Micron and Intel today announced an update to their 3D XPoint joint development partnership, which has resulted in the development of an entirely new class of non-volatile memory with dramatically lower latency and exponentially greater endurance than NAND memory.

The companies have agreed to complete joint development for the second generation of 3D XPoint technology, which is expected to occur in the first half of 2019. Technology development beyond the second generation of 3D XPoint technology will be pursued independently by the two companies in order to optimize the technology for their respective product and business needs.

The two companies will continue to manufacture memory based on 3D XPoint technology at the Intel-Micron Flash Technologies (IMFT) facility in Lehi, Utah.

Colorful Technology Company Limited, professional manufacturer of graphics cards, motherboards and high-performance storage solutions is proud to announce the availability of its latest limited edition seasonal release for its solid-state drive product line. The COLORFUL SL500 640G Summer LE SSD marks the celebration of summer with a brand new color model for its SL500 SSD. Coming in at a bright Glacier Blue color, this limited edition joins the previously released Spring LE back in March. The seasonal Limited Edition release from COLORFUL are a special way of bringing users different visual experiences from their products.

Based off the highly successful SL500 series from COLORFUL, this special release is a high-performance, high-capacity model intended for power-users and gamers that need both speed and storage. The Limited Edition Glacier Blue color adds a touch of vibrance especially for users looking to build around a theme.

In their recent earnings call, Micron commented that they have 96-layer 3D NAND technology on track for volume shipments in the second half of 2018. Most of today's SSDs typically use 32-layer technology, with 64-layer flash chips used in some recent releases like the Crucial MX500. 96-layer is the third generation of 3D NAND and increases storage capacity per chip even further which allows smaller and more energy efficient mobile devices to be built. Of course it will be cheaper too, compared to current-generation 64 layer NAND, which should bring SSD pricing down even more, and of course generally help pricing of consumer products which use flash memory.

The second important note from the presentation is that Micron expects 1X nm (18 nm) DRAM production to exceed that of previous generations before the end of this year. Their next-generation 1Y nm (15/16 nm) DRAM is on track to begin production shipments in the second half of 2018, too. As they noted in a previous event, their product and process roadmap for DRAM 1z looks solid and 1-alpha development programs already under way.

Even as researchers expect 3D NAND flash to achieve the 140-layer level by 2021, technology and manufacturers still have to take all the intermediate steps before we're actually there. In that sense, Western Digital has just announced that they're well on their way in producing 96-layer 3D NAND and distributing it to customers. For now, the memory will be used for inexpensive storage solutions, but the idea is to eventually ramp um production for other, higher-performance products.

Western Digital CEO Steve Milligan kept the production ramp-up (and the expectation of BiCS4 production eventually surpassing BiCS3) under wraps, but it seems all is going well with the production. He added that "(...) if you look to where we at from a yield curve perspective, because [BICS4] is not too mature, we are very pleased with where we are. Because once you get to a certain point, you can project where you are going to end at (based on cycles of learning, etc)." As announced by Western Digital before, it's likely this initial production run is delivering 256 Gb capacity chips, with improvements in yields to allow for increased capacity down the road, eventually, up to 1 Tb capacity per chip.

COLORFUL Technology Company Limited, professional manufacturer of graphics cards, motherboards and high-performance storage solutions is proud to announce the addition of two new options for its CN600S line of solid-state drives. COLORFUL is adding the CN600S 240GB and CN600S 480GB drives featuring Intel 64-layer 3D NAND. Those looking for a cost-effective high-performance, high-capacity storage solution for low-profile applications including notebooks and other M.2 capable devices. The improved speed and capacity of the COLORFUL CN600S allows it to be used in a wider range of applications including gaming, professional use or HTPC.

The COLORUL CN600S is equipped with the SMI 2263XT controller, features a M.2 2280 design standard and is rated for transfer speeds up to 2 GB/s reads and 1.5 GB/s write performance. The SMI 2263XT uses the PCIe Gen3 x4 interface and can deliver 4x faster performance than SATA3 for reading, accessing and opening applications and games. The COLORFUL CN600 M.2 PCIe SSD is focused in offering the most compelling cost-benefit ratio in the market.

