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Micron Technology, Inc. (MU) today introduced the M500 solid state drive (SSD), featuring terabyte-class capacity, new ultra-slim package designs, and increased response times at a more affordable price point. Available to consumers, businesses, and system builders under the Crucial brand, and to OEM customers under the Micron brand, the new M500 SSD is built start-to-finish by Micron, providing the quality and reliability that only a NAND flash memory and SSD manufacturer can provide. Watch this behind-the-scenes video to see how Micron designs and builds SSDs.
The M500 SSD utilizes Micron's award-winning, 20-nanometer (nm) multilevel cell (MLC) NAND flash to achieve terabyte-class capacity and enable a new level of SSD price competitiveness; the 960GB Crucial M500 SSD will be initially priced under $600.
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Etron Technology, Inc. introduces a new flash drive controller, EV2669, of Etron’s USB 3.0 Flash Drive Accelerator (FDA) series, in addition to its EV1669 product recently announced at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). EV2669 enables Etron’s USB 3.0 flash drive customers to deliver unprecedented read and write speeds of 260 and 235 megabytes per second with MLC (Multiple Level Cell) flash memories without additional host drivers or software required. Moreover, EV2669 meets customer demands for large data storage by supporting flash memory capacities up to 128GB.
EV2669 utilizes Etron’s proprietary Flash Driver Accelerator technology to improve the overall performance of NAND flash memory access by leveraging advanced firmware algorithms and high-performance flash interface engines. It has been adopted in the products of top-tier USB 3.0 flash drive makers, many of which are exhibited at the 2013 CES.
EV2669 employs a dual-channel design and advanced 72-bit Error Check and Correction (ECC) functionality for all MLC/ TLC NAND flash memories made of 2x nm or 1x nm advanced CMOS technologies from various flash memory manufacturers. It supports 4 CE (Channel Enable) pins per channel in a 64-QFN (9x9 mm) package or 8 CE pins per channel in a 88-QFN (10x10 mm) package, with up to a total of 16 CE pins.
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Mushkin, Inc., an industry-leading designer and manufacturer of highperformance and mission-critical computer products, today announced the worldwide launch of its new 960GB Chronos solid-state drive (SSD), slated to start shipping this month.
The newest addition to the Chronos line of SSDs offers 960GB of space, almost double the storage capacity of typical 2.5‐inch form factor drives. The much higher storage capacity, combined with the performance and reliability benefits of an SSD, make the 960GB Chronos an ideal choice for disk intensive applications like workstations and servers.
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Transcend Information, Inc. (Transcend), a worldwide leader in storage and multimedia products, today announced the launch of its SD/microSD memory card copy protection solutions. Partially-protected and partially-free areas, read-only CD emulation, customized device security, excellent compatibility and high capacity are some of the features that make Transcend’s Copy Protection SD/microSD cards ideal for use in OEM applications and distributing multimedia files.
For publishers of audio or video files, or educational institutions looking to distribute course material to students, SD and microSD memory cards present a portable and cost effective way to deliver digital content. Transcend’s Copy Protection SD/microSD cards ensure the safety of valuable intellectual property by allowing access to media while preventing end users from making unauthorized copies. For added value, any space not utilized by pre-loaded data can be freely used as a normal SD card. When the protected data is deleted, the previously occupied capacity will be released as free space. Another available option is to make the entire SD/microSD card read-only so that end users cannot write to, modify or delete any part of the card capacity; only executing pre-loaded content is allowed in this optional configuration.
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SMART Storage Systems, an innovative enterprise solid-state drive (SSD) technology provider, today announced that the company has extended its CloudSpeed product line with the introduction of two new drives, the CloudSpeed 1000 and CloudSpeed 1000E. While leveraging cost-effective 19nm consumer-grade multi-level cell (MLC) Flash and enhancing its base endurance with SMART Storage Systems award winning Guardian Technology Platform, the new CloudSpeed SSDs deliver up to 5x better endurance than competing MLC-based SSDs, resulting in the lowest cost per terabyte written (TBW) in the industry. This enables enterprise customers to better control their storage total cost of ownership (TCO).
"By 2017, SSD prices will fall 35 percent annually, but the reliability of the Flash used will decline nearly 30 percent1," according to a recent Gartner conference presentation. The anticipated drop in Flash reliability poses as a significant challenge in the enterprise market as SSD manufacturers further leverage MLC Flash to meet cost reduction goals, while real-time applications and cloud computing services increase the amount of data being written to drives. Until today, data center managers frequently deployed SSDs leveraging consumer-grade MLC Flash to provide the performance required at a low price-per-gigabyte. However, SSDs that leverage standard, non-endurance enhanced consumer-grade MLC Flash wear-out quickly in enterprise environments. This results in storage TCO skyrocketing as organizations need to replace SSDs multiple times during the warranty period.
