Greenliant is growing its portfolio of ArmourDrive solid state drive (SSD) modules with the introduction of 87 PX Series SATA M.2 products. Designed for embedded systems requiring removable data storage that can operate in extreme environments, industrial temperature (-40°C to +85°C), SATA M.2 ArmourDrive SSDs are built in the widely used 2280 form factor.

With high reliability and low power consumption, SATA M.2 ArmourDrive SSDs can be used in a multitude of applications, including Internet of Things (IoT) devices, industrial automation, servers, networking equipment, digital signage, surveillance and video conferencing systems. SATA M.2 ArmourDrive supports the SATA 6Gb/s interface and can reach up to 550/500 MB/s sequential read/write performance. Using 3-bits-per-cell (TLC) 3D NAND flash memory, 87 PX Series SATA M.2 ArmourDrive is rigorously tested to give customers cost-effective and reliable removable solid state storage for space-constrained systems.

Advantech, a global leading provider of the industrial flash storage solution SQFlash, today releases a flagship NVMe SSD product-SQFlash 920 series. This new series product line brings high performance, density, and full function storage security support, which allows complete design-in service for industrial applications. Advantech's SQFlash 920 series NVMe SSD includes the very popular M.2 2280 form factor (SQF-CM8) as well as a 2.5" U.2 form factor (SQF-C25) using the latest Toshiba BiCS3 3D NAND Flash technology to achieve up to 8TB per drive capacity.

Heading towards AIoT applications such as auto-piloting and industrial machine vision, the SQFlash 920 series is an industry first wide-temperature 3D NAND SSD that comes with built-in smart thermal management and comprehensive security features. Using the latest controller technology that includes LDPC and a RAID-ECC error correction engine, SQFlash 920 series provides best-in-class reliability and the same endurance level as planer MLC NAND Flash. What's more, a cloud ready online predictive maintenance feature (PMQ) is also available to help users remotely monitor their SSD.

Micron Technology, Inc., today announced the next step towards market leadership for its quad-level cell (QLC) NAND technology with immediate broad market availability of the popular Micron 5210 ION enterprise SATA SSD, the world's first QLC SSD, which began shipping to select customers and partners in May of this year. Available through global distributors, the Micron 5210 ION enterprise SATA SSD further accelerates Micron's lead in the QLC market, enabling replacement of hard disk drives (HDDs) with SSDs and building on Micron's recent launch of the Crucial P1 NVMe QLC SSD for consumer markets.

Enterprise storage needs are increasing as data center applications deliver real-time user insights and intelligent and enhanced user experiences, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, big data and real-time analytics. At the same time, there is a growing consumer need for higher storage capacity to support digital experiences. QLC SSDs are uniquely designed to address these requirements.

Solid-state drives are cheaper than ever, thanks to systematic decline in NAND flash prices owing both to oversupply and increases in densities. NAND flash prices have already declined by 50 percent over 2018, according to a DigiTimes report, and will continue to slide through 2019. ADATA chairman Simon Chen commented that NAND flash makers haven't slowed down capacity expansions, and 2019 could witness an even bigger drop in prices than 2018.

Major NAND flash makers such as IMFlash Technology, SK Hynix, Samsung, Western Digital, Toshiba, have already taped out their 96-layer 3D NAND flash products, which could enter volume production in the first half of 2019. This could impact prices of existing swelling inventories of products based on 64-layer NAND flash. In theory, the 96-layer chips introduce 50 percent increases in densities. Adoption of newer technologies such as QLC (4 bits per cell) will expand densities even further. The same report also projects that DRAM prices could largely remain flat throughout 2019. Most NAND flash makers also happen to make DRAM, and could balance their NAND flash losses with DRAM profits.

