OCZ Technology Group, Inc, a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced that its SAS-based Talos 2 SSDs will be showcased during Microsoft’s North American TechEd (technology education) conferences. With this partnership, TechEd participants will get a firsthand look at the upcoming Windows Server 2012 and how it delivers the enterprise-class storage capabilities that IT departments require. OCZ Talos 2 drives will be highlighted in various Windows Server 2012 demonstrations showing their leading application performance and data access, high endurance and reliability, seamless integration of 2.5-inch form factors, and true dual-ported SAS capabilities.

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TechEd event is Microsoft's premier technology conference for IT professionals and developers, offering the most comprehensive technical education of Microsoft's current and future suite of products, solutions, and services, and utilizes hands-on learning, in-depth product exploration, and other opportunities that build relationships within the Microsoft community. TechEd begins June 11 in Orlando, Florida, and continues on to Europe in late June for IT professionals and developers to keep their fingers on the pulse of the latest Microsoft technologies and platforms. In conjunction with the TechEd events in North America and Europe, OCZ Talos 2 SSDs will be featured in a permanent demo display rack at the Microsoft Technology Center in New York City.

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PROMISE Technology Inc., a leader in providing high-performance storage solutions for the rich media market and the leader in designing cutting-edge Thunderbolt enabled devices today introduced the Pegasus J2, the world's fastest ultraportable Thunderbolt storage device, capable of delivering up to 750MB/s in a device the size of a smartphone. Pegasus J2 brings an unparalleled level of performance in a small form factor to the market enabling both consumers and media professionals to manage the explosion of unstructured data and digital assets critical to their creative projects. The J2 is the perfect complement for MacBook Air and MacBook Pro.

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Compatible with all Thunderbolt enabled Macs, the PROMISE Pegasus J2 is a pocket-sized, blazing fast external storage device that offers up to half a Terabyte of storage and is available in 256GB and 512GB capacities. The Pegasus J2 is flash-based making it the ideal solution for anyone who craves extreme performance in the consumer and professional post-production markets. This addition to its internationally award winning Pegasus line boasts a cutting edge, compact product design with an emphasis on reducing the footprint coupled with reduced environmental noise.

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Seagate Technology plc today introduced Backup Plus storage devices – its reinvented consumer storage product family that delivers the easiest setup, one-click backup and the ability to save and share your content on Facebook and Flickr.

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Seagate Backup Plus hard drives are newly designed external storage that work interchangeably with both Windows® and Apple® computers and deliver new features to protect, share and save nearly every aspect of one’s digital life. These products come loaded with the new hassle-free Seagate Dashboard software for one-click local backup making it easier than ever to eliminate excuses or apprehensions about backing up one’s most valuable digital content. Seagate Backup Plus products are the world’s first external hard drives to provide backup for content on social networks, such as Facebook and Flickr. Storing a local duplicate copy of photos from social networks is now as easy as backing up files on your computer. Seagate Backup Plus will provide the peace of mind that every aspect of one’s digital life is safe from loss.

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LSI Corporation is committed to delivering the highest quality and most reliable Flash Storage Processors (FSP) in the marketplace. As part of a detailed validation and quality assurance analysis of the security implementation in the SF-2000 series FSP, it was discovered that the AES-XTS engine was restricted to 128-bit encryption.

This issue affects the limited set of users who currently require 256-bit encryption. The necessary hardware and firmware updates are currently in process to enable full 256-bit encryption for those customers who need it.

“AES-128” and “AES-256” refer to encryption key lengths of 128 and 256 bits respectively; the higher the number of bits in a key, the stronger the level of encryption.

LSI believes AES 128-bit encryption meets the data encryption requirements of most customers. Customers that believe they require 256-bit encryption should contact their SSD manufacturer to obtain specific information about their SSD.

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Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, along with LSI, its SSD processor partner, have recently been in discussions related to the encryption capabilities of the SF-2000 platform. It was discovered that the ’self encrypting’ feature that Kingston® markets on both the SSDNow V+200 and KC100 lines runs in 128-bit AES encryption mode, not the originally stated 256-bit mode. Both AES modes encrypt and secure the data on the SSD from unauthorized access ― just to different encryption standards.

Kingston is working with LSI to correct this and to ensure that future production of the aforementioned drives delivers 256-bit AES encryption mode.

Feedback from Kingston's customer base regarding the SSDNow V+200 and KC100 model SSDs does not indicate that the encryption feature is critical or widely used in most deployments. Kingston’s teams will work closely with customers who require 256-bit AES encryption to ensure that they are taken care of, and are able to swap out their current drives for ones with the correct encryption level when it becomes available. Kingston customers with further questions are encouraged to contact Kingston technical support for additional clarification.

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As part of ongoing quality assurance, Intel Corporation has discovered a limitation of the AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) encryption feature in the Intel SSD 520 Series, code-named Cherryville. Intel has published a specification update for the Intel SSD 520 Series product, updating the specification from AES 256-bit encryption to AES 128-bit encryption. Other Intel Solid-State Drives with data encryption, such as Intel SSD 320 Series, also feature AES 128-bit encryption.

