- Details
- Flash Memory
Committed to improving end-user experience, OCZ has released a firmware upgrade for its line of Summit Series SSDs, that supports TRIM command for Windows 7 users and idle garbage collection for Vista and XP users. The new firmware helps restore performance on Summit drives back to "new" conditions by freeing space and consolidating blocks of data. OCZ is pleased to finally be able to deliver this essential mechanism and accommodate our Summit customers.
The Summit 19C1 Firmware Upgrade and Installation Guide can be downloaded here.
Add a comment- Details
- Other
Broadcom Corporation, a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced that its Crystal HD technology will be available to OEMs wanting to deliver best-in-class video playback on the new Intel® Atom™ processor platform for netbooks. The Broadcom® BCM70015 Crystal HD solution will be offered as an option for OEMs designing netbooks using the Intel Atom processor N450 and Intel NM10 Express chipset platform. Crystal HD technology provides netbook users with a rich multimedia experience by enabling cost effective, quality playback of multi-format, high definition (HD) video and will be featured on select 2010 netbook platforms from top-tier OEMs including Asus, Dell and Samsung.
- Details
- Hard Disks
Today, EZQuest Inc. announced its Thunder Pro Quad 2TB Firewire 800, Firewire 400, eSATA and USB 2.0 Quad interface hard drive. The single drive external unit is designed for Audio and Video professional and delivers transfers speeds of up to 108MB/s.
The EZQuest Thunder Pro supports video in multi stream DV, HDV, DVCPRO HD with real time effects and audio applications such as Digidesign's ProTools LE/HD, Apple's Logic and MOTU's Digital Performer. Due to both its performance and reliability, industry-leading professionals are choosing EZQuest.
- Details
- Flash Memory
Corsair, a worldwide leader in high-performance computer and flash memory products, today announced that it has released firmware with TRIM support and a firmware update tool for its award-winning Performance Series P64, P128 and P256 solid-state drives.
The firmware (revision VBM19C1Q) and update tool were both developed by Samsung, and have been rigorously qualified by both Samsung and Corsair using a large number of test platforms, in conjunction with a controlled end-user BETA test of the new firmware.
"This new firmware release for Corsair's Performance Series SSDs adds support for the TRIM performance-maintenance command in Microsoft Windows 7, further enhancing what are already some of the fastest and most respected SSDs on the market," said Jim Carlton, VP of Marketing for Corsair. "While other SSD manufacturers have rushed out bug-ridden firmware and update tools, sometimes with disastrous consequences for end-users, Corsair refused to jump on the bandwagon. We took the time to rigorously test and quality our tools, ensuring that our users will have the best experience possible."
- Details
- Other
WD®, the world’s leader in external storage solutions, and NEC Electronics Corporation, a leading provider of semiconductor solutions, today announced that the companies have collaborated to promote the new SuperSpeed Universal Serial Bus (USB) 3.0 standard, a next-generation interface to be used in a wide range of electronic devices including PCs, PC peripherals, and digital appliances.
USB 3.0 is capable of supporting data transfer rates of up to 5 gigabits per second (Gbps), which is 10 times faster than the previous high-speed USB 2.0 transfer speeds. With its higher speeds and enhanced power efficiency, external hard disk drives are the first SuperSpeed USB 3.0 devices to appear on the market.
As the first step toward WD’s and NEC Electronics’ goal to promote the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 standard, the companies plan to develop a USB Attached SCSI Protocol (UASP) driver to deliver hard drives with very high performance, mass-storage capacity. UASP is a new industry-standard, high-performance mass-storage protocol being developed for SuperSpeed USB 3.0 to overcome the performance boundaries of the Bulk Only Transfer (BOT) protocol, which has been used for traditional USB 2.0 speeds. The new UASP driver will be used with NEC Electronics’ USB 3.0 xHCI (eXtensible Host Controller Interface) host controller (part number µPD720200), which appeared on the market as the world’s first USB 3.0 host controller in June 2009.
- Details
- Hard Disks
Power Quotient International Co., Ltd. (PQI) is proud as one of the first few manufacturers to officially announce USB 3.0 portable storage devices. As a continuation and evolution of the existing USB 2.0, USB 3.0 strives for backward compatibility with USB 2.0, stability, speed and universality. USB has had a long history with modern day personal computers and few will doubt its stability as it has proved itself worthy in the past decade. Its universality is unrivaled and can be found on all consumer motherboards, PDAs, cameras, camcorders, etc. The biggest improvement of USB 3.0 is that it dramatically boosted its maximum bandwidth to 5Gbps/sec (625MB/sec) which is perfect for modern day HD multimedia files that can reach 20~30GB capacities in a single file.
