Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., a world leader in memory products and technology solutions, today announced TrendForce has named it as the number one supplier of SSDs in the channel for all of 2020. According to TrendForce, Kingston accounted for a whopping 27 percent of the 111.5 million units shipped in 2020.

With the emergence of COVID-19 in 2020, TrendForce reported a 15% YoY decrease in annual SSD shipments to the channel and severe delays in manufacturing and logistics resulting in a sudden decline in order volumes. Yet, findings show through Kingston's global strategy for sourcing components, the company was well ahead of its competitors considering a global pandemic and looming chip shortage. The results reinforced Kingston as the clear leader in SSD production, as the second-place supplier accounted for only 8 percent of the total channel market. As a category, third-party suppliers (non-semiconductor) SSD makers accounted for 35% of the total shipments in 2020.

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic led to severe delays in manufacturing and logistics. In particular, governments worldwide began implementing border restrictions in 2Q20 to combat the ongoing health crisis, leading to a sudden decline in order volumes for channel-market SSDs, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. Annual shipment of SSDs to the channel (retail) market reached 111.5 million units in 2020, a 15% YoY decrease. In terms of market share by shipment, Kingston, ADATA, and Kimtigo once again occupied the top three spots, respectively.

Looking at the channel market for SSDs as a whole, NAND Flash suppliers (among which Samsung possessed the largest market share) accounted for around 35% of the total shipments in 2020, while SSD module makers accounted for the other 65%. The top 10 module makers accounted for 71% of channel-market SSD shipments from all SSD module makers. Taken together, these figures show that the market remained relatively oligopolistic in 2020. However, it should be noted that TrendForce's ranking of SSD module makers for 2020 takes account of only products bound for the channel market and under brands owned by the module makers themselves; NAND Flash suppliers were therefore excluded from the top 10 ranking.

ATP Electronics, a global leader in specialized storage and memory solutions, has announced that its A600Sc Series serial ATA solid state drives (SATA SSDs) have been successfully qualified for compatibility and interoperability with Adaptec Smart Storage PCIe Gen 4 Tri-Mode SmartRAID 3200, SmartHBA 2200, and HBA 1200 Smart Storage adapters.

Designed for storage platforms in next-generation data centers, the Adaptec PCIe Gen 4 SAS/SATA/NVMe HBA and RAID tri-mode adapters deliver significantly higher performance through PCIe Gen 4 x16 CPU interfaces as well as SAS and SATA storage. The new offerings simplify integration and provide flexibility to aggregate diverse storage devices with Microchip's proven security and manageability features for the most demanding server storage applications.

A lightweight M.2 SSD is a great way to add significant performance gains to any laptop or PC workstation. Silicon Power (SP) is releasing a new enclosure that will give your SSD the ability to not only achieve these gains but also take it wherever you go. The PD60 turns your M.2 M-key NVMe or SATA SSD into a portable hard drive for whenever and wherever you need it. Transfer data rapidly up to 10 Gbps via its USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface with the included Type-C to Type-C cable. It's also backwards-compatible with USB 3.1/3.0/2.0 at their respective speed limits.

The aluminium body is durable enough to protect your SSD, yet light enough to toss in your bag and hardly notice it, making it the perfect travel companion. It also provides superior heat dissipation, which is further enhanced by its slide design, allowing excess heat to escape when the cover is removed.

The ToughArmor MB924IP-B supports 24 x 2.5" SAS/SATA SSD/HDD up to 7 mm in height and only uses 3x 5.25" device bays. It has 6x MiniSAS HD (SFF-8643) connectors in the rear to support 24 x drives with up to 12 Gbps transfer speed per drive, significantly reducing the cable clutter to improve system airflow and offer easy cable management. The large 80 mm fan with 3-Mode fan speed control working along with intelligently placed ventilation holes keeps your drives in optimal temperature. To further improve reliability and security, the housing and trays are made with ruggedized full metal construction to ensure long-lasting durability. Moreover, with the removable EZ-Slide Nano trays, you can interchange drives within seconds without open the PC case.

MB924IP-B connects 24 x 2.5" SAS/SATA SSD/HDD with only 6x MiniSAS HD (SFF-8643) & 6x SATA 15 pin power connector for easy cable management and better system airflow. These are essential for high-performance PC builds. The MB924IP-B supports data transfer speed up to 12 Gbps per SAS drive and 6 Gbps per SATA drive.

EliteMini TL50 is an ultra-compact and high-performance mini PC specially designed for home and office use. Equipped with Intel 11th generation CPU and Intel Iris Xe graphics. Intel Wi-Fi 6 & triple output, upgrade-friendly & windows 10 pro pre-installed.

