SMART Storage Systems, an innovative enterprise solid-state drive (SSD) technology provider, today announced the new Optimus Eco, the first Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) 6Gb/s SSD on the market to leverage 19 nm multi-level cell (MLC) Flash. Continuing the company's effort to usher in a new era of Flash storage, and anticipating the changing needs of enterprise data centers, SMART Storage Systems' new Optimus Eco SSD represents the industry's best combination of performance, capacity, endurance and cost in an enterprise-class 2.5-inch drive.

Forced to do more with less, many organizations are choosing to build their own hyperscale architectures by combining best-in-class hardware and software to lower costs and meet growing data center demands. In addition, looking to control maintenance costs, data center managers are seeking the highest-capacity drives to pack more capacity into a rack, resulting in the ability to reduce their storage footprint. In fact, Gartner estimates that in 2016 the average capacity of an SSD deployed in enterprise storage and server environments will be more than 1.1 TB. When combined with SSDs that can provide the endurance necessary to support write-intensive applications with cost-effective 19 nm MLC Flash, the result is a dramatic reduction in storage total cost of ownership (TCO).

HGST (formerly Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and now a Western Digital company, NASDAQ: WDC) today announced the industry's highest-capacity 10,000 RPM, enterprise-class hard drive - the Ultrastar C10K1200. Providing a capacity extension to HGST's proven Ultrastar C10K900 product line, the new 2.5-inch Ultrastar C10K1200 features a SAS 6Gb/s interface for reliable data throughput, a 64MB cache buffer for optimized read/write response time, and a fast 10K rotational speed for reliable high-performance computing. All this, combined with the drive's low power, high capacity and high performance attributes, results in higher density servers, blades and network storage arrays that helps reduce space requirements, lowers cooling costs and improves total cost of ownership (TCO).

Increasing storage needs, shrinking floor space and budgets, and reducing power and cooling are just a few challenges that datacenter managers face today, making it challenging to scale and sustain business growth. Whether building datacenters for public clouds, private clouds or traditional datacenters, adopting the right tiered storage strategy delivers greater efficiencies in terms of reliability, performance, capacity and power, and can make a vast difference in the ability to lower TCO.

Acer America today has delivered savvy new consumer desktops for customers in the U.S. The new Acer Aspire ME and XC Series feature Windows 8, a savvy new ergonomic design and all the essentials for personal productivity and digital entertainment. Available in two sizes, the Acer Aspire ME Series micro towers are made for those desiring a power-packed workhorse with ample room for upgrades, while the Aspire XC Series small form factor (SFF) desktops are built for those looking to save space.

Acer's latest desktops sport an aesthetically-pleasing black chassis that provides handy cable management. All buttons are located on the front or top of the system for easy access and making the system both left and right hand neutral. "We've retooled our latest Aspire desktops to deliver ample power and practical features in a stylish, understated chassis that will appeal to a wide range of users," said Irene Chan, senior business manager of consumer desktops for Acer America. "Combined with Windows 8, the new Acer desktops are ideal for use as a central entertainment hub for an entire household as well as a student requiring a robust system for homework and social media."

Toshiba's Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today announced that its consumer line-up of Satellite laptops and Ultrabooks, Qosmio laptops as well as its All-in-One desktops featuring Windows 8 are available for pre-order starting today and will be widely available for purchase from select U.S. retailers and ToshibaDirect.com on October 26.

Toshiba's new laptops feature spacious touchpads with Windows 8 gesture support to allow users to perform gestures on the touchpad as they would on a touchscreen device. In addition, to help transition consumers to the innovative interface in Windows 8, Toshiba's new PCs come pre-installed with Toshiba Desktop Assist, a utility designed to give users easy access to their programs, control panel, as well as files and folders, similar to the Start Menu in previous versions of Windows.