Western Digital Corp. today expanded its portfolio of data storage devices purpose-built for the modern surveillance market, introducing three new offerings: the industry's first industrial-grade 3D NAND UFS embedded flash drive (EFD) for surveillance; an expanded WD Purple microSD card series to support up to 256 GB capacity; and Western Digital Device Analytics, the new device analytics technology enabling OEMs and system integrators to proactively manage their storage subsystems and maintain optimal operation.

The new devices and tools address the complex and dynamic data demands of a surveillance market in transformation, supporting the high performance, capacity and endurance required by networked and artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled camera systems, as well as other smart video devices operating at the edge.

"As the adoption of higher resolution and AI-enabled cameras expands, and traditional centralized surveillance video systems become more distributed, fast and reliable storage with higher capacities are essential for enabling surveillance devices to capture, analyze and transform greater amounts of data, locally, and in real-time," said Oded Sagee, senior director, product marketing, Western Digital. "With the new devices and analytics capability introduced today, we are excited to enable the new era of smart video and AI-driven surveillance systems with the industry's most comprehensive offering for surveillance, from the edge to the core."

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash products, today announces a new line up of gaming hardware including the XPG SX8200 ProM.2 2280 SSD, GAMMIX S5 PCIe Gen3x4 M.2 2280 SSD, and GAMMIX D30 DDR4 memory module.

The SX8200 Pro M.2 2280 SSD is XPG's fastest SSD to date and is designed for avid PC enthusiasts, gamers, and overclockers. It features an ultra-fast PCIe Gen3x4 interface that offers sustained peak read/write speeds of 3500/3000MB/s, outpacing SATA 6Gb/s by a wide margin. Supporting NVMe 1.3, the SX8200 Pro delivers excellent random read/write performance of 390K/380K IOPS. With SLC caching, DRAM cache buffer, E2E Data Protection, and LDPC ECC, it maintains high speeds and data integrity, even during highly intensive applications such as gaming, rendering, and overclocking.

The race for smaller fabrication processes has become more and more expensive, and the expenses in R&D and factory retooling only look to increase. This - alongside the expected increase in demand from silicon-embedded products, which are almost all of them - means that additional funding will be poured into chip manufacturing capabilities. A report from SEMI indicates that the 14% increased investment in 2018 to $62.8 billion will increase a further 7.5% next year, reaching capital expenditure of $67.5 billion in 2019.

3D NAND fabrication plants lead the charge in investment, even if the market is facing some issues stemming from oversupply. The demand growth is being taken into account for these new expansion plans, however, with denser and denser chips being required for all manner of products. This is part of the reason why 43% of this years' spending has been allotted to new NAND factories, but the ratio for 2019 is a much lower 19% increase.

Toshiba Memory Corporation and Western Digital Corporation today celebrated the opening of a new state-of-the-art semiconductor fabrication facility, Fab 6, and the Memory R&D Center, at Yokkaichi operations in Mie Prefecture, Japan. Toshiba Memory started construction of Fab 6, a dedicated 3D flash memory fabrication facility, in February 2017. Toshiba Memory and Western Digital have installed cutting-edge manufacturing equipment for key production processes including deposition and etching. Mass production of 96-layer 3D flash memory utilizing the new fab began earlier this month.

Demand for 3D flash memory is growing for enterprise servers, data centers and smartphones, and is expected to continue to expand in the years ahead. Further investments to expand its production will be made in line with market trends. The Memory R&D Center, located adjacent to Fab 6, began operations in March of this year, and will explore and promote advances in the development of 3D flash memory. Toshiba Memory and Western Digital will continue to cultivate and extend their leadership in the memory business by actively developing initiatives aimed at strengthening competitiveness, advancing joint development of 3D flash memory, and making capital investments according to market trends.

KINGMAX, a world-renowned professional memory manufacturer, has consummated its product line of M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe solid-state drives (SSDs), providing users who want to improve their PC performance with a greater variety of choices. In addition to the ultra-fast M.2 PCIe SSD PX-3480 (Gen3x4) and the PX-3280 (Gen3x2), the affordable/entry-level PJ-3280 (Gen3x2) has also been introduced, allowing users who are considering turning to SSDs to boost their computer performance a higher-speed and more economical option aside from 2.5-inch solid-state drives.

