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- Optical Storage
Pioneer Japan sent out a press release this morning, announcing the industry's first 12x Blu-ray Disc writer, the BDR-S05J. This Serial ATA equipped drive is capable of 12x BD-R, 12x BD-R DL, 6x BD-R LTH, 2x BD-RE and 2x BD-RE DL writing speeds and a maximum BD-ROM read speed of 8x. The BDR-S05J also includes features like Pioneer's PowerRead and PureRead2 technologies as well as a software bundle from CyberLink. The BDR-S05J is scheduled to ship in October and is expected to cost about 38,000 Yen ($416US).
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- Optical Storage
Today LaCie announced the latest versions of its Portable DVD±RW Drive, design by Sam Hecht. Now with a sleek black finish, the award-winning LaCie Portable DVD±RW includes new multimedia burning solutions, allowing users to piece together sophisticated movie, music, and photo projects in a matter of minutes – creating customized CDs or DVDs wherever they go.
Featuring two versions for easy setup and seamless compatibility, users can choose from the multimedia burning solution for Mac or PC. The Windows® version comes with Creator Suite 10, while the combined Mac® and Windows version comes with Toast 9 Basic, as well as Creator Suite 10.
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- Hard Disks
Toshiba Storage Device Division (SDD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. and the pioneer in small form factor hard disk drives (HDDs), today announced a new family of high-performance 7,200 RPM 2.5-inch HDDs, including a top-end half-terabyte capacity.
The four-model line-up delivers more than a 13 percent performance improvement in disk operations compared to Toshiba's previous 7,200 RPM family, while decreasing environmental impact by eliminating or reducing the use of certain toxic and hazardous chemicals. The series also carries the SATA-certified 3Gb/s logo, which indicates successful completion of stringent interface compliance testing defined by the Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO), the industry body responsible for setting the standards for Serial ATA interface technologies.
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- Optical Storage
Plextor announces its latest internal SATA DVD writer – the 24x PX-880SA is the fastest drive in its optical range. It features a new improved Plextor chassis design that reduces noise and greatly improves writing quality – making it ideal for all users in the home, home-office and the larger organisation.
While burning at 24x speed, air flow can cause inconvenient acoustic noise within other chassis on the market. Plextor new unique drive design regulates the air flow, reduces the amount of noise created, and at the same time enhances writing and reading quality.
The PX-880SA incorporates a host of features including PlexERASE, PlexUTILITIES, LightScribe technology, and more. It even bundles Nero 9 Essentials burning software for all your digital media needs.
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- Flash Memory
Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, will start shipping the first PCI Express RAIDDriveTM SSDs in early October.
RAIDDrive is designed to break the throughput bottleneck in the storage subsystem by removing the bandwidth limitation of the SATA bus. The PCIe Gen. 2.0 x8 interface used by RAIDDrive SSDs supports 4GB/sec bandwidth, more than ten times that of the SATA-II 3Gbps bus, and five times greater than the not yet available SATA-III bus.
Using patent pending RAID architecture that is optimized for NAND flash memory, RAIDDrive is able to support sequential read speeds of up to 1.4GB/sec. A turbocharged cache system with up to 1GB of DRAM cache enables sequential write speeds as fast as 1.2GB/sec. RAIDDrive, which houses four discrete SATA SSDs, comes in a custom aluminum enclosure measuring 258 x 112 x 25 mm. Higher capacity RAIDDrive models use the RAIDDrive Expander – a separate PCIe card – to hold a total of eight SATA SSDs.
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- Flash Memory
OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and flash-based storage as an alternative to hard disk drives (HDDs), today unveiled the Z-Drive, a PCI-Express Solid State Drive (SSD) designed to meet the stringent demands of enterprise computing clients. Unlike other solutions, the Z-Drive provides a cost-effective formula of performance, reliability, and upkeep for enterprise customers and their applications which require the benefits of solid state drive technology, but have previously been hesitant to adopt competing products due to the sheer cost of implementation.
