QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading manufacturer of world class NAS servers, NVR Video Surveillance Systems, and Network-based Video Players today expanded their Turbo NAS lineup with the addition of the TS-410 desktop NAS server targeted specifically at the SOHO and Prosumer market segments. The TS-410 features 4 hot-swappable SATA hard drives with up to 8 TB of total capacity (with 2TB drives) and supports 2.5" or 3.5" hard drives, giving users more flexibility in selecting drives for installation. The TS-410 features a Marvell 800MHz CPU and 256MB DDRII memory which provides sustained high performance with low power consumption. The TS-410 can be configured for RAID 0/1/5/6/5+ spare, and JBOD with online RAID capacity expansion and online RAID level migration for high data redundancy. The TS-410 also supports iSCSI Target service with Thin Provisioning and dual Gigabit LAN ports, features generally found on much higher end NAS servers. The TS-410 also features 4 USB ports (1 front, 3 back panel) and 2 e-SATA ports for expanding the storage capacity or backing up the TS-410.

The TS-410 is a smart choice for installation in home or home-based business as it's fully compatible with Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and UNIX networks and features a built-in UPnP/ DLNA media server (with TwonkyMedia enabled) supporting a wide range of DLNA media players such as Sony PS3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 gaming consoles. By installing the DLNA/ UPnP application on your iPhone or iPod touch, users can access the TS-410 on the home network and play videos, music, and photos from the server over the network. In addition, the high-speed PC-less Download Station with the unique QGet utility enables users to manage the BT/ FTP/ HTTP download tasks remotely over the local network or the Internet. The TS-410 can perform centralized backups of all computers attached to the network to protect valuable paid downloaded music & video content, digital pictures, and documents.

Due to numerous customer requests, Sharkoon has expanded their "QuickPort" hard drive adapter-series with a model that now includes an additional IDE-interface: The Sharkoon QuickPort Combo now offers an interface for IDE-devices located beside the SATA-hard drive connection port.

Sharkoon's QuickPort models are the ideal solutions for hard drive collectors, allowing them to attach their external storage mediums quickly and easily to their PC or notebooks- perhaps occasionally for a fast HD-backup or for also accessing the private hard drive media center as an application for a TV streaming client. The hard drive is simply inserted into the QuickPort and immediately recognized as a device, therefore eliminating time consuming installation to a computer or external housings. The adapter itself is attached via USB to the computer. Like the previous models, the QuickPort Combo also accommodates SATA-Hard Drives in both 2.5 and 3.5 inch formats. A folding mechanism ensures a secure hold on either size model. When finished, users can simply take the hard drive with them by utilizing the eject button.

Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC), a U.S. marketing arm of Toshiba Corporation for electronic components, today announced a series of solid state drive (SSD) modules using the latest generation Toshiba 32nm MLC NAND flash, at Intel Developers Forum 2009. The Toshiba SG2 modules are offered in two types, one based on the new low-profile mini-SATA (mSATA) interface standard and the other a Half-Slim type, which uses a SATA connector. The drives are available in 30GB1 and 62GB modules. Volume production will start in October.

The two types of modules, each smaller than a business card, provide greater design flexibility and save space and cost compared to SSDs with hard disk drive form factors and cases. The 62GB module is only one seventh the volume and one eighth the weight of a 2.5-inch form factor SSD, and consumes half the power. With interface speeds up to 3 gigabits per second (Gb/s), a maximum sequential read speed of 180 megabytes per second (MBps)3,4 and a maximum sequential write speed of 70MBps,3,4 the modules will help bring the performance advantages of SSDs to notebooks, portable electronics and embedded systems. An advanced controller features a translation mode, which enables any drive configuration, and the drive supports 28-bit LBA (Logical Block Address) mode commands and 48-bit LBA mode commands. Multi-word DMA, Ultra-DMA modes and Advanced PIO commands are supported. The drives have an optional capability for secure Full Disk Encryption (FDE) backup that prevents unauthorized data access.

Toshiba Storage Device Division (SDD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. and the pioneer in small form factor hard disk drives (HDDs), today announced a new family of high-performance 7,200 RPM 2.5-inch HDDs, including a top-end half-terabyte capacity.

The four-model line-up delivers more than a 13 percent performance improvement in disk operations compared to Toshiba's previous 7,200 RPM family, while decreasing environmental impact by eliminating or reducing the use of certain toxic and hazardous chemicals. The series also carries the SATA-certified 3Gb/s logo, which indicates successful completion of stringent interface compliance testing defined by the Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO), the industry body responsible for setting the standards for Serial ATA interface technologies.

