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- Optical Storage
Pioneer Japan sent out a press release this morning, announcing its new 12x Blu-ray Disc writer, the BDR-S06J. 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-S06J also includes features like Pioneer's PowerRead and PureRead2 technologies as well as an advanced firmware that reduces noise by adjusting the rotation speed when playing movies. Pioneer rounds all this out with a software bundle from CyberLink that supports Blu-ray 3D playback via PowerDVD 9.
The BDR-S06J is scheduled to ship in early October and is expected to cost about 30,000 Yen ($361US).
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- Optical Storage
DigiTimes has reported that CMC Magnetics recently obtained certifcation from the Blu-ray Disc Association for its 50GB 6x BD-R DL media. According to the article, they are the first manufacturer outside of Japan to do so.
CMC Magnetics, the largest Taiwan-based maker of blank optical discs, on September 13 announced it has obtained certification from the Blu-ray Disc (BD) Association for its 50GB single-sided double-layer (DL) BD-R (recordable) discs at 6x write/read speed and has started volume production with monthly shipment volume to reach 150,000-200,000 discs beginning October 2010.
CMC is the first maker other than Japan-based ones to obtain the certification, the company pointed out. Based on the technology, CMC has been developing more advanced 3-layer and 4-layer BD-R formats, BDXL, the company indicated
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- Flash Memory
World leading flash memory manufacturer, Silicon Power today announced their Unique 530 that features a sporty style. The “green” silica gel material is pliable and simple in design showing an original sports styling look. The Unique 530 is trendy and available for customers who are fashion conscious.
Silicon Power is always in tune with the ever changing trend and to satisfy various customer needs. The result is the creation of Unique 530, in response to the LOHAS lifestyle, wrapped in an eco-friendly silica gel that is clean, natural and sporty for you to express personal style.
Covered in a unique and soft silica gel material that is comfortable to grip, Unique 530 sets itself apart from other frigid IT products on the market. The silica gel casing makes it more durable than most USB flash drives. It is technologically advanced as the industry’s first to fuse and blend metallic accessories with the eco-friendly silica gel material. The metallic accessories can withstand up to 10kg of pull-force so users can attach it to mobile phones, key chains or bag/ purse carefree.
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- Hard Disks
Sharkoon equips another product from its inventory with a SuperSpeed port: Also the Rapid Case drive enclosure for 2.5" SATA hard drives is available with USB 3.0 access and thus available with data rates up to 5 Gbit/s.
Sharkoon now has nine comprehensive Rapid Case series models aimed at users searching for beneficial and solid external hard drive enclosures for daily use. The sturdy aluminum housings are ideal for flexible data transfer, disk use is completed within a few simple steps. The Rapid Case 2.5" USB 3.0 provides space for 2.5" SATA hard drives with a maximum overall height of 9.5mm, and is quickly and easily connected via USB 3.0 to a PC or Notebook. The Plug&Play housing dimensions are 123 x 78 x 11 mm with an empty weight of 70 grams; the colors black, red and blue are available to own. In shipping you will find a brief instruction manual, screwdriver, a 100 centimeter long USB 3.0 cable (Plug A / Mini USB 3.0) and a transport bag.
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- Software
CyberLink Corp. today announced support for the latest Blu-ray™ Disc technology BDXL™. Released by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) in June 2010, BDXL is a multi-layer recordable Blu-ray format with up to 128GB of capacity. CyberLink Power2Go 7, launched last month, is the first BDXL-compatible software application in the market with further CyberLink product lines to follow shortly.
Support for BDXL means users of CyberLink’s media burning software, Power2Go 7, are now able to burn up to 4 layers of data totaling 128GB on a single Blu-ray Disc, opening up exciting new content storage and archiving possibilities. CyberLink’s long-term focus on providing support for Blu-ray Disc technology developments will see products including PowerDVD, PowerDirector, PowerProducer, and MediaShow introduce BDXL format compatibility in the near future.
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- Home Entertainment
Today at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF), D-Link and Boxee announced the upcoming Boxee Box by D-Link is now powered by the Intel® Atom™ processor CE4100. Additionally, starting today, US customers will be able to pre-order the Boxee Box by D-Link exclusively through Amazon.com at http://amzn.to/boxeeboxbydlink. Units will begin shipping in November 2010 in the US, Canada, EU and Australia.
The award winning Boxee Box by D-Link, first released in December 2009, received critical acclaim from the industry and is highly anticipated by consumers. The product is the first media device capable of playing most popular media file formats from a home network or external hard drive along with free and premium TV shows and movies, videos, music, and photos from the Internet, with support for full 1080p high-definition (HD) and 5.1 surround sound.
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- Other
Today at the Intel Developer Forum, the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) announced nearly 120 products have passed SuperSpeed USB certification testing. Certified products include motherboards, notebooks, external storage devices, storage controllers, hard disk drives, PCI Express and ExpressCard add-in cards and device-enabling silicon, and new device classes continue to emerge.