Ciphertex, the leading provider of secure, portable storage systems will exhibit the new CX-10K-NAS secure server at the HTCIA conference in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

The HTCIA conference will provide Ciphertex the opportunity to demonstrate the CX-10K-NAS and discuss its many applications that will benefit the forensic community. During the acquisition of suspect data, Ciphertex encrypted products ensure collected evidence remains unaltered throughout the forensic process using advanced AES-256Bit encryption, from acquisition to the presentation of evidence and eventual archival. The CX-10K-NAS functions as a central storage location of suspect data with the performance necessary to sustain multiple concurrent workflow requests. While performing e-forensics the CX-10K-NAS allows for multiple investigators to simultaneously examine digital evidence reducing the duration of analysis and overhead costs to maintain an investigative team. The CX-10K-NAS connects directly to existing network environments utilizing 10GbE or 1GbE interfaces that support transfer speeds of 1000 MB/s and allows for effortless implementation.

MOSAID Technologies Inc. today introduced HLSSD (HyperLink Solid State Drive), a SSD that achieves Terabyte-class storage capacity using a single controller device. MOSAID engaged PaxDisk of Korea to develop the Terabyte-class HLSSD.

MOSAID's Terabyte-class HLSSDs are optimized for data centers and the enterprise. Based on HLNAND (HyperLink NAND) technology, MOSAID's HLSSDs deliver scalability, performance, reliability and cost advantages over SSDs that use conventionally designed NAND Flash devices.

Seagate Technology plc., today introduced Backup Plus storage devices - its reinvented consumer storage product family that delivers the easiest setup, one-click backup and the ability to save and share your content on Facebook and Flickr.

Seagate Backup Plus hard drives are newly designed external storage that work interchangeably with both Windows and Apple computers and deliver new features to protect, share and save nearly every aspect of one's digital life. These products come loaded with the new hassle-free Seagate Dashboard software for one-click local backup making it easier than ever to eliminate excuses or apprehensions about backing up one's most valuable digital content. Seagate Backup Plus products are the world's first external hard drives to provide backup for content on social networks, such as Facebook and Flickr. Storing a local duplicate copy of photos from social networks is now as easy as backing up files on your computer. Seagate Backup Plus will provide the peace of mind that every aspect of one's digital life is safe from loss.

Dell is reimagining the all-in-one computer with a new portfolio of solutions for consumers who desire beautifully designed systems for multimedia creation and entertainment. The new computers include the XPS One 27, Dell's largest ever all-in-one and part of the premium XPS performance family, and the Inspiron One 23 and Inspiron One 20 all-in-one computers for families. The three desktop computers are slim and stylish and reflect Dell's design aesthetic that places a premium on unique materials, form factors and experiences.

The XPS One 27 delivers a big-screen experience - from the diagonal to the resolution - with one of the most vibrant displays Dell has offered. The XPS One 27 is 27-inches of stunning 2560x1440 Full Quad HD clarity and color. The wide format 16:9 WLED display makes digital work, movies, games and photos appear crisp, colors vivid. It delivers optional high-performance graphics from NVIDIA and entertainment features such as Waves MaxxAudio 4 and Infinity-branded speakers, an optional slot load Blu-ray disc drive, and optional internal TV tuner, making it an entertainment and multimedia powerhouse.

Iomega, an EMC company and a global leader in data protection, today announced the new Iomega StorCenter px12-450r Network Storage Array, multi-protocol networked data storage for small and medium business, remote office/branch office installations and distributed enterprises. The StorCenter px12-450r features the new Intel Xeon Processor E3-1200 v2 Product Family, 8GB RAM, improved user supportability and is ready for 4TB* hard disk drives (HDD) and 10 gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) networks. Additionally, the StorCenter px12-450r utilizes the latest version the EMC LifeLine software, an advanced operating system that makes EMC's enterprise class expertise and cloud capabilities available to a broad range of users.