The AES feature in the Intel SSD 520 Series, when used in combination with a strong user and master HDD password (if supported, consult your system manufacturer), helps secure the data from access by anyone that does not know the password. AES 128-bit refers to the length of the key used for data encryption. In the Intel SSD 520 Series, the key length is 128 bits. The higher the number of bits in a key, the stronger the level of encryption. Intel believes AES 128-bit encryption meets the data encryption requirements of most customers.

Intel stands behind its products and is committed to product quality, and is working to bring AES 256-bit encryption to future products. If, however, our customers are not satisfied with the 128-bit encryption in an Intel 520 Series SSD purchased before July 1, 2012, they can contact Intel customer support prior to October 1, 2012 to return their product and Intel is offering to provide a full refund of the purchase price. For further information or questions about this specification change, consumers should contact Intel Customer Support.

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Link_A_Media Devices (LAMD), a leader in the development of semiconductor SoC (System on Chip) solutions for the data storage market, today unveiled its flagship high-performance LM87800 SATA 6G SSD controller with proprietary eBoost technology. The highly-integrated device brings enterprise-class performance and endurance enhancement to the rapidly growing client SSD market.

Designed to deliver superior performance, the architecture deploys extensive hardware acceleration, dedicated host-side and NAND-side ARM® microcontrollers and a 6Gb/s SATA host interface, enabling the LM87800 to deliver industry-leading performance of 90K sustained random read/write IOPS and 550 MB/s sustained sequential read/write throughput. The LM87800 is fabricated on a low-power and low-leakage process technology and employs sophisticated power management techniques to achieve ultra-low power consumption.

The LM87800 features highly robust data recovery capability based on Link_A_Media Device's eBoostTM technology. eBoost significantly enhances the endurance of current and future generation NAND flash to bring enterprise-class reliability and lifetime to client SSDs while maintaining superior performance throughout the life of the SSD. eBoost achieves these key system objectives through the use of proprietary adaptive signal estimation techniques coupled with powerful on-the-fly error correction technology.

With 8 NAND channels supporting the high-speed ONFi 2.3 and Toggle 1 flash interfaces, the LM87800 can access up to 1 terabyte of commodity NAND flash while also cost-effectively supporting today’s mainstream SSD capacities of 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB. The LM87800 supports NAND flash from all major vendors including SLC, MLC and eMLC flash families.

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NETGEAR, Inc., a global networking company that delivers innovative products to consumers, businesses and service providers, today announced the NETGEAR NeoTV Pro HD Streaming Player (NTV200S), the latest addition to the NETGEAR NeoTV streaming player family of products. NeoTV Pro offers high quality streaming content from a wide variety of online channels and is the world's first streaming player to offer wireless display capability using Intel® Wireless Display (WiDi).

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With the NeoTV Pro, users can choose from a large selection of streaming movies, TV shows and music from streaming services like Netflix, Hulu Plus, Vudu, YouTube, Pandora and many others, and instantly stream it to their TVs in up to full 1080p HD and surround sound from the comfort of their living room. And now, for customers that are not satisfied with hundreds of streaming channels but want the worldwide web on the big screen, the NeoTV Pro enables consumers to wirelessly display virtually any type of content from an Intel WiDi laptop to a TV, including sport broadcasts that are only online, movies, music, photos and any Internet site.

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STEC, Inc., The SSD Company, a leading global provider of solid-state drive (SSD) technologies and products, today announced the general availability of the company's EnhanceIO SSD Cache Software. The company offers Linux and Windows versions. In addition, a Linux version of EnhanceIO SSD Cache Software, based on Facebook's Flashcache caching module, will be made available under a general public license (GPLv2).

"Today's IT managers need to cope not only with data growth but also the need for faster application response times," said Jim Ting, vice president of product marketing at STEC. "SSD caching extends the useful life of a company's existing SAN by offloading read IOs to the SSD cache, enabling the SAN to process other IO activity."

"As one of the original architects of Flashcache, I'm extremely pleased to see this technology being enhanced and supported by STEC in their EnhanceIO software," said Mohan Srinivasan, software engineer at Facebook. "Flashcache has proven to be an invaluable tool for accelerating application performance at Facebook. We believe organizations can benefit from the improved application performance and user experience enabled by using STEC's enhanced and supported version of Flashcache."

STEC has submitted a version of the EnhanceIO SSD Cache Software source code to the Linux open-source community. This will reduce the barrier to entry for organizations who want the superior user experience and application performance of SSDs at a lower cost.

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Samsung Electronics America, Inc., a market leader and award-winning innovator in consumer electronics, announced today that its SSD 830 Series advanced internal solid state drives (SSDs) will include a downloadable version of the highly anticipated game Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier with purchase of the 128 GB, 256 GB or 512 GB models (while supplies last) in the U.S. and Canada. 

For a limited time, consumers that purchase those drives will find a code inside the box to enable a download of the full PC version of the newly released game from Ubisoft (see URL for terms and conditions).

Samsung 830 Series SSDs incorporate a high-performance Serial ATA Revision 3.0 interface, which provides twice the data bandwidth of previous-generation interfaces. The drives are an ideal option for users who want to upgrade their computing experience without purchasing an entirely new PC, or for anyone building a system and wanting maximum performance.

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