“Since the first certified SuperSpeed USB product was announced last year at IDF 2009, we have witnessed exponential growth in the ecosystem,” said Jeff Ravencraft, president and chairman, USB-IF. “Strong support from consumers and manufacturers alike and momentum behind the technology continue to drive the industry forward as new SuperSpeed USB products are developed, tested and certified.”
“In-Stat forecasts that SuperSpeed USB, with its high throughput and low power consumption, will gain substantial market penetration in industries requiring transfer of increasingly larger amounts of data," said Brian O’Rourke, Principal Analyst, In-Stat. “Cost is also a key factor in new technology integration, and the aggressive volume pricing for USB 3.0 host controller will help spur adoption.”
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- Software
Sonic Solutions today announced a new version of its high-end Blu-ray Disc production toolset, the Scenarist® BD Workgroup, featuring options for encoding, authoring, debugging, and formatting premium entertainment for commercial release on Blu-ray 3D. Based on its 3DAccess initiative and feedback from a collective of Sonic's professional users who elected to work closely with Sonic to solve the complex 3D production workflow issues, Sonic's new Scenarist-based Blu-ray 3D workgroup offers a host of new capabilities, including:
- Sonic Scenarist BD 5.5 – comprehensive support for Blu-ray 3D Profile 5 authoring. Includes support for 3D MVC video streams, 3D pop-up menu graphics, 3D subtitles, and 3D Java content.
- Sonic CineVision® 3.5 – extensive Multi-view Video Coding (MVC) codec support with deep, segment-based parameter controls to deliver mastering quality 3D video streams. CineVision 3.5 also features a new, more efficient timeline that maintains its industry-defining segment controls while adding new instant preview capabilities for completed 3D encodes.
- Scenarist QC 1.5 – provides real-time Blu-ray 3D emulation and title debugging for Blu-ray 3D authors and QC specialists.
"With 3D capable TVs coming to the market in force this year, we knew we needed to be ready to deliver the high-impact productions we're known for in 3D for our studio clients; and Sonic has been there for us every step of the way," said Thomas Schmithausen, Manager Multi Media Services at Infomedia GmbH, Dortmund, Germany. "We chose Scenarist years ago because of Sonic's on-going development and commitment to enterprise-level production businesses like ours. The Scenarist 3D Workgroup has everything we need to delight our clients, and now in three dimensions!"
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- Flash Memory
Pliant Technology recently announced the expansion of its Lightning product line with two new MLC (multi-level cell) NAND flash storage devices. The Pliant Lightning LB 200M and Lightning LB 400M enterprise flash drives (EFD) are based on an advanced controller design and software architecture that delivers dramatic I/O performance and reliability improvements over existing SSD technology and low energy consumption in demanding enterprise computing environments.
"Pliant's new Lightning LB drives provide IT managers and OEMs with greater system design flexibility," said Greg Goelz, vice president of marketing, Pliant Technology. "These new drives are a great addition to Pliant's existing SLC product family, providing enterprise IT managers with higher capacities and lower dollar per gigabyte metrics, while still providing the level of enterprise-class reliability and endurance not previously available with any other MLC solution on the market today."
Pliant Lightning LB MLC NAND-based products are available in a 2.5-inch standard form factor, with capacities from 200GB to 400GB and a Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) interface to integrate seamlessly into existing SAS enterprise storage and server systems, without requiring modifications to existing applications, operating systems or infrastructure. For real world workloads, they feature high sustained performance with input/output per second (IOPs) of >10K (LB 400M) and >8K (LB 200M) for 4KB 70/30 read/write with very low response times. These performance levels deliver very fast response times under heavy workloads and enable system designers to build high performance RAID storage solutions with multi-terabyte capacities in 1U and 2U configurations.
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Fujitsu Semiconductor America, Inc. (FSA), a leading innovator of USB 3.0-compliant technology, has expanded its lineup of USB 3.0-SATA bridge controllers, introducing the new MB86E50 series for external USB 3.0 RAID storage devices.
The Fujitsu MB86E50 is specifically designed for external USB 3.0 dual-port RAID and non-RAID configurations. It supports RAID 0 (striping) and RAID 1 (mirroring) as well as JBOD ("just a bunch of disks") and Dual LUN configurations. An available integrated high-speed encryption hardware engine makes the controller an ideal design choice for demanding RAID storage applications using external hard disks or solid state drives.
In addition to RAID, the MB86E50 features transfer speeds up to 5Gbps, hot plugging of devices, and support for the USB attached SCSI (UAS) and Bulk-only Transport (BOT) protocols. The controller incorporates a high-performance 32-bit RISC MPU and an embedded SSCG to optimize SuperSpeed performance while reducing EMI. The MB86E50 includes full legacy support for high-speed USB (480Mbps) and full-speed USB (12Mbps) devices, and supports SATA Gen2i (3Gbps) and Gen1i (1.5Gbps), ATA, and ATAPI drives.