TL50 comes with Intel Core i5-1135G7 processor (Tiger Lake), 4 cores/8 threads, backed up by Intel Iris Xe graphics, with 8M Cache, max turbo frequency up to 4.20 GHz. It is 20% faster than its predecessor with more cache memory, DDR4-3200 memory and PCIe 4.0 support. Not only ordinary work but also a little heavy games and video editing can be done comfortably.

AAEON, an industry leader of AI and IOT solutions, is excited to celebrate the launch of Intel's latest scalable platform, the 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors (formerly Ice Lake-SP). As an associate member of the Intel IoT Solutions Alliance, AAEON is excited to bring this new technology to market with the ARES-WHI0 industrial ATX server board and other future products.

The 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors deliver the next generation of high-end computing performance and support for vital data integrity and security technologies. This new generation of Xeon SP brings higher processing speeds and Intel's Deep Learning Boost technology, allowing for greater acceleration and more efficient processing for AI server applications.

When governments need a hardware upgrade, they will usually take the route of exploring options with security in mind. However, if you happen to have some engineering talent to employ on a new project, why wouldn't you just build a custom motherboard for your own purposes. Today, GS Group Holding and Philax, have announced that they are starting the manufacturing of Russia's first motherboard based on a B450 chipset from AMD. Looking at the motherboard, which you can see below, you might find it very similar to those of ASRock. And that is because Philax has a licensing agreement with ASRock to use the design of the B450M Pro4 motherboard, with the addition of a TPM module which is often used by government agencies, to produce this board.

Producing around 40,000 pieces, these motherboards are expected to handle anything from 4000 series to 5000 series of AMD processors. As far as the specifications go, the board is coming in a standard Micro-ATX form factor. It is equipped with four DDR4 memory slots that can take a memory with up to 3200 MHz speed. There are two PCIe 3.0 x16 slots and one PCIe 2.0 x1 slot, which are of course limited by CPU choice. The motherboard enables four SATA III and two M.2 ports for storage expansion. When it comes to I/O, the board features HDMI, D-Sub, DVI-D, four USB 3.1 Gen1, two USB 2.0, one USB Type-C, and one USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A port. GS Group Holding and Philax also have a partnership that goes beyond just motherboards. They also plan to produce about 50,000 custom monitors for government purposes as well.

Akasa has added two new aluminium enclosures for M.2 drives to the current range of products. These are compatible with both SATA and NVMe drives and features USB 3.1 Generation 2 connectivity and UASP support, meaning you'll be making the most out of the super-fast data transfer speeds from your M.2 drive of up to 10 Gb/s.

The body on both enclosures are machined out of high-quality aluminium, ensuring a tight, safe fit for the closing mechanism. A tool-free design allows the installation of an M.2 SSD to be quick and easy, whilst also functioning as a heatsink to draw away excess heat from the drive. The sleek and simple Akasa logo finishes off the design perfectly, making the enclosure stand out from the crowd.

Transcend, is proud to announce the new launch of the SSD250N, a 2.5" solid-state drive (SSD) tailor-made for Network Attached Storage (NAS) systems to support rising demand for remote offices, remote education, and remote recreation brought on by COVID-19. This drive was specifically designed for continually operating NAS systems. The built-in DRAM cache and 3D NAND flash deliver high IOPS, reducing latency and speeding up NAS systems. Packed with multiple advanced technologies, the SSD250N provides outstanding reliability and extends NAS lifespan, fully assisting small and medium-sized business operations, multimedia streaming at home, and speeding up multi-user access to shared data.

Transcend's SSD250N is ready for use with NAS systems on 24/7 as it offers up to 2,000 TBW. Its 3D NAND flash and the SATA III interface unleash random speeds of up to 82K IOPS, optimizing data transfer. The built-in DRAM cache boosts read and write speeds, offering stable performance for seamless backups, instant central management and real-time file synchronization. Whether your NAS is serving up your favorite shows on your home media center while archiving music, photos, and videos, or is used in 4K or 8K video editing, or even at a business constantly trading data with clients, the SSD250N is ready to do the heavy lifting.

SMART Modular Technologies, a subsidiary of SMART Global Holdings, Inc., (Nasdaq: SGH), has expanded its DuraFlash ME2 SATA SSD product family with the addition of M.2 2242 SATA, mSATA (MO-300A) and Slim SATA (MO-297A) that complement the current M.2 2280 and 2.5" SSD form factors in SMART's DuraFlash portfolio.

