Toshiba’s Storage Products Business Unit of Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc., a committed technology leader, today announced it is expanding its enterprise Solid State Drives (eSSD) family with the PX-Series, featuring three models targeted for various enterprise applications: boot, read-intensive, entry level servers; entry-to-mid-range application servers; and high-performance enterprise application servers. The PX-Series reflects Toshiba’s continued storage innovation and coincides with the company’s celebration of its 25th anniversary as the inventor of NAND flash technology. Each model is optimized for its target segment with NAND flash processes, capacity, interface support, and capabilities.

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High-Performance: Targeted at applications requiring the highest levels of eSSD performance, the PX02SM series is Toshiba’s first eSSD to utilize 24nm eMLC (enterprise multi-level cell) NAND technology, with capacities of 200/400/800GB and 1.6TB, and is Toshiba’s first offering with a dual-port 12Gb/sec SAS interface with a form-factor equivalent to industry-standard 2.5inch HDDs.

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Hauppauge Digital, Inc., the world's leading developer and manufacturer of TV tuners and HD video recorders, has launched their latest high definition video game recorder, HD PVR 2 Gaming Edition, at the gamescom2012 gaming show in Cologne, Germany. HD PVR 2 Gaming Edition will have a list price of $169 - and features high definition HDMI and Component video recording at up to 1080p30, plus HDMI "no delay pass-through" so gamers can record their game play while playing the game on a TV monitor.

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The HD PVR 2 Gaming Edition is a complete kit for gamers who want to record their Sony PlayStation®3 or Xbox® 360 game play in high definition. HD PVR 2 Gaming Edition features near-perfect video quality and records HD video from either HDMI or Component video at up to 1080p30. Gamers can share their best video gameplay with friends on YouTube by using the included Arcsoft Showbiz application to record and then upload videos. HD PVR 2 Gaming Edition also allows users to produce their own movies from their gameplay.

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OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, will showcase its latest storage products, encompassing a mix of both solid state drives and software solutions, at this year’s Flash Memory Summit, Booth #208, Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, California, from August 21st through August 23rd.

Demonstrating SSD products along with recent partner implementations, OCZ will showcase a comprehensive lineup of innovative solutions for business, server, and OEM clients.  This includes product presentations of both the impending Intrepid 3 SATA III-based SSD solution based on the company’s Indilinx Everest 2 architecture, along with the company’s leading PCI Express (PCIe)-based Z-Drive R4 featuring new Linux Acceleration software (LXL) that unleashes the full performance potential of infrastructures that use this popular open source operating system. Live technical demos of LXL and Z-Drive R4 SSDs will include a VDI boot storm, efficient SQL CPU utilization, and vMotion and Fault Tolerance support. 

Additional booth demonstrations will include OCZ’s acceleration of SQL Server 2012 databases using its leading Z-Drive R4 PCIe SSD with VXL Cache and Virtualization software. This combined hardware/software solution dramatically increases SQL Server 2012 transactional IOPS performance, reduces database read latencies, and improves query completion times. OCZ will also demonstrate Talos 2 Series SAS-based drives showcasing the performance advantages of a true full duplex, dual-port SAS 6Gb/s SSD in a Microsoft Cluster in a Box (CiB) solution, further leveraging the strengths of OCZ’s storage drives when paired with leading partner systems.   

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SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, today marked the 25-year anniversary of flash memory, the transformational technology used by billions of consumers and countless businesses in smartphones, tablets, ultra-thin laptops, data centers and other electronic devices.

Companies such as SanDisk have increased the capacity of flash memory by 30,000 times while decreasing its cost by 50,000 times over the past two decades. SanDisk's first product, a 20 megabyte solid state drive (SSD), sold for $1,000 in 1991 but would cost only two cents today. This efficiency has driven the wide adoption of flash memory and enabled the smart digital lifestyle of anywhere, anytime access to digital content. Flash memory fuels the three forces behind this trend - mobile computing, pervasive connectivity and the proliferation of digital content.

"We started SanDisk in 1988 with the belief that flash memory would enable entire industries and enrich the lives of billions of people," said Sanjay Mehrotra, president, chief executive officer and co-founder of SanDisk. "Demand for flash is greater than ever, and it's an exciting time to lead an industry that holds such tremendous potential for the future."

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To streamline the operation of machine rooms and cut down on hosting fees, many enterprises adopt compact 1U rack servers for a smaller machinery footprint, decrease in cost and increase in processing speeds. The purpose is to achieve a more efficient management on the part of IT personnel. With this trend going mainstream, and after having garnering the Taiwan Excellence Awards for its compact SATA modules, Apacer has added a new series of SDM4 mini industrial SSDs to the lineup.