Freecom, part of the Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Group and award-winning manufacturer of external hard drives and portable storage devices, today unveiled the Hard Drive Sq, a 3.5" external hard drive with an innovative square form factor. With its unique appearance and state-of-the-art technology, the Hard Drive Sq strikes a perfect balance between elegant design and practicality. In addition to being able to back up and store files on a computer, the drive connects directly to a TV set for USB recording and playback, enabling users to store and watch their favourite shows quickly and easily.

"With the Hard Drive Sq, you can really put the information you need at your fingertips - whether it is on your PC, laptop of even a TV screen," said Cas de Heus, marketing and communications manager EUMEA at Freecom. "From a practical point of view, the Hard Drive Sq is everything you would expect from a high-quality external hard drive in that it is fast, easy to use and visually stunning - but the ability to plug it into a TV set gives it an additional edge. People are changing the way that they watch television and with so much great content to choose from, many are opting to record and playback the programmes that they would most like to watch. The Hard Drive Sq enables users to make the most of this by reliably expanding their TV's storage capacity."

Here's a picture of Toshiba's its newest gaming notebook in the works, the Qosmio X870. Although unveiled, it will be a little while before we can see this 17.3-incher in stores. That's because it's said to powered by "next-generation" Core processors (Ivy Bridge), and "next-generation" NVIDIA GeForce GPU (Kepler), with 3 GB of GDDR5 memory. Its 17.3-inch TruBrite display packs 1920x1080 pixels resolution. Other notable specifications of this brute includes 2TB SSD+HDD hybrid, Bluetooth 4.0, four USB 3.0 ports, Harman-Kardon speakers, Blu-ray drive, and wired Ethernet. According to the source, the Qosmio X870 is headed for a Q2-2012 launch.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, announces the Company has set a new benchmark of 1 million 4K write IOPS with a Z-Drive R4 equipped 3U Colfax International Server based on a Supermicro platform, which features 7.2TB of MLC storage. As the fastest performing single server solution on the market, this Z-Drive R4 equipped platform significantly accelerates demanding transactional workloads and reduces latency across a broad array of enterprise applications.

"The Z-Drive R4 enables our data center clients to maximize performance in the industry standard 4K file size, and this achievement with Colfax International demonstrates the raw performance benefits and latency reductions that OCZ PCIe SSDs can deliver over multi-terabyte device densities in a single 3U server," said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology Group. "We are proud to enable our clients to deliver servers and storage arrays which provide the highest performance, maximum capacity, and lowest latency available to data centers today."

Striving to satisfy consumers' desire and need for high speed storage, Team Group Inc. launches two new generation top class memory cards, the SDHC UHS-I and SDXC UHS-I which are compliant to the latest digital recording storage specifications. Both cards are tiny in the size of a stamp, yet come in hard-disk level large capacities. Their transfer speeds break traditional limits With excellent performances fully satisfy the rigorous demands of professional photography, allowing photography enthusiasts and professional photographers to fully enjoy unlimited fun.

Team Group Inc.'s SDHC UHS-I and SDXC UHS-I memory cards comply with SDA's Ultra High Speed 1 (UHS-I) specifications, with a theoretical transfer speed reaching as high as 104MB/s. Even under normal usage their reading speed can still reach as high as 40MB/s while continual writing speed can reach up to 15MB/s, therefore making them the new generation speed class that surpasses the previous SDHC Class 10. The best performance of the SDHC UHS-I and SDXC UHS-I can be fully demonstrated when they are used in the latest model of high-end single lens digital cameras and digital recorders that support UHS technology In which case, Team Group Inc.

Transcend Information, Inc., a worldwide leader in memory and storage products, today announced the company's first 64GB Class 10 SDXC memory cards. Featuring an unprecedented amount of storage capacity and ultra fast transfer rates up to 25 MB/s, Transcend's new Ultimate SDXC cards are perfect for consumers in need of extended Full HD video recording time and improved camera performance for high-resolution digital photography.