Micron Technology, Inc. has commenced shipments of the industry's first SSD built on revolutionary quad-level cell (QLC) NAND technology. Unveiled at Micron's 2018 Analyst and Investor Event, the Micron 5210 ION SSD provides 33 percent more bit density than triple-level cell (TLC) NAND, addressing segments previously serviced with hard disk drives (HDDs). The introduction of new QLC-based SSDs positions Micron as a leader in providing higher capacity at lower costs to address the read-intensive yet performance-sensitive cloud storage needs of AI, big data, business intelligence, content delivery and database systems.

As workloads evolve to meet the ever-increasing demands for real-time data insights and analytics, data centers increasingly need the capacity, speed, reliability and steady state performance that enterprise flash storage provides. Micron QLC NAND - reaching densities of 1 terabit with its next-generation 64-layer 3D NAND structure - is optimized to meet these demands and make SATA SSD performance and capacity more approachable than ever before.

ADATA today launched the industrial-grade ADATA IM2P33F8 PCIe Gen3 x4 and IM2S3168 SATA 6 Gbps M.2 2280 solid state drives. Both drives employ durable and long-lasting 3D NAND flash, making them ideal upgrade options for a wide range of systems and installations.

The Adata IM2 series have 3D TLC NAND flash memory, end-to-end data protection, and variable capacities. The IM2P33F8 features a PCIe 3.0 controller with support for NVMe 1.3 and has three capacities (128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB), rated for up to 2,050 MB/s and 1,600 MB/s for sequential read and write speeds, respectively. The IM2S3168 SSD, on the other hand, has a SATA 6 GB/s controller which offers up to 540 MB/s and 510 MB/s in sequential read and write performance, respectively. The capacities of the SATA-based SSD are also more varied, offering 32 GB, 64 GB, 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB drives.

3D NAND has been one of the most important new technologies in allowing for greater storage density in space-constrained hardware (isn't that always the case, though?) As we've stepped away from the usual 2D NAND to the nowadays market-leading 3D solutions, which stack layers of memory one on top of the other (thus making use of vertical space instead of the usually more costly horizontal one), memory density and price per GB has been steadily declining - a relationship that isn't quite as parallel as it may seem, but still occurs.

COLORFUL Technology Company Limited, professional manufacturer of graphics cards, motherboards and high-performance storage solutions is proud to announce the expansion of its storage offering with the addition of its largest capacity solid-state drive to date. COLORFUL is announcing the availability of the SL500 960 GB SSD which will join the fast-growing line-up of COLORFUL high-performance, high-speed storage solutions.

With the introduction of the SL500 960 GB, gamers, power users and professionals seeking high-speed storage with plenty of capacity for various workloads including modern games, large multimedia files and expansive data can be served rapidly. The 960 GB capacity of the SL500 makes it an ideal choice for those individuals that don't want to compromise performance and capacity.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, presents its UD PRO series SATA Interface SSDs with built-in DDR3 RAM, adhering to GIGABYTE standards for high quality, ultra durable products and providing users with a superior product experience. Newly introduced GIGABYTE UD PRO series SSDs include both 256 GB and 512 GB capacity options and come with a clean, sleek design featuring a black and gray exterior with the product name engraved in white. Not only they do utilize high quality 3D NAND Flash memory, they also come with a high-speed, low power DDR3L buffer cache to accelerate the read/write speeds of the SSD, fulfilling the GIGABYTE standard for high quality products.

In comparison to standard SSDs without built-in buffer cache, GIGABYTE UD PRO series SSDs are twice as effective even when its flash memory is at full capacity. At the same time, the random write (IOPS) is up to 16 times faster than non buffer cache versions. Additionally, integrated DDR3L RAM allows users to make use of the entire flash memory capacity without sacrificing performance quality or storage capacity. It's important to note that GIGABYTE has thoroughly tested the UD PRO series SSDs by implementing them on a full range of motherboards with their respective chipsets to evaluate both the functionality as well as durability of the SSDs. Through stress tests under high temperatures and other extreme conditions, the UD PRO series SSDs not only passed the tests but performed flawlessly.