The rapid advances in computer processing technology has seen CPU and memory speeds outstrip that of conventional mechanical hard disks. This is why it is increasingly being replaced by newer Solid State Disk (SSD) technology. To meet the overclocking needs of high-level enthusiasts, Team Group Inc. has once again leveraged its extensive technical expertise to launch the all-new Xtreem SSD series. First in the series are the Xtreem G1 and Xtreem R-type. In addition to being quiet, light, energy-saving and shock resistant, the Xtreem G1 and R-type pushes SSD read speeds to a breath-taking 260MB/sec and write speeds to a respectable 180Mb/sec. Compared to thick, heavy conventional 7200RPM HDDs with a read speed of just 80MB/sec and write speed of just 60MB/sec, Team's Xtreem SSD is a Ferrari that easily pushes the edges of the speed envelope.

Kanguru Solutions, announces the release of the 64GB Kanguru e-Flash, a high capacity, high performance flash drive with both eSATA and USB connectivity. The Kanguru e-Flash is a dual ended flash drive. One end supports high speed eSATA while the other end supports a USB2.0 interface. The eSATA side provides incredible performance, 5 times faster than standard USB drives. The USB2.0 side provides universal connectivity, so data can still be accessed by computers that may not have eSATA ports yet.

"The combination of performance and versatility make the Kanguru e-Flash the perfect product for people who want top tier transfer speeds without sacrificing usability," said Nate Cote, VP of Product Management for Kanguru Solutions.

The Kanguru e-Flash has a built-in powered eSATA connection so you don't have to worry about multiple wires plugging into the drive, and it's packaged with an eSATA + Power bracket and an eSATA + Power cable for easy hookup to the computer you use most.

WD today announced that it is now shipping desktop 7200 RPM 2 TB hard drives and is qualifying with OEMs enterprise-class hard drives based on WD's 500 gigabytes-per-platter technology. The popular family of WD Caviar Black drives, now led by the new 2 TB capacity, is perfect for gaming, high-performance desktop systems and workstations; while the WD RE4 2 TB is suited for servers, network attached storage and storage networks.

High-performance hard drives by an industry leader in performance, WD Caviar Black and WD RE4 2 TB drives combine 7200 RPM spin speed, 64 MB cache, dual stage actuator technology, SATA 3 gigabits per second (Gb/s) interface, and an integrated dual processor to deliver ultimate performance in a maximum-capacity drive.

Building on years of innovation, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) today announced that is it shipping its fifth-generation, 7200 RPM mobile hard disk drive. The Hitachi Travelstar 7K500 is a 500GB, 2.5-inch, 3Gb/s SATA drive designed for notebooks, gaming systems and professional external storage solutions. Combining leadership performance, ruggedness and capacity, Travelstar 7K500 is ideal for multitasking, gaming and other graphic-intensive applications. The new Travelstar 7K500 is the fastest hard drive in its class and delivers up to 56 percent higher capacity and 16 percent better application performance than its predecessor. It also provides best-of-breed operating shock and outstanding power management for sturdy, unplugged notebook performance.

"Portable PC shipment growth continues to be one of the most significant market drivers underpinning 2.5-inch disk drive demand, and is a major reason why IDC expects the 2.5-inch mobile HDD market will grow at a 16.8 percent 2008-2013 compound annual growth rate," said John Rydning, research director for hard disk drives at IDC. "Hitachi's new 500GB mobile 2.5-inch HDD with a 7,200 rpm spin-speed provides PC OEMs an opportunity to differentiate PCs with both capacity and performance."

ASUS implemented an interesting design with its high-end P7P55D Premium motherboard, that makes use of a PLX PEX8613 3-port/12-lane PCI-E 2.0 bridge chip across its PCI-E 1.1 x4 from the PCH to drive the Marvell 88SE9123 2-port SATA 6 Gbps controller to its full-potential. Apparently the company plans to provide SATA 6 Gbps support using essentially the same design, for all its Intel P55 series motherboards by means of an optional addon card. Much larger than the SATA 6 Gbps card from ASRock, the card from ASUS uses the same basic design that involves PLX PEX8613 as a PCI-E x4 device. The card uses the same SATA 6 Gbps controller to provide 2 internal SATA ports. From the looks of it, the card has placeholders for two controllers, with the second (absent) NEC µPD720200 controller providing USB 3.0 ports. Perhaps a future revision makes use of it. Planned to be offered as an optional accessory, this card could make for a premium over the base models.