The new ME2 SATA SSD form factors are ideal for embedded computing, transportation, medical and industrial applications that require either smaller or legacy SSD form factors. Built with Triple-Level Cell (TLC) 3D NAND technology, they are available in both commercial (0 °C to 70 °C) and industrial (-40 °C to 85 °C) operating temperatures. The ME2 family SSDs provide enhanced reliability by incorporating advanced LDPC (Low Density Parity Check) error detection and correction, plus end-to-end data path protection ensuring extremely high data integrity and reliability.

Lexar, a leading global brand of flash memory solutions, today announced the new NQ100 2.5" SATA III (6Gb/s) SSD. The NQ100 solid-state drive is an easy upgrade for users looking to improve the performance of their laptop or desktop computers. Improve your system's performance and enjoy faster startups, data transfers, and load times for applications. Boasting read speeds of up to 550MB/s, the Lexar NQ100 SSD will refresh your laptop or PC for a faster experience. The NQ100 SSD is also shock and vibration resistant, making it more reliable and durable than a typical hard drive. It is also cooler, quieter, and more energy efficient than traditional HDD.

"Lexar is dedicated to expanding our SSD portfolio and continue to offer high-quality solid-state drives for various computing needs. The new Lexar NQ100 SSD provides customers with an easy yet cost-effective way to boost PC performance, and with capacity options ranging from 240GB-960GB, users can easily expand storage for their content-driven lifestyles," said Joel Boquiren, General Manager of Lexar. NQ100 SSD is available this month for purchase online at an MSRP of $30.99 USD (240GB), $52.99 USD (480GB) with 960GB to be announced at a future date.

Phison Electronics Corp., a global leader in NAND Flash controller integrated circuits and storage solutions, announced today that it is now shipping secure SSD solutions with FIPS 140-2 Certification. In today's world, consumer and corporate data are vulnerable to attacks by hackers, viruses and even rogue governments staging cyber-attacks. Phison has recognized these security issues and addressed these threats by implementing FIPS 140-2 security technology in SATA and PCIe product lines.

Phison provided technical support for their customizable SSD solutions during the Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) process. Companies have to pass it in order to list themselves as the validated cryptographic module vendor. Because Phison has FIPS 140-2 certified solutions, our customers can now choose to leverage existing validated Phison modules so they can reduce the time and effort spent on FIPS validation of their own.

Samsung today has officially taken the lid off their latest consumer-oriented SATA SSDs, the 870 EVO. The 870 EVO series from Samsung don't push the maximum storage density ceiling on traditional SATA consumer drives, topping out at a maximum 4 TB, but they do achieve that ceiling whilst making use of Samsung's 128-layer TLC (Triple-Layer-Cell) NAND, which offers increased endurance (and higher theoretical performance than) more widespread QLC-based SSDs (of which Samsung launched the 870 QVO back in July 2020).

Samsung quotes SATA sequential read and write speeds of 560 MB/s and 530 MB/s respectively, with a "variable SLC" cache (which means it decreases in maximum size as the available free drive space decreases). The drives are also quoted at 98K IOPS Random Read, and 88K IOPS Write, and feature the company's Intelligent TurboWrite to maintain the interface's SATA 6 Gbps saturation as long as possible before sustained performance degradation appears. Samsung claims the 870 EVO also delivers a nearly 38% improvement in random read speeds over the previous 860 model, and quotes a (TBW) rating of 2,400 TB (or a 5-year limited warranty, whichever comes first) for its 4 TB model. The 870 EVO is available in either 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB, 2 TB, or 4 TB capacities, with the drives' RAM buffer scaling almost accordingly (512 MB DDR3 for the 256/512 Gb models, 1 GB for the 1 TB, 2 GB for the 2 TB drive, and 4 GB for the 4 TB one. Pricing starts at $49,99 for the 256 GB model; 500 GB for $79.99, 1 TB for $139.99; 2 TB for $269.99; and 4 TB for $529.99.

Apacer, a leading manufacturer of digital storage, recently launched its new generation of SSDs - the AS340X and AS350X. The "X" in the name stands for exploration, since the product is exploring previously unknown speed limits. The AS340X and AS350X use a cutting-edge SATA III transmission interface, giving the AS340X read/write speeds of up to 550/520 MB/s and the AS350X read/write speeds of up to 560/540 MB/s. The excellent performance brings users a lightning-fast boot-ups experience.

The AS340X and AS350X are Apacer's latest mid-to-high-end SSDs. They use a new generation of SATA III interface and provide 6 Gb/s transmission speeds, enabling the AS340X to reach read/write speeds of up to 550/520 MB/s and the AS350X read/write speeds of up to 560/540 MB/s. The blisteringly fast speed of AS340X and AS350X means that gamers and consumers demanding excellent price/performance ratios need look no further.

