Today, we introduced the Framework Desktop, a tiny 4.5L Mini-ITX desktop powered by AMD's massive new Ryzen AI Max processors. Pre-orders are open now, with first shipments in early Q3 2025. When AMD shared the Ryzen AI Max with us, we immediately knew we had to use it. It has up to 16 CPU cores at 5.1 GHz boost clock, discrete-level Radeon 8060S graphics, and support for up to an insane 128 GB of unified LPDDR5x. That enables 1440p or higher gaming on the heaviest titles, big creative and workstation workloads, and true local AI use cases. This is an absolute monster of a processor, and we shifted our roadmap a year ago to make space for it. In a desktop form factor, we get to unlock every bit of its performance with 120 W sustained power and 140 W boost while staying quiet and cool.

You may still be wondering, why does Framework need to build a desktop? Aren't desktops already modular and upgradeable? They are. In fact, the desktop PC ethos is part of what inspired the Framework Laptop to begin with. The desktop world is amazing. There is a broad, long-lived, interoperable ecosystem with hundreds of brands and hundreds of millions of consumers participating. You can build, upgrade, repair, and personalize to the limits of your imagination (and budget, and desk space), and share your amazing creations with all of the other true believers. We want to make this space as accessible as we possibly can by building a desktop that is simultaneously small and simple and incredibly powerful and customizable. Everyone should have the opportunity to experience the culture around PCs and PC gaming first-hand.

The Xbox Insider program has outlined a major upcoming feature upgrade for their home console lineup—Tuesday's Alpha Skip-Ahead Ring (2502.250120-2200) release notes reveal newly implemented support for larger capacity external hard drives. Naturally, inside program members get to play around with this early build—we presume that support will eventually trickle down to public level in the near future. The major announcement stated: "we are enabling support for external USB drives larger than 16 TB, so you can be sure your favorite games are always ready to play! Newly formatted drives that are larger than 16 TB will be formatted with multiple partitions to utilize all available space for games and apps. These will appear as multiple devices in the storage devices list."

Xbox-licensed external storage devices are only available with a maximum capacity of 12 TB—Western Digital's WD_BLACK D10 model wears the crown here. Console gaming enthusiasts—with a penchant for storing a huge library of titles on hard disk drives (HDD)—are best served by not selecting official Xbox-branded storage devices. Manufacturers do offer products with 18 TB to 28 TB capacities, but potential buyers will be greeted by hefty asking prices. There are a couple of caveats—for owners of 16+ TB drives—as noted in the Alpha Skip-Ahead Ring notes: "drives greater than 16 TB that have already been formatted will be unaffected by this change and would need to be reformatted to take advantage of the updated support for larger drives. Please be aware that we have identified an issue with formatting drives larger than 16 TB, and we're working on a fix." Interestingly, the notes do not disclose information regarding a new upper limit for compatible storage devices.

Expanding the system's computing capability with an additional accelerator like a GPU is common. However, expanding the system's memory capacity with room for more DIMM is something new. Thanks to ServeTheHome, we see that at the OCP Summit 2024, Lenovo showcased its ThinkSystem SR860 V3 server, leveraging CXL technology and Astera Labs Leo memory controllers to accommodate a staggering 16 TB of DDR5 memory across 128 DIMM slots. Traditional four-socket servers face limitations due to the memory channels supported by Intel Xeon processors. With each CPU supporting up to 16 DDR5 DIMMs, a four-socket configuration maxes out at 64 DIMMs, equating to 8 TB when using 128 GB RDIMMs. Lenovo's new approach expands this ceiling significantly by incorporating an additional 64 DIMM slots through CXL memory expansion.