SDXC (Secure Digital eXtended Capacity) is the next-generation standard for SD cards established by the Secure Digital Association (SDA). With supported capacities up to 2TB, SDXC offers vastly greater storage potential compared to the SDHC standard, which only supports capacities up to 32GB. A 64GB SDXC card can store a maximum of 26208 pictures (based on 5 megapixel JPEG compression format), 352 hours of standard quality video (MPEG-4 video at 384 Kbps), or 640 minutes of 1920x1080 Full HD videos. Thanks to its use of the exFAT file system that supports files larger than 4GB, Transcend's SDXC cards are the ideal complement to today's high-end SDXC-compatible DSLR cameras and HD camcorders.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in digital consumer electronics and information technology, today announced the F4EG, the world's highest-density, environmentally friendly hard disk drive (HDD) for the desktop market. The EcoGreen F4 features a 2-terabyte (TB) capacity - 667 GB for each of its three disks - and is capable of storing up to 880 hours of DVD video or 500,000 songs in MP3 format. The internal F4EG utilizes Samsung's high-density design technology to provide better performance, low power and improved reliability to its 'EcoGreen' hard drives.

"Storage-hungry multimedia professionals, gamers and home PC users continue to increase the amount of video, music, photo and other personal data they store and back-up," said I.C. Park, vice president, Storage Sales, Semiconductor Business, Samsung Electronics. "The F4EG delivers all the benefits of a low-power drive yet features top performance quality and is environmentally friendly."

Plextor have today announced the launch of a new consumer NAS drive, the PX-NAS2. The PX-NAS2 facilitates data back-up and storage as well as file sharing and streaming to other devices across a home or small office network. With security features, excellent cross-platform compatibility and the ability to effortlessly sync and share data - even without technical knowledge - the PX-NAS2 is the ideal file management solution for the whole family.

"Plextor is pleased to expand our storage category to meet today's growing storage demand by providing another complete storage solution to our consumers," says Takashi Adachi, General Manager of Plextor. "The PX-NAS2 is a complete and versatile NAS device that fulfills the growing demand for storage capacity, security and accessibility of personal data anywhere, anytime within a home." The PX-NAS2 is available from May in three versions, with prices starting at €179.

Seagate is now shipping its 3.5-inch Constellation ES drive, the industry's first 2TB enterprise-class drives featuring 6Gb SAS, to customers worldwide. Designed specifically for multi-drive nearline storage environments, the Constellation ES drive has been qualified by leading enterprise OEMs and system builders who demand storage solutions of the highest capacities with increased power efficiency, enterprise-class reliability, and data security that their customers demand. The Constellation ES drive leverages Seagate's 30 years of leadership in meeting large enterprise customer needs in product development, qualification, and support.

The fourth-generation, 3.5-inch Seagate Constellation ES drive family for 7200-RPM enterprise environments enables cost-effective, highly efficient storage with capacities of 500GB, 1TB and 2TB. Supporting up to 76TB per square foot, it offers best-in-class reliability, leading 6Gb/s SAS or SATA 3Gb/s performance, PowerChoice optimized power and cooling technology, and a government-grade security option - all backed by Seagate.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in digital consumer electronics and information technology today announced the F3EG, its new high-performance environmentally-friendly HDD (hard disk drive) for the desktop market. The EcoGreen F3EG, a higher capacity model from its predecessor the F2EG, features 2TB capacity with 500GB per disk that is capable of storing up to 880 hours of DVD video or 500,000 or more songs in MP3 format. With increased recording density, the EcoGreen F3 drive is more power efficient by supporting a capacity up to 2TB with four disks.

"Storage-hungry multimedia professionals, gamers and home PC users continue to increase the amount of video, music, photo and other personal data they store and back-up," said In Cheol Park, vice president, Storage Sales, Samsung Electronics. "The F3EG delivers all the benefits of a low-power drive yet features high performance and is environmentally friendly."