PQI USB 3.0 products to first hit the shelves are portable hard disk drive H566 and Solid State Disk S533. The H566 will have a USB 3.0 ready connection and houses an 8MB cache 5400rpm 2.5 inch hard disk drive with capacities in 320 / 500 / 640GB. It has a read speed of 105MB/sec and a 99.9MB write speed which translate into quadruple the performance of its USB 2.0 predecessors. PQI also announces a USB 3.0 Express Card embedded with two USB 3.0 ports. It can be used with the USB 3.0 devices.
- Details
- Hard Disks
LaCie, a leading provider of professional storage solutions, in collaboration with Symwave Inc., a leading silicon supplier of system solutions for SuperSpeed USB devices, today announced the industry’s first dual hard disk RAID storage solution based on the new SuperSpeed USB (3.0) standard. LaCie’s 2Big USB 3.0, a dual-disk RAID 0/1 storage solution, powered by Symwave’s USB 3.0 standard-compliant dual SATA and RAID bridge controller, reaches the highest throughput ever achieved in a USB 3.0 external storage product – setting a new standard in the dual disk market. The 2Big USB 3.0 will be available in up to 4TB capacities and is bundled with award-winning backup software for both Mac and PC users.
"LaCie has a strong worldwide brand and a proven track record for developing high-performance and innovative storage solutions. This collaboration with LaCie, which coincides with our SW6318 USB 3.0 dual-SATA product announcement is yet another first in the industry and for Symwave," said John O’Neill, Vice President of Marketing at Symwave. "The end user experience of external storage is undergoing a very significant upgrade with the launch of USB 3.0 products. We are pleased to be leading the market transition with such a strong partner like LaCie."
- Details
- Flash Memory
Transcend Information, Inc. (Transcend®), a worldwide leader in storage and multimedia products, is proud to announce the launch of its Ultimate Class 10 SDHC cards. Part of Transcend’s “Ultimate” line of powerful high-speed memory cards, the new Class 10 SDHC cards easily outperform current Class 6 cards, with enhanced transfer speeds of 20MB/s and massive storage capacity of up to 16GB.
As high-tech gadgets become increasingly advanced with ever-improving video and audio quality, memory card write speed plays an important role in taking high-megapixel pictures and shooting high-definition videos. Featuring the top-of-the-line Class 10 speed rating introduced by the SD Card Association this year as part of its new SD 3.0 specification, Transcend’s new Ultimate series SDHC cards provide blazing fast performance tailored specifically for high-speed consecutive shooting as well as smooth HD video recording.
- Details
- Home Entertainment
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment today announced two Blu-ray™ packaging initiatives that will give consumers greater value and portability when shopping for the best possible way to watch movies at home. Beginning in the first quarter of 2010, Warner Home Video will be releasing its entire Theatrical New Release slate as Blu-ray combo packs, containing a Blu-ray Disc of the film with exclusive special features and exciting BD-Live interactivity, a standard-definition DVD and a Digital Copy of the film. For no additional cost, Blu-ray combo packs offer consumers significantly more value by merging the unsurpassed quality of Blu-ray with the convenience of being able to watch the film in any format, on just about every playback device.
Warner Home Video is also launching the industry's first line of Blu-ray Double Features, priced at $24.98 (SRP). Beginning February 23, the attractively packaged and entry-level priced Blu-ray Double Features pack will include a pair of well-matched catalog hits spanning multiple genres – comedy, action, drama/thriller and horror. The first wave will include Dirty Harry and Magnum Force starring Clint Eastwood; Analyze This and Analyze That starring Billy Crystal and Robert De Niro; Presumed Innocent and Frantic starring Harrison Ford; Miss Congeniality and Miss Congeniality 2 starring Sandra Bullock; and Grumpy Old Men and Grumpier Old Men starring Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon.
- Details
- Home Entertainment
The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) today announced the finalization and release of the “Blu-ray 3D” specification. The specification, which represents the work of the leading Hollywood studios and consumer electronic and computer manufacturers, will enable the home entertainment industry to bring the 3D experience into consumers’ living rooms on Blu-ray Disc, the most capable high definition home entertainment platform.
“Throughout this year, movie goers have shown an overwhelming preference for 3D when presented with the option to see a theatrical release in either 3D or 2D,” said Victor Matsuda, chairman, BDA Global Promotions Committee. “We believe this demand for 3D content will carry over into the home now that we have, in Blu-ray Disc, a medium that can deliver a quality Full HD 3D experience to the living room.”
The “Blu-ray 3D” specification fully leverages the technical advantages of the Blu-ray Disc format to deliver unmatched picture quality as well as uniformity and compatibility across the full range of Blu-ray 3D products, both hardware and software. Notably, the specification allows every Blu-ray 3D player and movie to deliver Full HD 1080p resolution to each eye, thereby maintaining the industry leading image quality to which Blu-ray Disc viewers are accustomed. Moreover, the specification is display agnostic, meaning that Blu-ray 3D products will deliver the 3D image to any compatible 3D display, regardless of whether that display uses LCD, Plasma or other technology and regardless of what 3D technology the display uses to deliver the image to the viewer’s eyes.