The ThinkSystem SR860 V3 integrates Astera Labs Leo controllers to enable the CXL-connected DIMMs. These controllers manage up to four DDR5 DIMMs each, resulting in a layered memory design. The chassis base houses four Xeon processors, each linked to 16 directly connected DIMMs, while the upper section—called the "memory forest"—houses the additional CXL-enabled DIMMs. Beyond memory capabilities, the server supports up to four double-width GPUs, making it also a solution for high-performance computing and AI workloads. This design caters to scale-up applications requiring vast memory resources, such as large-scale database management, and allows the resources to stay in memory instead of waiting on storage. CXL-based memory architectures are expected to become more common next year. Future developments may see even larger systems with shared memory pools, enabling dynamic allocation across multiple servers. For more pictures and video walkthrough, check out ServeTheHome's post.

Western Digital Corp. today announced that its PCIe Gen 5 DC SN861 E.1S enterprise-class NVMe SSDs have been certified to support the NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 rack-scale system.

The rapid rise of AI, ML, and large language models (LLMs) is creating a challenge for companies with two opposing forces. Data generation and consumption are accelerating, while organizations face pressure to quickly derive value from this data. Performance, scalability, and efficiency are essential for AI technology stacks as storage demands rise. Certified to be compatible with the GB200 NVL72 system, Western Digital's enterprise SSD addresses the growing needs of the AI market for high-speed accelerated computing combined with low latency to serve compute-intensive AI environments.

TrendForce's latest report on enterprise SSDs reveals that a surge in demand for AI has led AI server customers to significantly increase their orders for enterprise SSDs over the past two quarters. Upstream suppliers have been accelerating process upgrades and planning for 2YY products—slated to enter mass production in 2025—in order to meet the growing demand for SSDs in AI applications.

TrendForce observes that increased orders for enterprise SSDs from AI server customers have resulted in contract prices for this category rising by over 80% from 4Q23 to 3Q24. SSDs play a crucial role in AI development. In AI model training, SSDs primarily store model parameters, including evolving weights and deviations.

ORIGIN PC, a leader in custom high-performance systems, today launched their latest laptops - the EON16-SX, NSX-16, NSL-14, and NSL-16. For gamers, the EON16-SX offers powerful 40-Series performance and the latest in processing efficiency with an Intel Core Ultra processor. Professionals have a much broader selection of workstation laptops moving forward with the introduction of the brand new NSX-16, NSL-14, and NSL-16 laptops. Designed for the Generation of AI, the new Intel Core Ultra processors also feature a built-in NPU and Intel AI Boost. Experience improved productivity, efficiency, and performance with AI-acceleration that can be used for video editing, multi-tasking, and more. All four of the new laptops meet MIL-STD-810H-SPEC standards, meaning they have passed extensive stress tests including extreme temperatures, humidity, shock, and more. Durable and powerful, yet completely portable, ORIGIN PC is proud to announce the newest editions to their world-class lineup of custom PCs.

The brand new EON16-SX and NSX-16 laptops are a fusion of high-performance and fully portable design. While only 4.29 lbs light and 0.77 inches thin, they offer high-performance via quality hardware like an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070, DDR5 memory, and a spacious amount of high-speed SSD storage. Both laptops are also designed with a 16" 240 Hz 2560x1600 display, providing an expansive view of games, videos, and software. The two new laptops also take advantage of NVIDIA Optimus which automatically switches between the high performance dedicated GPU and power-efficient integrated GPU to maximize power efficiency. Packed with the latest technology, they boast a generous battery lifespan of 4 hours and 40 minutes. Customize the EON16-SX or NSX-16 with up to 64 GB of DDR5 memory and 16 TB of SSD storage, while also accessing a wide array of connectivity options.

MAINGEAR, a leading provider of high-performance custom PC systems, and Phison, a global leader in NAND controllers and storage solutions, today unveiled groundbreaking MAINGEAR PRO AI workstations with Phison's aiDAPTIV+ technology. Specifically engineered to democratize Large Language Model (LLM) development and training for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), these ultra-powerful workstations incorporate aiDAPTIV+ technology to deliver supercomputer LLM training capabilities at a fraction of the cost of traditional AI training servers.