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading computing, networking and storage solution innovator, today announced the desktop smart edge PoE Switch - QGD-3014-16PT. With sixteen 30-watt Gigabit PoE ports, two 2.5GbE host management ports, Intel Celeron J4125 quad-core 2.0 GHz processor, and four 3.5-inch SATA drive bays, the QGD-3014-16PT supports QVR Pro, HBS 3 and QuWAN SD-WAN to integrate surveillance deployment, video storage computing, and multi-site remote management to offer SMBs innovative intelligent IP surveillance infrastructure and remote backup solutions.
"Expanding multi-site surveillance networks can be costly and involve large amounts of equipment with low transmission efficiency between multiple remote devices - not to mention the complexities involved in deployment and management. " said Daniel Hsieh, QNAP Product Manager, adding, "the QGD-3014-16PT desktop Smart Edge PoE Switch integrates PoE, surveillance capabilities, and data backup management to simplify these requirements and increase the transmission and backup efficiency of surveillance videos."

Greenliant has secured major design wins with its EnduroSLC solid state drives (SSDs) in a wide range of demanding, extreme environment applications for customers that need best-in-class reliability and product longevity. Greenliant's proprietary EnduroSLC Technology substantially enhances data retention and extends the write endurance of 1-bit-per-cell SSDs with advanced hardware ECC capabilities and NAND flash management algorithms. EnduroSLC SSDs not only offer superior data retention capabilities under complex temperature conditions, but also support 50K, 100K and industry-leading, ultra high 250K+ program-erase (P/E) cycles, which are at least a 5x improvement over pseudo-SLC (pSLC) SSDs and a 50x improvement over MLC NAND-based products.

For systems that are in remote locations and costly to maintain-from satellite to subsea communications-customers recognize the value of EnduroSLC SSDs; they can reliably operate and retain data for long periods of time in harsh conditions. Long-life, write-intensive products, such as transportation black box recorders and industrial data loggers, have also benefitted from the enhanced features of EnduroSLC SSDs. EnduroSLC storage products are designed with Greenliant's advanced SATA, NVMe PCIe and eMMC controllers, operate at industrial temperatures (-40 to +85 degrees Celsius) and are backed by the company's Long-Term Availability program (http://bit.ly/SSD-LTA-program), providing an extra level of support.

Minisforum, the leading innovator of mini PC products, has just released their another new product: the EliteMini UM700 which comes with the AMD Ryzen 7 3750H CPU up to 4.0 GHz, 4 cores 8 threads, total cache 4 MB, equipped with Radeon RX Vega 10 10 cores Graphics with frequency up to 1400 MHz. A few months ago, MINISFORUM had launched DeskMini DMAF5 with an AMD Ryzen 5 3550H processor on INDIEGOGO, now DMAF has completed the shipment. UM700 is an upgraded version of DMAF5, with higher performance and more powerful.

With a one-click design you can easily make upgrades, EliteMini UM700 supports different types of storage expansions—2.5 inch SATA HDD Slot (SATA 3.0 6.0 Gb/s) and M.2 2280 NVMe SSD Slot (support up to 2 TB), you can mix and match between HDD and SSD to better meet your needs. With windows 10 pro pre-installed, intel Wi-Fi6, BT5.1 and triple output. which allows you to freely enjoy quick response speed.

The leading global motherboard, graphics card, and small form factor PC manufacturer, ASRock, today announced the brand new compact Mini PC - Mars 4000U Series, embedded the AMD Ryzen 4000 U-series processors to deliver exceptional performance. The Mars 4000U Series Mini PC support dual-channel DDR4-3200 MHz memory up to 64 GB as well as equip with Intel Wi-Fi 6 for high-speed connectivity. For Storage, the Mars 4000U Series Mini PC provide a PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD slot and a 2.5-inch SATA hard drive bay; all imply into 0.7-liter chassis with 26 mm height.

ASRock Mars 4000U Series Mini PC offers abundant USB devices connectivity, features a total of 7 USB ports, including one Type-C port; In addition, the native SD card reader and dual display outputs provide more convenience and productivity. All of these features make Mars 4000U Series Mini PC well suited for a wide range of uses, including business, gaming and home entertainment.

Toshiba announces the Toshiba MG08-D Series HDDs, designed for a wide variety of business-critical applications, such as email and CRM (Customer Resource Management), data analysis for business intelligence, small-medium business servers, and data-retention and compliance archiving.

