SMART Storage Systems, an innovative and rapidly emerging enterprise SSD technology provider, today announced that it has enabled the use of multi-level cell (MLC) Flash throughout the enterprise environment with the addition of the new Optimus Ultra+ solid-state drive (SSD) to its current line-up of industry-leading enterprise SSDs. With the release of Optimus Ultra+, SMART Storage Systems' lineup of MLC-based SSDs satisfy every critical enterprise storage endurance point within the data center. Optimus Ultra+ leverages the Guardian Technology Platform™ to achieve 50 drive writes per day with cost effective consumer-grade MLC Flash, effectively eliminating the need for single-level cell (SLC) Flash in write-intensive storage applications.
Analyst firm IDC predicts that the volume of digital content will grow to approximately 2.7 Zettabytes in 2012, up nearly 48 percent from 2011. As enterprise organizations deal with this tremendous growth of information and the need for access to data in near real-time, SSDs must be deployed in all tiers of the data center to provide the necessary throughput. Before SMART Storage Systems' announcement today, enterprise organizations were forced to deploy SLC Flash-based SSDs for many storage applications because MLC Flash lacked the required endurance. Due to SLC Flash's high cost, enterprise organizations often settled for lower-performing hard disk drives (HDDs) creating bottlenecks in the data center, or continually swapped out MLC-based SSDs.
LSI Corporation today introduced its latest MegaRAID 6Gb/s SAS+SATA controllers and host bus adapters (HBAs) featuring the PCI Express 3.0 interface.
Seven new LSI MegaRAID controllers are offered with four or eight ports and provide a powerful combination of intelligent performance, enterprise RAID data protection and proven interoperability. Three new LSI HBA models provide state-of-the-art connectivity for servers and appliances in a variety of enterprise-level environments including corporate datacenters, the cloud and high-performance computing.
“In the face of massive data growth, system builders and resellers are racing to meet increasing demand for larger, more scalable systems that deliver reliability and high performance,” said Brent Blanchard, director of worldwide channel sales and marketing, LSI. “The addition of PCIe 3.0 on the new MegaRAID controllers and HBAs brings dramatically higher levels of performance and allows greater system design flexibility, with proven LSI product quality and reliability.”
The MegaRAID controllers announced today increase performance and protection for business and mission-critical data stored on high-performance SAS hard drives, high-capacity SATA hard drives or application-accelerating solid state drives (SSDs). Each controller is powered by the LSI SAS 2208/2308 RAID-on-Chip using 6Gb/s SAS technology and includes dual 800MHz PowerPC® Processor cores with 1GB cache memory.
Mimoco, creator of the MIMOBOT line of designer USB flash drives and MIMOMICRO card readers, is announcing the release of Star Wars MIMOBOT Series 8 featuring iconic characters from Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. The eighth series in the Star Wars MIMOBOT collection includes Jabba the Hutt, Slave Leia, Jedi Luke, Admiral Ackbar, and Biker Scout – a joint 2012 San Diego Comic-Con and Star Wars Celebration VI exclusive – all sporting classic stylized MIMOBOT designs.
“We’re over the forest moon of Endor with this latest in our series of Star Wars MIMOBOT flash drives. It’s one of our best yet with a little something for every fan”, says Scott Seraydarian, Director of Media at Mimoco. “There's cute, there's sexy; there are heroes, villains, and even sluglike gangsters. Series 8 continues the tradition of bringing our favorite Star Wars characters to the world of designer personal tech.”
Buffalo Technology, a global leader in the design, development and manufacturing of wired and wireless networking and network and direct attached storage solutions, today announced the availability of the MiniStation Thunderbolt / USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive. Demonstrated earlier this month at Computex in Taiwan, the MiniStation Thunderbolt is the world's first portable Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 dual-interface external drive solution. With the flexibility of either SuperSpeed USB 3.0 or a lighting fast Thunderbolt connection, the MiniStation Thunderbolt is ideal for PC and Mac® users looking for the fastest interface speeds while preserving backward compatibility with existing devices that support USB 2.0.
"With the creation and transferring of digital content accelerating at ever increasing paces, protecting that data on the go continues to be a challenge for all types of users," said Brian Verenkoff, director of marketing at Buffalo Technology. "With the MiniStation Thunderbolt, consumers can now move or backup digital assets faster, simplify connections between devices, maintain compatibility with nearly any device and foster new and exciting ways to use portable storage."
SK Hynix announced its launch of client SSD (Solid State Drive). The SSD features faster speed and low power consumption than HDD (Hard Disk Drive) so it is expected to replace the HDD as another type of storage for PCs and other applications.
The first ever SK Hynix’s client 2.5” SSD consists of ONFI synchronous NAND Flash memory using 20nm class process and densities of 128GB (Gigabyte) and 256GB are available. It significantly improves the speed and reliability by adopting SATA III interface with data transmissions at 6Gb/s (Gigabits per second). This high performance SSD generates sequential read speeds of 510MB/s (Megabytes per second) and sequential write speeds of 470MB/s. It is three or four times faster than the traditional HDD.
The SSD products support multiple management functions including ‘TRIM’ feature to boost speed by wiping data internally. It also has an ‘End-to-End Protection’ feature to prevent data loss and reinforces security of the data by using encryption algorithm of 128bit AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) to ensure the security of the data.