As the demand for large-scale generative AI models continues to surge and their complexity increases, the potential for LLMs also expands. However, this rapid advancement in LLM AI technology has led to a notable boost in hardware requirements, making model training cost-prohibitive and inaccessible for many small to medium businesses.

Ugreen, a leading brand in consumer electronics.They'll be unveiling their rendition of NAS devices along with vehicle accessories to complement their portable power station, aptly titled the PowerRoam series, at CES 2024 (booth No.22733), running from January 9-12, 2024 in Las Vegas.

At the forefront of Ugreen NAS product line is the flagship product: NASync DX480T Plus. The DX480T Plus is the smallest in the NAS line at 7.0 x 5.6 x 2.0 inches and developed with an emphasis on high-performance and portability. SSD storage spaces allow for up to 16 TB of fast, all-flash storage space. An expandable RAM drive provides up to 32 GB of memory for high-speed processing, and powering the homemade Ugreen OS Pro (UGOS Pro) is Intel's very own 12th gen Core i5 10 Core processor. Boosting data and media transfer speeds are two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports providing up to 40 Gb/s of transfer speeds, making it one of the smallest, fastest NAS devices around.

TrendForce expects that memory suppliers will continue their strategy of scaling back production of both DRAM and NAND Flash in 2024, with the cutback being particularly pronounced in the financially struggling NAND Flash sector. Market demand visibility for consumer electronic is projected to remain uncertain in 1H24. Additionally, capital expenditure for general-purpose servers is expected to be weakened due to competition from AI servers. Considering the low baseline set in 2023 and the current low pricing for some memory products, TrendForce anticipates YoY bit demand growth rates for DRAM and NAND Flash to be 13% and 16%, respectively. Nonetheless, achieving effective inventory reduction and restoring supply-demand balance next year will largely hinge on suppliers' ability to exercise restraint in their production capacities. If managed effectively, this could open up an opportunity for a rebound in average memory prices.

PC: The annual growth rate for average DRAM capacity is projected at approximately 12.4%, driven mainly by Intel's new Meteor Lake CPUs coming into mass production in 2024. This platform's DDR5 and LPDDR5 exclusivity will likely make DDR5 the new mainstream, surpassing DDR4 in the latter half of 2024. The growth rate in PC client SSDs will not be as robust as that of PC DRAM, with just an estimated growth of 8-10%. As consumer behavior increasingly shifts toward cloud-based solutions, the demand for laptops with large storage capacities is decreasing. Even though 1 TB models are becoming more available, 512 GB remains the predominant storage option. Furthermore, memory suppliers are maintaining price stability by significantly reducing production. Should prices hit rock bottom and subsequently rebound, PC OEMs are expected to face elevated SSD costs. This, when combined with Windows increasing its licensing fees for storage capacities at and above 1 TB, is likely to put a damper on further growth in average storage capacities.

In a groundbreaking leap forward for small form factor computing, Simply NUC, Inc, a leading mini PC solutions company, is thrilled to announce the launch of a new product family called Onyx. Powered by Intel's 13th Gen Raptor Lake "H" series processors, Onyx is the world's first 4x4 NUC to feature a Core i9 option. With support for up to an unprecedented 96 GB of DDR5-5200 memory, up to 16 TB of storage, and never before seen benchmark results, Onyx delivers unmatched computing performance for modern business.

"With the launch of Onyx we're redefining what is possible from a 4x4 NUC," said Jonny Smith, Co-CEO at Simply NUC. "Onyx is the culmination of customer-driven innovation and sets the new standard for ultra-small form factor compute power and performance."

ORIGIN PC, a leader in custom high-performance systems, today announced the launch of its latest EON16-SL and NSL-16 laptops. Honing in towards improved portability, access 40-Series performance with a spacious 16" 240 Hz 2560 x 1600 display on a laptop only 0.71 inches thin while 4.19 pounds light. Gamers and professionals can customize a system powered by modern, reliable hardware while also backed by ORIGIN PC's 24/7 US-based support team. Bring portable gaming performance on-the-go with an EON16-SL or complete your work anywhere with an NSL-16.