Quick-draw Flash storage specialist PhotoFast introduced mini SATA flash drives (essentially compact SATA SSDs that plug into the connectors). The G-Monster mini-SATA and G-Monster mini-DOM drives are about as big as cartridges of retro portable game consoles, measuring 45 x 37 x 7.5 mm and weighing 10 g. They come in capacities of 32 and 64 GB, and offer reasonably good transfer rates at 110 MB/s (read) and 60 MB/s (write). With the standard arrangement of SATA data and power connectors, the G-Monster mini-SATA should plug into any SATA drive docks/enclosures. Apart from being a portable storage medium, it can also be tucked away as a system drive for a NAS server. The G-Monster mini-DOM on the other hand, can plug directly into one of the motherboard's SATA ports, and draw power using its 5V adapter. The two will hit shelves in October. Pictured below are (in order) G-Monster mini-SATA and G-Monster mini-DOM.

Enermax today unveiled the stylish Brick 2.5-inch drive enclosure. The Brick holds one SATA hard-drive or solid-state drive in a sturdy aluminum casing with brushed metal exteriors. It measures 113 x 76 x 17 mm and weighs in (empty) at 65 g. The enclosure uses USB 2.0 interface to power itself and communicate with the host machine. Its user-friendly "one screw" design allows users to slide open the enclosure by releasing only one screw. The package includes a leather-looking carry pouch for the enclosure. Available is dark and bright shades, it is available now, priced at around 15€.

ASRock chose a smart way to make SATA III part of its high-end motherboards' feature-set without modifying board design, or coming up with new SKUs, simply by bundling a SATA III addon-card. The company's upcoming P55 Deluxe advertises SATA III support, and packs a tiny, half-height card that uses PCI-Express (2.0?) x1 interface. At the heart of it is a Marvell 88SE9123 SATA III controller. The card has three ports in total, two angled internal ports, and one eSATA III. Headers are also provided for HDD status LEDs on the system chassis. While Marvell 88SE9123 has been at the center of controversy recently that reportedly caused some motherboard makers to pull out products that use it, Marvell maintains that the issue is only related to the controller's additional PATA-related functionality, and not SATA III. Now if only ASRock also bundles a USB 3.0 card.

Leveraging its proven, fourth-generation high-capacity hard drive technology, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) today announced that it is now shipping the industry's first enterprise-class, 7200 RPM 2TB offering, the Ultrastar A7K2000. The new Hitachi GST Ultrastar A7K2000 is designed, manufactured and tested to ensure enterprise-class mean-time-between-failure (MTBF) of 1.2 million hours in demanding 24x7 nearline applications. With a combination of high capacity and reliability, 7200 RPM performance, low power, and enterprise-class features, the Ultrastar A7K2000 drive is the ideal enterprise SATA drive for applications such as data warehousing, disk-to-disk backup, cloud computing and massive scale-out storage implementations where storage density, GB-per-watt and cost-per-GB are critical parameters.

Kingston Technology Europe Ltd., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced the latest addition to the Kingston SSDNow family of solid-state drives, the Kingston SSDNow V+ Series. The Kingston SSDNow V+ Series is available in a wide range of capacities, and has higher and faster performance specifications to meet demands of performance-seeking users. The drive is the perfect upgrade solution for power consumers, system builders, integrators, and enterprise users looking at a cost effective way to increase performance and extend the life of existing systems.

"The Kingston SSDNow V+ Series drive is an ideal solid-state drive for those users working in demanding environments where efficiency and performance are important, as more system resources are in use", said Steve Hall, Product Marketing Manager - Corporate, Kingston Technology Europe, "Users will be more productive as the drives' higher capacities allow for more data storage and faster boot and application load times".

Intel is excited to announce the launch of Intel RAID Controller RS2BL080 - the first in a series of RAID products designed to deliver significant performance improvements and SAS 2.0 features to Intel-based servers. The Intel "RS2" portfolio of Intel RAID products will allow customers to design higher-performing storage solutions for a diverse set of environments including those based on either mainstream 3 Gb/s SAS/SATA or the latest 6 Gb/s SAS drives.