An increasing variety of motherboards or notebooks are currently available on the market, including motherboards equipped with Intel Z270, X99 and the latest 2 Series/3 Series chipsets, all of which are equipped with the M.2 PCIe interface as standard equipment to enable future upgrades. As long as the M.2 slot is the M key version, a solid-state drive that comes with the M.2 PCIe interface can be employed to push the speed and performance of a computer to higher levels. The KINGMAX M.2 2280 NVMe SSD PJ-3280 (Gen3x2) is manufactured using 3D NAND Flash stacking technology, making it highly efficient, stable and durable. Meanwhile, the M.2 2280 is 22x80 mm in size and is available in capacities of 128GB, 256GB or 512GB, suitable for improving the performance of space-challenged notebooks and ultrabooks while expanding capacity.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash products, today announces the launch of XPG SX6000 Pro PCIe Gen3x4 M.2 2280 SSDs. With NVMe 1.3 technology and 3D NAND Flash, they sport excellent speeds and up to 1TB of capacity, making them a viable alternative to SATA SSDs. In addition, SX6000 Pro SSDs are slimmer than standard M.2 2280 SSDs for a higher level of compatibility thanks to a single-sided design.

ADATA produces the SX6000 Pro in 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB. For PC users looking at tangible performance enhancements, the SX6000 Pro makes complete sense as a SATA successor. The principal advantage of the SX6000 Pro is embodied in its superb cost-performance ratio. Using 3D TLC NAND, NVMe 1.3 technology, and a PCIe Gen3x4 interface, it reaches up to 2100 MB/s read and 1500 MB/s write and random performance of up to 250K/240K IOPS. This means up to four times the speed of typical SATA SSDs.

Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Ltd (YMTC), a new player in the NAND industry, will be joining Flash Memory Summit this year for the first time, delivering a much-anticipated keynote address to reveal its ground-breaking technology - Xtacking. YMTC is the first Chinese company to take part in the high-entry-barrier NAND flash memory industry with its new architecture for unprecedented performance, higher bit density, and faster time-to-market.

Simon Yang, YMTC CEO, will deliver a keynote address, Unleashing 3D NAND's Potential with an Innovative Architecture, on August 7th, from 3:00 p.m. at the Mission Ballroom in the Santa Clara Convention Center, where he will illustrate how the company's new technology can increase NAND I/O speed up to DRAM DDR4 while delivering industry-leading bit density, marking a quantum leap for the NAND market.

Western Digital Corp. today announced successful development of its second-generation, four-bits-per-cell architecture for 3D NAND. Implemented for the company's 96-layer BiCS4 device, the QLC technology delivers the industry's highest 3D NAND storage capacity of 1.33 terabits (Tb) in a single chip. BiCS4 was developed at the joint venture flash manufacturing facility in Yokkaichi, Japan with our partner Toshiba Memory Corporation. It is sampling now and volume shipments are expected to commence this calendar year beginning with consumer products marketed under the SanDisk brand. The company expects to deploy BiCS4 in a wide variety of applications from retail to enterprise SSDs.

Samsung is reportedly looking to increase its investment in the NAND space with a $2.6 billion increase to its annual NAND budget. The increase, which will bring the company's investment up to $9 billion, aims to increase production volume in what is building up to be the actual technology of choice for key players in the storage market.

Remember that for all the investment in increasing density and declining price per GB of competing mechanical solutions, we've just had notice of an HDD fabrication plant that's shutting down. Most of the funding will reportedly go into increasing production volume of 3D NAND memory. Should demand stay relatively stable, the (eventual) additional influx of memory chips to the market should help drive costs even lower - provided there's no funny business in price setting, of course.

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.