ORIGIN PC's new EON16-SL pushes lightweight laptop gaming further than ever. It is designed with an Intel Core i9-13900H 14-core processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, and can be customized with up to 64 GB of DDR5 DRAM as well as 16 TB of high-speed storage. Run all the latest games with impressive frame rates, and make use of the massive storage capacity to hold all of your favorites. If you need any software for streaming or content creation, the EON16-SL can easily hold it all.

Chinese InnoGrit has proved to be something of a competent contender in the high-end SSD controller market and at Computex 2023 the company was displaying an early sample of its upcoming IG5666 consumer focused PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD controller. At the moment the company has taped out the controller, but aren't happy with the physical size of the chip and will be doing another tape out for a more optimised chip. Innogrit is using a 16 nm node for the controller, which might be part of the reason why they're having a hard time to get it the right size, but there's also cost reasons that have to be taken into consideration.

Based on the early samples, InnoGrit is expecting it to reach sequential speeds of up to 14 GB/s read and 11 GB/s write. Random performance is said to reach 3 million read and 2.5 million write IOPs. The controller should support up to 16 TB of NAND flash and it supports all common types of NAND up to a speed of 2400 MT/s. The IG5666 is based on the same Tacoma architecture as InnoGrit's IG5669, which is targeting enterprise use, yet delivers similar performance.

Exascend, Inc., a leader in industrial-grade, enterprise-class and cinematography flash storage solutions, announces new ultra-high-capacity industrial- and enterprise-grade PCIe NVMe U.2 SSDs in 16 TB, or 15,360 GB capacity.

Performance and capacity that power cloud and edge servers
U.2 SSDs have some characteristics that give them an edge over M.2 SSDs, such as better thermal performance, high IOPs, low latency, low power consumption, and the ability to come out with higher capacities due to their 2.5-inch form factor - making U.2 ideal for enterprise data centers switching from traditional HDDs to high-performing SSDs.

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation ("Silicon Motion"), a global leader in NAND Flash controllers and solid-state storage devices, today announces it will be showcasing its unique suite of SSD controller solutions for Datacenter, Notebook PCs and Automotive / Industrial SSDs during the Flash Memory Summit from August 2-4 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, booth #311.

Synology has announced the launch of its new HAS5300 series 3.5" SAS hard drives to meet growing demand for high-capacity, high-performance, and resilient storage systems in enterprise environments. Available in 16 TB, 12 TB, and 8 TB models, the HAS5300 drives are the latest addition to Synology's range of enterprise hard drives, following the release of the HAT5300 series SATA drives in January. They are perfect companions to Synology's high-performance and highly scalable SA and UC series storage solutions.

With support for 550 TB/year workloads and rated for a 2.5 million hours mean time to failure (MTTF), HAS5300 SAS drives are built to deliver consistent and class-leading performance in the most intense environments. Persistent write cache technology further helps ensure data integrity for your mission-critical applications.

Sabrent on Monday launched a massive 16 TB variant of its XTRM-Q external SSD that debuted last year in capacities of up to 8 TB. The 16 TB XTRM-Q encloses two 8 TB SSD subunits. Out of the box, these are striped to create the 16 TB volume, but you can re-configure these to run in RAID 1, for data redundancy, or even JBOD/sequential.

What makes the Sabrent XTRM-Q stand out is its Thunderbolt 3 + USB 3.2 dual-mode operation. Unlike the single-drive based XTRM-Q 8 TB, the 16 TB version features a larger body, and requires external power through an included power brick, in addition to the Thunderbolt/USB connection. In striped mode, the driver offers sequential transfer rates of up to 2500 MB/s in Thunderbolt mode. The enclosure is made of aluminium, and doubles up as a heatspreader for the drives underneath. The enclosure is covered by a removable silicone outer sheath. Without this, the drive measures 114.3 mm x 65 mm x 17.2 mm (LxWxH). Available now, it is priced at USD $2,899.