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in digital consumer electronics and information technology, today announced the G Series, its new line-up of external hard drives, designed under an eco-friendly green concept. The new G series strengthen Samsung's external drive portfolio of 1.8", 2.5" and 3.5" drives, targeting the young adult market, which are looking for a fashionably styled mobile drive but that is also reliable with high density.

Samsung's new G-Series, introduced at the International Consumer Electronics Show, consists of the 2.5-inch G2 Portable with 250/320/500/640GB densities and the 3.5-inch G3 Station available in 1/1.5/2TB versions.

LaCie today introduced the most complete HD multimedia hard drive player, combining Full HD 1080p playback, unsurpassed format compatibility and DLNA media server functionality - LaCinema Classic HD, design by Neil Poulton. Users can browse, play and share HD media collections from anywhere in the home, directly on HDTV.

The LaCinema Classic HD offers a timeless and sleek design making it a great addition to any TV setup. Providing the widest media format compatibility, LaCinema Classic HD will play all your files without concern - from the most popular DivX format to high-quality MKV H.264 video format via its HDMI 1.3 connection. Uncompromising support for Dolby Digital audio quality enhances the LaCinema Classic HD, as well as your entertainment viewing experience.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) today announced the availability of the newly designed SimpleDrive desktop external hard drive with capacities of up to two terabytes (2TB). In addition, the company announced that all of its 3.5-inch retail drives are now available in 2TB capacities, featuring the Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000, the industry's first 2TB 7,200 RPM hard drive that blends performance and high capacity with low power features. New, upgraded solutions include the Hitachi SimpleTech Pro Drive; the two-drive, RAID 0/1 Duo Pro Drive; and the Hitachi Internal Hard Drive Kit for the do-it-yourself (DIY) computer-upgrade market. All products are now available.

"Hitachi continues to build its channel presence with an expanded portfolio of 2TB storage solutions for business users, consumers or virtually anyone who needs additional capacity to manage the growing number and size of their digital files," said Azmat Ali, vice president of marketing, Branded Business, Hitachi GST. "Even though people are inundated with digital content daily, many are not taking the necessary precautions to safeguard their content. Our external drives, together with consistent backup practices, will help people keep their digital memories, entertainment and business documents safe."

Adding to its suite of scalable storage solutions for small business, Seagate today announced availability of the BlackArmor NAS 110 network storage server. This new offering is the first of the Seagate BlackArmor NAS family to include additional capabilities designed to meet the specific needs of small/home offices and prosumers who crave the latest NAS technology. Available immediately through Seagate.com and leading retailers and e-tailers such as Best Buy, Staples, Amazon.com and Newegg, the BlackArmor NAS 110 server can be purchased for a manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of $229.99 for 1TB and $349.99 for 2TB.

LG Electronics introduced a new Network Attached Storage option for consumers looking to protect their multimedia entertainment files, this week at Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA) EXPO 2009 (Booth #2623).

To help safeguard treasured family memories, photos and music, LG's Network Attached Storage (NAS) model N2R1 uses a proven system of multiple hard drives used for sharing and replicating data to prevent possible damage or loss. Called RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Discs), this system automatically backs up and restores files for added security in the event of a hardware failure.

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.

QNAP Systems, Inc. is pleased to announce Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB (WD20EADS) SATA hard drive is now supported by the entire TS-109/ 209/ 409/ 509/ 439/ 639/ 809 /809U-RP and the latest TS-119/ 219 Turbo NAS series.

'The latest 2TB Caviar Green hard drives from Western Digital consume up to 70% less power than two 1TB hard drives and are relatively quiet in operation. These hard drives are ideal for customers requiring higher capacities and the right balance of energy conservation and ensured reliability. The maximum capacity can be extended up to a total of 16TB now on a TS-809 or 809U-RP' says Andy Chuo, Product Manager from QNAP. The complete HDD compatibility list is available here.