“Traditional enterprise storage technology typically requires overly complex infrastructure as well costly maintenance, and is often unable to deliver the level of performance required by OEM applications,” said Ryan Petersen, CEO of the OCZ Technology Group. “The new OCZ Z-Drive is an all-in-one high performance plug-and-play bootable PCI-E solid state drive that addresses these challenges head on, and meets the demands of the complete range of enterprise storage and data access requirements. The Z-Drive is designed not only to be higher performing and more reliable than conventional solutions, but also to significantly reduce both the maintenance and overall TCO for our clients.”
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- Network Storage
Extending the company’s line of easy-to-use storage solutions that help people enjoy, share and store their digital content, Seagate today announced the next evolution of network storage – FreeAgent DockStar™ network adapter, an amazingly simple way to access and share your digital content with anyone from anywhere.
Increasingly, people are enjoying the benefits of being always connected, yet there still remains a gap in easily connecting people back to their content at home and sharing it with others. The DockStar network adapter reinvents how people think of anywhere access and the concept of sharing their digital files. It allows the FreeAgent Go™ portable hard drive to be added to a network, giving access to its content from anywhere within or outside of the home, as well as allowing for selective sharing of files with friends and family. In a matter of minutes a drive can become accessible through any Internet connected computer, as well as through an innovative iPhone application.
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- Software
Whether you're watching a Blu-ray Disc® or an AVCHD™ or SD home movie, WinDVD Pro 2010 provides the life-like video quality that people expect from an HD experience. Increased format support lets you watch popular video formats, even direct from your camera or camcorder. New support for BD-Live gives access to bonus features and exciting new ways to interact with your disc content. The software is also designed for the latest technologies in Windows® 7, giving users hands-on control when used with Windows Touch enabled hardware.
"With more than 200 million units sold around the world, WinDVD is widely recognized as the industry’s best DVD and Blu-ray playback software and with the latest version we wanted to take our users’ experiences with the software even further. Every enhancement in WinDVD Pro 2010 was designed to provide the best possible PC movie experience. Thanks to the new performance enhancements, actions across the entire application are faster, fine details and special effects are clearer and users can now have full access to interactive content. And it is all delivered through a clean and easy-to-use interface that supports Windows 7 and Windows Touch,” said Nick Davies, Senior Vice President of Product Management and Product Marketing at Corel.
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- Home Entertainment
Seagate, the worldwide leader in hard disk drives and storage solutions, today unveiled its new FreeAgent Theater+(TM) [Plus] HD media player, the next generation home theater solution designed to instantly and easily connect your digital media library to your home entertainment system.
The FreeAgent Theater+ HD media player leverages a docking system unique to Seagate FreeAgent Go(TM) portable drives and accessories, providing a quick and easy way to connect your external hard drive to your television or home entertainment center. After loading the drive with your favorite movies, videos, music and pictures from the home PC, simply slide it into the FreeAgent Theater+ dock to get instant access to your digital media library. With the FreeAgent Theater+ player, you can just sit back, relax, point, click and enjoy as digitally captured memories and your favorite movies come to life in 1080p HD video, DTS(TM) 2.0 + Digital Out, or Dolby Digital technology. The interface is easily navigated with the included remote control, and you can choose from video, photos or music with the up/down arrows on the remote to make your selection.
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- Optical Storage
With Sanyo, Sony and Hitachi manufacturing most of the world's Blu-ray pick-up heads (PUHs), many smaller companies have been faced with ongoing shortages. To boost the supply, optical drive manufacturers from Taiwan and Japan have joined together to open their own Blu-ray PUH facility in the Central Taiwan Science Park. According to the Taiwan Economic News, the facility will eventally have 15 production lines, capable of producing 18 million pick-up heads a year.
Seven manufacturers of optic-disc drives from Taiwan and Japan yesterday announced their plan to open 15 lines for Blu-ray optical pickup unit production in the Central Taiwan Science Park at a cost of NT$2.5 billion (US$75 million at US$1:NT$33).
The seven manufacturers include Forward Electronics Co., Ltd. (Taiwan), Genius Electronic Optical Co., Ltd. (Taiwan), Tera Autotech Corp., Inc. (Taiwan), Sunext Technology Co., Ltd. (Taiwan), and TDK-owned SAE Magnetic Ltd. (Japan).