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Tailored for the 1U server, the new series boasts upgraded speeds and a doubling of capacity. The minimum height is only 30.35mm, enhancing the air ventilation inside the 1U chassis. With the SATA connector on the left or right side of the PCB and with different types of casings, the SSD is available for customers' diverse choices. In this way, it meets the needs for various setups and is suitable for system startup/booting as a high-stability storage solution. 

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Fujitsu Limited and Fujitsu Laboratories Limited today announced the development of the PC industry's first recycling system that collects used CDs and DVDs at Fujitsu Group recycling centers and reuses the plastic in the bodies of notebook PCs. Fujitsu began using this recycled plastic for part of the front panel of its LIFEBOOK P772/E notebook PC for enterprise customers, a model in its summer 2012 lineup.

To avoid the risk of contaminants being mixed into the recycled plastic, the new recycling system performs quality control based on a chemical substances risk management database developed by Fujitsu Laboratories, thereby ensuring that notebook PCs and other ICT devices comply with legal requirements for chemical components. Compared to conventional notebook PC manufacturing processes, this system is expected to reduce the amount of newly produced plastic used by 10 tons per year while cutting CO2 emissions by approximately 15%.

Going forward, Fujitsu plans to expand the use of this system to other notebook PCs and products as a way to reduce its environmental footprint and resource consumption. The Fujitsu Group is proud to promote the recycling of end-of-life ICT products in Japan and around the world to help create a recycling-minded society.

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Creative Technology Ltd today announced its new ultra high-performance Z-Series of Sound Blaster PCI-Express sound cards, elevating the standards of technology and performance for the future of gaming and entertainment on the PC.  Creative will preview the new Sound Blaster ZxR, Sound Blaster Zx and Sound Blaster Z at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany from 15-19 August 2012.

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“The audio landscape for gaming and entertainment on the PC has changed.  As content creation and consumption evolves with the interactivity of the Internet, our vision is to enable the best listening experiences for music, video and games, and to transcend the basic concept of sound quality as a specification with enabling technologies that allow users to completely customise their PC audio,” said Low Long Chye, Director of Product Marketing for Audio.  “For audio playback, we use studio-grade components to deliver outstanding fidelity, and then greatly enhance the listening experience by implementing our SBX Pro Studio™ suite of audio technologies.  This enables complete customisation of audio playback, uniquely catered to suit individual tastes.  Our mixture of outstanding components and proprietary technologies also enables us to provide the highest quality recording experience for audio creation, which today expands beyond just music recording to include user interaction and creation with YouTube, eSports, and more.”

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owc_mercury_auro_pro_rmbp.pngOther World Computing announced today the OWC Mercury Aura Pro as the industry’s first high-performance Solid State Drive upgrade for 2012 MacBook Pro with Retina display (rMBP) computers. Available in 480GB capacity, the 6G (6Gb/s) SandForce Driven Mercury Aura Pro offers rMBP owners 87.5 percent more capacity than the factory 256GB model. Additionally, customers buying the $579.99 MSRP Aura Pro direct from OWC until September 30, 2012, will later receive the OWC Envoy Pro USB 3.0 bus-powered portable enclosure (a $59.95 value) for re-tasking the rMBP’s factory flash module as an external drive at no additional cost.

When introduced this past June, the MacBook Pro with Retina display base model offered a 256GB SSD configuration with no upgrade option. Now, instead of being “factory locked”, rMBP owners can add 87.5 percent more capacity with a 480GB Mercury Aura Pro SSD. The only other and far more costly and time-intensive option for rMBP owners, as discovered by The SSD Review.com, is to upgrade the SSD through an authorized dealer. Making this an even less desirable option is the fact that the original 256GB flash module is retained and sent back to Apple.

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Toshiba’s Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today announced the Canvio Desk Desktop External Hard Drive and the Solid State Drive (SSD) PC Upgrade Kit, both available now on Toshiba Direct starting at $119.99 MSRP and $109.99 MSRP, respectively.

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“With personal storage becoming increasingly prevalent, the need for varying solutions grows and we’re proud to introduce new devices that help round out our already robust line-up,” said Maciek Brzeski, vice president of product marketing and development, Branded Storage Products, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Digital Products Division. “Our new desktop drive and SSD Upgrade Kit are providing our users with the high level of power and performance they’ve come to expect from Toshiba storage solutions.”

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Imation Corp., a global scalable storage and data security company, today announced the expansion of its secure USB hard drive line with capacities of up to 1 terabyte (TB), optional biometric fingerprint authentication, and a uniquely comprehensive set of options for secure USB hard drive management.

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“Enterprise and government organizations increasingly need manageable USB devices in order to provide mobile workers with the tools necessary to work where and when they want, and access the data they need in the most secure way possible,” said Lawrence Reusing, Imation’s general manager for Mobile Security. “People are increasingly turning to USB hard drives to transport large data sets. Our expanding secure hard drive offerings are in response to our customers needing increased capacity without compromising control over the devices and data.”

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