Toshiba's 7th generation air mechanical design provides better power efficiency and a lower component count to deliver better total cost of ownership than its earlier generation models. The new series features 4 TB, 6 TB and 8 TB models, in both SATA and SAS interfaces. The new 4 TB1 models are available in 512e, 4Kn and 512n sector models, and the 6 TB and 8 TB models are available in 512e and 4Kn sector models, assuring plug-and-play interoperability for applications using prior 4 TB models.

TerraMaster, a professional brand that specializes in providing innovative storage products including network-attached storage (NAS) devices, launches the F4-210 1 GB version, the same 4-bay NAS for personal cloud storage at a more affordable price. The TerraMaster F4-210 is just a portion of the price of an Intel-based NAS device. The F4-210 supports up to 108 TB of storage and supports 3.5" SATA hard drives and 2.5" SATA hard drives and solid-state drives.

The TerraMaster F4-210 is perfect for users that are looking for a powerful personal cloud storage solution without a hefty investment. Costing just half the price of an equivalent Intel x86 quad-core processor-based NAS storage, the F4-210 can deliver modest read/write speeds of up to 124 MB/s with two WD Red 4 TB hard drives in RAID 0. The F4-210 supports various private cloud services including Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive.

Plextor late last week unveiled the M8V Plus line of mainstream SATA SSDs in the 2.5-inch and M.2-2280 form-factors. The M8V Plus is an incremental update of the original M8V series from 2018. What's new is the implementation of KIOXIA-sourced 96-layer TLC NAND flash replacing 64-layer chips from Toshiba. The M8V Plus series comes in 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB variants, while the original M8V came in 128-thru-512 GB variants.

The Silicon Motion SM2258 controller under the hood of the M8V Plus, has been updated to its latest revision, and supports Plextor-innovated Plex Compress technology. This feature uses the controller's idle time to compress files that haven't been accessed for over 30 days. The Plex Turbo feature, which is essentially variable-size SLC cache, has also been improved to be larger in size. On-paper performance hasn't changed, with the company claiming up to 560 MB/s sequential reads, up to 520 MB/s sequential writes, up to 90,000 IOPS 4K random access for the 256 GB and 512 GB variants; and up to 88,000 IOPS random access for the 1 TB variant. The company rates write endurance for the 256 GB variant at 140 TBW, 512 GB variant at 280 TBW, and 560 TBW for the 1 TB variant. All three variants are backed by 3-year warranties. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL) today introduced the industry's first native NVMe RAID 1 accelerator, a state-of-the-art technology for virtualized, multi-tenant cloud and enterprise data center environments which demand optimized reliability, efficiency, and performance. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is the first of Marvell's partners to support the new accelerator in the HPE NS204i-p NVMe OS Boot Device offered on select HPE ProLiant servers and HPE Apollo systems.

As the industry transitions from legacy SAS and SATA to NVMe SSDs, Marvell's offering helps data centers fast-track the move to higher performance flash storage. The innovative accelerator lowers data center total cost of ownership (TCO) by offloading RAID 1 processing from costly and precious server CPU resources, maximizing application processing performance. IT organizations can now deploy a "plug-and-play," NVMe-based OS boot solution, like the HPE NS204i-p NVMe OS Boot Device, that protects the integrity of flash data storage while delivering an optimized, application-level user experience.

Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ: STX), a world leader in data storage and management solutions, today announced it is shipping 18 TB helium-based enterprise drives in volume as part of the Exos X18 family. The new drive delivers high performance and mass capacity for hyperscale data centers to efficiently and cost-effectively manage ever-increasing amounts of data. Additionally, Seagate's Enterprise Data Solutions launched the new Exos Application Platform (AP) 2U12 as well as a new controller for the company's AP 4U100 systems.

The need for hyperscale and cloud storage solutions continues to rise to unprecedented levels with the ever-increasing growth in data generation. According to a recent Seagate report, Rethink Data, enterprise data is expected to grow at an average rate of 42.2% over the next two years. The survey was conducted by IDC, which also forecast the global datasphere will reach a staggering 175ZB by 2025 in a previous IDC whitepaper sponsored by Seagate. The high-capacity Exos X18 supports this expanding need for data storage.

Phison Electronics , the industry's leader in NAND flash controllers and storage solutions, announces availability of the world's first 15.36 TB QLC customizable Enterprise SSD solution based on Phison's S12DC controller. Phison provides its customers with industry leading SSDs that are customized to their needs by leveraging Phison's firmware, controller, PCBA design, and manufacturing. The S12DC QLC SSD is an ideal storage solution by delivering higher performance, lower power consumption, and greater rack storage density for read intensive storage applications that currently source hard disk drives.