Pioneer Japan sent out a press release this morning, announcing its new professional-grade Blu-ray Disc writer, the BDR-PR1. Designed for businesses, libraries and museums looking to archive important data to Blu-ray Disc, the BDR-PR1 features like a SATA 3 Gb/s interface and is capable of 6x BD-R, 6x BD-R DL, 6x BD-R LTH, 2x BD-RE and 2x BD-RE DL writing speeds. The drive also comes with software which can be used to check the recording quality by measuring the RSER (Random Symbol Error Rate) and the number of Burst Errors. The  BDR-PR1 is scheduled to ship at the end of January and, while a price has not been announced, its expected to cost about three times as much as a consumer grade Blu-ray writer ($300-$400).

In support of Pioneer's new Blu-ray Disc writer, Mitsubishi Chemical (MKM) has released its new professional, archival-grade 50GB BD-R DL media. Designed to work with the BDR-PR1, these new discs have a lifetime of more than 50 years when stored at room temperture (25° C) and 80% relative humidity. Contrary to earlier reports, Mitsubishi's archival-grade BD-R DL media has been developed in-house and will continue to be manufactured in the company's own factory.

Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced the latest addition to its SSDNow family, the SSDNow V+200. The new Kingston® SSDNow V+200 solid-state drives are the ideal high-performance upgrade solution for the performance minded yet cost-conscious business or home user.

The SSDNow V+200 features the second-generation high-speed SATA 3.0 (6Gb/s) SandForce® SF-2281 Processor and outstanding sequential read and write speeds of up to 535MB/s and 480MB/s. The SSDNow V+200 enables fast system start-up, rapid data access and speedy copying of large files such as videos, presentations and graphics illustrations.

“Kingston constantly strives to offer the perfect upgrade solution to cover each market segment. The SSDNow V+200 drive has been specifically designed to meet the needs of both business and home users looking for an inexpensive yet powerful upgrade,” said Ariel Perez, SSD business manager, Kingston. “The SSDNow V+200 is equipped with all essential tools needed to extend the lifecycle and boost a system’s performance to the maximum. The balance between performance and price makes this SSD deliver the best ROI as an upgrade for a fleet of corporate notebooks or desktops or the home PC.”

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OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced the release of new enhanced IOPS firmware (v1.13) for the Octane SATA 3.0 Series SSDs. The random write performance has been significantly improved, in some capacities over double that of the previous specifications, for users looking to push their SSD performance to new heights.

For all Octane SATA 6Gb/s models, the improved IOPS made possible by this new firmware allow for greater transactional performance, especially during small file and random access speeds in everyday computing applications. When compared to the previous revision, random write IOPS performance doubles across nearly all capacities when tested in Iometer 2008:

OCZ strives to offer the fastest, highest performing solutions on the market and continues to support customers by offering firmware innovations to their storage investments. The new enhanced IOPS firmware will begin shipping in the next batch of drives to resellers, and the upgrade file will be made available to existing customers via the company's website.

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pureSilicon™ Inc., innovator of high-performance storage technology for the industry’s most demanding applications, has launched a new line of enterprise-focused storage devices that give IT administrators high-performance options for power users. The new Kage Series comprises the Kage K1 USB Flash Drive — an “impossibly thin” (4.5 mm) USB 3.0-based SSD drive that redefines portable performance and capacity for mobile enterprise and prosumer users; and the Kage K1 SATA SSD that leverages the advanced technology pioneered in pureSilicon’s recently announced Renegade and Nitro devices, making it available at a lower price point aimed at power users in the financial services, science, and engineering sectors, as well as creative professionals who need fast, high-capacity storage for digital media.

“These are the devices that IT managers and prosumers have been asking us to make ever since we launched our range of ultra-performance Nitro and Renegade SSDs,” said Jason Breakstone, founder and CEO of pureSilicon. “The Kage Series devices will appeal to anyone that craves more performance and storage capacity from their solid-state drive but doesn’t need ruggedized packaging and advanced security features. We’re particularly proud of the Kage Series USB, which delivers the essential benefits of an SSD in something the size of a USB drive, while offering high transfer speeds and 240 GB — all in killer packaging.”

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