Seagate Technology plc the worldwide leader in hard disk drives and storage solutions, and DensBits Technologies Ltd (DensBits) the inventor of the world's first Memory Modem have announced today a strategic agreement for the development of low-cost, high-performance Solid State Drives (SSD) for the consumer and enterprise markets. In conjunction with the agreement, Seagate has made an undisclosed equity investment in DensBits.
Seagate and DensBits are joining forces, to develop future products that are intended to provide customers with significant cost savings, extremely high reliability, and unparalleled performance. Under the agreement, DensBits’ Memory Modem controller technology will be integrated with Seagate’s various storage technologies to power a wide range of consumer and enterprise applications including 3 bits/cell (TLC) 1Xnm Flash-based consumer-grade SSD, and 2 bits/cell (MLC) 1Xnm Flash-based enterprise-grade SSD.
“For the last 30 years, Seagate has delivered technology and product innovation to become the global leader in storage solutions, from high-end enterprise drives to solid-state hybrid drives,” said Rocky Pimentel, Seagate chief sales and marketing officer. “Seagate is excited to be working with the talented DensBits team and believes we have a significant opportunity with our new strategic relationship to extend our leadership into the SSD market.”
Sony Electronics Inc. today announced the availability and pricing of the NSZ-GS7 Internet Player with Google TV, originally introduced in January at CES. Powered by Google TV, the Internet Player will be available at retailers nationwide on July 22, priced at $199. Pre-orders begin on June 25, 2012 at www.sony.com/sonygoogletv.
"Expanding the reach and interoperability of the powerful Android platform with Sony's smartphones, tablets and renowned Audio & Video products, we are proud to continue our relationship with Google through the introduction of the new Google TV set-top-box," said Phil Molyneux, president and chief operating officer of Sony Electronics. "Entertainment content is available through so many channels and sites, and Google TV helps consumers easily find what they want to watch, listen to or play using familiar search engine technology, enhancing the viewer experience. TV will never be the same."
In addition to the NSZ-GS7 Internet Player, Sony's newest Internet Blu-ray Disc player with Google TV, the NSZ-GP9, will be available at retailers in time for the holiday season, priced at $299. The NSZ-GP9 player features Sony's proven Blu-ray Disc technology coupled with the robust Google TV platform.
G-Technology today announced a new line of portable and desktop USB 3.0 storage solutions for a broad range of users from consumers to audio/video professionals. Given the brand's strength in the content creation and Apple Mac® community, G-Technology is well positioned to move the Mac industry forward in leveraging high-capacity, high-performance USB 3.0 drives across a variety of customer segments, all while delivering one of the industry's most respected external storage platforms with proven quality, reliability and performance.
Today, new kinds of devices and media formats require considerably more interface bandwidth and higher transfer rates to move, store and edit data quickly. Backward compatible with USB 2.0, G-Technology's USB 3.0 drives deliver speeds 10 times faster than USB 2.0 and six times faster than FireWire 800. This means that users can now transfer two full-length movies from a G-Technology USB 3.0 drive to a computer in minutes.
Other World Computing announced today the OWC Mercury Electra MAX 3G 960GB SSD as the highest capacity 2.5″ Solid State Drive ever offered by OWC. This high-performance 3.0Gb/s SATA Solid State Drive offers Mac and PC users maximum storage capacity along with the test-proven, award-winning performance of Mercury brand SSDs to meet real-world software applications demands.
The majority of notebooks no longer contain an optical drive, so fading fast are the days where computer users could add a second internal drive with a product like the OWC Data Doubler for a Plug and Play capacity increase. For these single drive bay machines, as well as desktop machines with limited open bays, a computer user’s only solution is to add the biggest capacity drive available. The Mercury Electra MAX 3G SSD offers the highest capacity available—960GB— in a 2.5″ Solid State Drive.
Designed specifically for mass storage uses such as A/V files, image libraries, and databases, the Mercury Electra MAX 3G 960GB SSD offers near instantaneous access of large volumes of data. With data transfer rates over 250MB/s, it offers the best combination of speed and capacity offered in the industry standard 2.5″ SSD size.
Drobo, maker of award-winning data storage products for businesses and professionals, today announced a wide range of industry firsts with innovations in a new generation of storage devices for personal and professional users. The Drobo 5D and Drobo Mini—the world’s smallest and most portable full-featured storage array—are designed to accelerate workflows for creative professionals managing data-intensive files; home media enthusiasts looking to consolidate and accelerate video, photo, and music files; and small businesses that need fast, portable backup to protect large amounts of data. Drobo, widely recognized as the maker of the easiest-to-use storage device, has added advanced performance with Thunderbolt, USB 3.0, automated SSD acceleration, and greatly enhanced hardware and software architectures to the new systems.
“In my 30 years covering the technology industry, I have not seen something as portable, scalable and powerful as the Drobo Mini,” said Rob Enderle, principal analyst for The Enderle Group. “The SMB and prosumer market is clamoring for a plug-and-play storage product because it lacks the technical expertise and resources to manage complex storage systems. With the new Drobo products, there is no question that this enigma is solved.”