Seagate Technology, a world leader in data storage solutions, today announced two new additions to the company's line of PC gaming storage, the FireCuda Gaming Hard Drive and FireCuda Gaming Hub. Both new external HDD (Hard Disk Drive) solutions were designed for gamers who are looking to level up their battle stations with high—performing, mass capacity upgrades in a sleek enclosure.

Presented in a bold and refined design, the new FireCuda Hard Drive features RGB LED lighting that gamers can customize through Seagate's Toolkit software for an epic gaming atmosphere. It also features Razer Chroma RGB compatibility to synchronize users' Chroma-enabled gaming peripherals. The lightweight FireCuda Hard Drive is designed with USB 3.2 Gen 1 connection for universal compatibility and quick transfer speeds and is USB bus-powered, making it the winning choice for laptop and PC gamers on the go.

Continuously innovating to help organizations keep pace with rapidly expanding volumes of data, Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC) today announced that it is extending its HDD technology and capacity leadership into its broader portfolio of data center solutions. Leveraging innovations from the Ultrastar 18 TB and 20 TB HDD technology platform, the WD Gold family now features new 16 TB and 18 TB CMR HDD capacities. Also available are an upgraded line of Ultrastar JBOD platforms and an Ultrastar hybrid storage server featuring Ultrastar 16 TB and 18 TB CMR HDDs. Through Western Digital's vertical integration capabilities and broad portfolio, the company continues to be uniquely positioned to help customers meet data demands as they design their storage infrastructures for better efficiency and productivity.

"Western Digital's expanded family of data center HDD solutions clearly addresses a variety of customer needs, which puts them in a unique early position to capitalize on cloud and OEM customer transitions to 18 TB, and even to 20 TB for those optimizing the benefits of SMR," said John Chen, vice president at TRENDFOCUS. "Capacity-enterprise HDDs will continue to dominate the nearline and secondary storage market as there is simply no other cost-effective substitute for data at scale. As a result, we expect nearline disk drive exabytes shipments to grow at a 32.5% CAGR, reaching 1.9 zettabytes by 2024."

OWC a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company and one of the world's most respected providers of hard drives, SSDs, Mac & PC docking solutions and performance upgrade kits, today announced the latest edition of its legendary Mercury Elite Pro external storage system for Mac, PC, Linux machines, Smart TVs, and PS4 and Xbox consoles. The 3.5-inch USB 3.2 5 Gb/s hard drive system is a modern day workhorse, delivering real-world performance up to 283 MB/s and capacities up to 16 TB to keep pace with the demands of everything from video editing projects, critical business data, and irreplaceable personal content to expanding PS4/Xbox One game storage and enjoying music/video content via a Smart TV.

The Essential External Storage Solution for Everyone
The Mercury Elite Pro kicked off OWC's rich, storied history of storage solution innovations nearly 20 years ago, and it has successfully stood the test of time by continuing to offer an incomparable blend of performance, quality, and value in a single HDD storage solution.

Toshiba announces MG08 Series, the industry's largest capacity 16 TB Conventional Magnetic Recording (CMR) HDD. With 33% more capacity than today's widely adopted 12 TB drives, and 14% more capacity than prior 14 TB models, MG08 16 TB drives are compatible with the widest range of applications and operating systems, and adapted to mixed random and sequential read and write workloads in both cloud and traditional datacenter environments.

The MG08 Series is Toshiba's second-generation helium-sealed HDD family, and eighth-generation Enterprise Capacity HDD family. Toshiba has delivered its industry-leading 16 TB capacity and improved power efficiency by utilizing the 9-disk helium design, introduced last year in 14 TB models, and its own advanced precision laser welding process to ensure the helium remains sealed inside the drive case. The MG08 features 7,200 rpm performance, a 550 TB per year workload rating, a 2.5 million-hour MTTF, a 512 MB cache buffer, and a choice of SATA and SAS interfaces-all in an industry-standard, 3.5-inch form factor.