and quadruple layer 128GB R discs. Possible consumer applications include capture and playback of HD broadcast and satellite programming in markets where set-top recorders are prevalent.

"The BDA worked diligently to create an extension of the Blu-ray Disc™ format that leverages the physical structure of the design of the disc to create even more storage capacity,” said Victor Matsuda, Blu-ray Disc Association Global Promotions Committee chair. “By using the existing Blu-ray™ technologies, we have created a long-term and stable solution for archiving large amounts of sensitive data, video and graphic images. We expect further growth of the Blu-ray Disc™ market as the introduction of 100GB/128GB discs will expand the application of Blu-ray Disc™ technologies.”

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