The Intel RAID Controller RS2BL080, a first-generation 6G SAS adapter incorporating LSI MegaRAID technology, offers unprecedented performance with exceptional data protection and design flexibility. Features including LSI SAS2108 6Gb/s RAID on Chip (ROC) silicon and a native PCI Express Generation 2 architecture allow for significant performance gains for both 3Gb/s and 6Gb/s drive-based solutions. Data protection and availability are enhanced by new features including Decision Feedback Equalization for greater signal integrity, enhanced diagnostics, and more robust error reporting.

LucidPort Technology commenced shipping of the industry's first USB 3.0 to SATA bridge chip, the LucidPort USB300. The chip connects a SATA II hard drive, or solid state drive to a USB Full-speed 1.1, Hi-speed 2.0, and Super-speed 3.0 port. It supports native command queuing (NCQ), AES 128/256-bit encryption, and transfer-rates as high as 210 MB/s when used with Windows Mass Storage driver. It offers even higher transfer-rates when used with the new USB-attached SCSI (UAS) driver. The most prominent applications of this chip includes external hard-drives, and external drive enclosures. Competitors such as PLX, Fujitsu, and Faraday Electronics, etc., are expected to release similar chips later this year.

WD today announced two new mobile hard drives that reach new capacity extremes. The highlight is a one terabyte model - the industry's highest-capacity 2.5-inch drive available. Industry-leading 333 GB-per-platter technology enables the new WD Scorpio Blue SATA 2.5-inch hard drives to offer mobile storage device and notebook users an enormous 1 TB capacity. A 750 GB WD Scorpio Blue model also will be available.

The WD Scorpio Blue 750 GB and 1 TB hard drives have a 12.5 mm form factor and are ideally suited for use in portable storage solutions, such as the newly released My Passport Essential SE Portable USB Drives. Other applications include select notebooks and small form factor desktop PCs, where quiet and cool operation are important. Both WD Scorpio Blue drives deliver high-performance with a 3 gigabits per second (Gb/s) transfer rate.

Scythe announces the availability of new pc accessories Scythe Ninja Wire and Slim-Line SATA Cable. The Ninja Wire is a slim steel wire rope with hooks on both ends, with which you can stabilize particularly heavy components inside the computer, like heavy-weight cpu coolers or graphic cards. Thus, the burden of the motherboard is decreased and even cpu coolers like the Scythe Orochi can be installed without worries. An ultimate load of 2 kg and a length of 1 m enable multiple types of usage even outside the pc case, e.g. hanging or crabbing of random objects. The Ninja Wire is available from now on and is offered at a recommended retail price of 5.90 EUR (excluding VAT) or US$ 8.50 (excluding TAX).

With the Slim-Line SATA Cable, you get a cable that is designed for data transfer and as an adapter. The 45-cm-long cable is suitable for usage in htpcs, for instance, and connects the sata-slot of the motherboard with an installed slim-line drive. Consequently, you can from now on connect this popular type of drives with the sata-slot with ease, which allows running it with every current motherboard. The power connection, which you need to run the drive, is integrated in the cable. The speed of the data connection is 3 GBit/s. The Slim-Line SATA Cable receives a recommended retail price of 4.15 EUR (excluding VAT) or US$ 5.50 (excluding TAX). and is in stores now.

Solid-state drive specialist PhotoFast innovated an easy RAID builder solution, which doesn't boast of being an expansion card, and doesn't require additional drivers from the OS. The G-Monster Evolution "Simple RAID Adapter", is a small orange PCB with SATA II and power input on one side, and two sets of SATA II data and power connections on the other. Users can connect two hard drives or SSDs to the device, and connect the device like any other hard drive, to the computer's storage controller. The RAID array the device builds using the member drives connected to it, remains abstract to the host machine, which sees it as a single hard-drive. The G-Monster Evolution supports RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID JBOD modes, with maximum transfer rates of 270 MB/s for both read and write. RAID modes are configurable with the bundled software. One limitation of this device is that it does not support SSDs that have internal RAID 0 connections between two or more sets of NAND flash memory. This is perhaps because the device uses the same controller, or at least the basic design, that goes into making SSDs with internal RAID connections. Popular SSDs of this type (incompatible with this device) include PhotoFast G-Monster V2, Patriot Warp V3, OCZ Apex, and G.Skill Titan. Its availability and pricing are yet to be known.

Synology Inc. today launched the new 2.5" 4-bay Disk Station DS409slim, a highly anticipated addition to the 09 series product line that brings lower power consumption, virtually quiet operations and an extremely small footprint both physically and financially while providing the same reliable data sharing and backup solution that Synology is well known for.

The DS409slim is equipped with a 1.2 GHz CPU, 128MB DDRII RAM, one Gigabit LAN port, two USB2.0 ports and one eSATA port. The snap-in disk tray requires minimal effort to install and replace disks. Supporting up to 2 TB with the combination of four 2.5" SATA or SSD hard drives of 500GB which is the largest capacity on the market, it remains stylish and compact (120 x 105 x 142 mm).

Taiwanese memory manufacturer A-DATA is to update its existing SSD line-up with the introduction of the recently unveiled S592 series of solid-state drives. Enclosed in a 2.5-inch box, the new S592 SSDs come in 32 GB, 64 GB, 128 GB and 256 GB capacities, featuring SATA 3.0 Gbps interface. The drives use MLC NAND flash memory chips and will likely boast not less than 64 MB of cache. The S592 drives are reported to achieve a sustained read rate at 230 MB/sec and write rate at 170 MB/sec with an impressive performance of 6,740 IOPS at sequential read and 2,851 IOPS at write. The S592 family is backed by a two-year warranty, and has already started to appear in stores, with the 32 GB, 64 GB and 128 GB models being priced at about 122 Euro, 172 Euro and 317 Euro, respectively.

Thecus, the leader in digital storage, today announced the availability of its latest 7-bay NAS server, the N7700SAS. Offering massive storage capacity and cutting-edge technology, the N7700SAS is an enterprise class NAS server providing incredible flexibility, reliability, and expandability.

The N7700SAS brings the latest technologies to the table, including seven SATA/SAS hard disk bays that accommodate multiple terabytes of storage. To manipulate all of this data, an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 2GB of DDR2 memory allow for more concurrent connections and quicker system response. For data protection, the N7700SAS lets you choose from a wide selection of RAID modes, including RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10 and JBOD. The N7700SAS also supports multiple RAID volumes, enabling system administrators to choose the right combination of RAID volumes for the network. Should changes need to be made, the N7700SAS also features online RAID expansion, online RAID migration, and auto rebuild for maximum flexibility.

Japanese company Green-House unveiled two new lines of SSDs, the internal MLC-based GH-SSDxxGS-2MA (where "xx" can be 32, 64, 128, or 256, corresponding to the model's capacity in GB), and the portable GH-SSDExxGU-M. To begin with, the GH-SSDxxGS-2MA comes in the standard 2.5" form-factor. It comes in capacities of 32, 64, 128, and 256 GB, and sports a 64 MB cache. It uses standard SATA II interface, and offers read/write speeds of 220/140 MB/s.

The GH-SSDExxGU-M portable SSD on the other hand, comes in capacities of 32, 64, and 128 GB. It measures 117 x 72 x 10 mm (WxDxH), and weighs in at a pocketable 63 g. The connectivity however, is limited to USB 2.0 for some reason, with lack of a faster interface such as eSATA. Its read/write speeds are limited to 20/18 MB/s. Perhaps the only selling point is its higher durability compared to mechanical portable HDDs. With USB sticks already touching 64 GB capacities, choose with your wallet. The pricing and avilability for the two are yet to surface.

Active Media Products, manufacturer of unique USB drives including the Obama drive, today introduced the new Predator GT series of 2.5-inch Serial ATA solid state drives that support outrageously fast data transfer speeds and include a Flex-fit adapter bracket to facilitate mounting in 3.5-inch drive bays.

The Predator GT is immediately available through Amazon and other online resellers in 64 GB and 128 GB capacities. Predator GT SSDs are based on a new 8-channel controller and employ a beefy 128 MB SDRAM cache to reach blistering fast speeds. The 128GB model supports sequential write speeds up to 200 MB/sec while the 64GB drive supports sequential write speeds up to 120 MB/sec. Both models are capable of sequential read speeds up to 220 MB/sec and 0.1ms access times.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, announced today that it is now sampling a SATA-interface mini-card solid state drive (SSD) with some of its customers, for use in the expanding netbook marketplace. The Samsung SATA mini-card SSD expands the use of SSDs from not only being a primary storage medium, but also as a complementary drive to boost the performance of PCs with dual drive capabilities.

Samsung's new mini-card form factor, with a highly robust interface, makes an already rugged SSD even less susceptible to damage from jarring, jostling and dropping.