(Editor's Note: We'll see if this statement from Micron is enough to staunch the bleeding on its shares - which it should, since the company says no recognizable impact will exist on its bottom line. If things are as they seem (and yet, they seldom are), this is a checkmate move from Chinese manufacturing companies - eventually supported by the Chinese government - and an interesting way to lock China's voracious DRAM and NAND market to fully domestic manufacturers.)

Micron Technology, Inc., announced that the Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court, Fujian Province, China today notified two Chinese subsidiaries of Micron that it has granted a preliminary injunction against those entities in patent infringement cases filed by United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) and Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co. (Jinhua). The patent infringement claims of UMC and Jinhua were filed against Micron in retaliation for criminal indictments filed by Taiwan authorities against UMC and three of its employees and a civil lawsuit filed by Micron against UMC and Jinhua in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California for the misappropriation of Micron trade secrets.

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.

Crucial has released the first new firmware for their smash-hit MX500 Series SSD, which is among the fastest and most affordable drives on the market (our reviews: 500 GB, 1 TB, 1 TB M.2).

The Crucial website lists the following improvements in the changelog:

• Improved ready time from DEVSLP low-power state.
• Improved TRIM and Wear Leveling performance.
• Improved SATA error handing.
• Improved compatibility with some TCG Opal 2.0 third-party encryption utilities (this change does not affect MS BitLocker).

Ballistix, a leading global brand of gaming memory, today announced the availability of Ballistix Tactical Tracer RGB DDR4 memory. The new Tactical Tracer RGB modules, available in 8GB and 16GB densities with speeds up to 3000 MT/s, allow gamers to light up their systems with 16 RGB LEDs in 8 zones on each module. PC modders can customise their system's look by removing the Ballistix-labeled light bar for maximum brightness, or 3D printing their own light bar to truly leave their mark on their memory.

"A lot of the members in our community love to personalise their gaming rigs and the new Tactical Tracer RGB DDR4 modules help achieve just the style they are looking for," said Jim Jardine, Director of DRAM Product Marketing. "Having an RGB module with a removable light bar that enables you to custom-make your own system gives system builders the best options for customisation and personalisation."

Crucial started selling all four models of its premium SATA SSD, the MX500. The drive was launched earlier this month. It comes in 250 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB variants; and in the 2.5-inch form-factor, with SATA 6 Gbps interface. M.2-2280 variants with SATA interface, which were shown off at the 2018 International CES, could launch a little later this year. The 250 GB variant is priced (MSRP) at USD $79.99 ($0.31 per GB), the 500 GB variant at $139.99 ($0.27 per GB), the 1 TB variant $259.99 ($0.25 per GB), and the range-topping 2 TB variant $499.99 ($0.24 per GB). All four models come with 5-year warranties.

Crucial MX500 combines Micron's 2nd generation 64-layer 3D TLC NAND flash memory with a Silicon Motion SM2258 controller, and a custom firmware by Crucial. The NAND flash chips by design offer the same levels of power-loss protection as drives that need capacitor banks to do so. Among its features are Dynamic Write Acceleration (SLC-cached writes), and Redundant Array of Independent NAND (RAIN). All four variants offer sequential transfer rates of up to 560 MB/s with up to 510 MB/s writes, and 4K random access performance ratings of up to 95,000/91,000 IOPS (reads/writes).

Crucial at CES 2018 has unveiled their M.2 version fo the prize-winning MX500 drive (you can read TPU's review of the MX500 2.5" drive here). The new M.2 SATA SSDs bring a much needed form-factor for Crucial's SSD line, with capacities ranging from 250 GB, passing through 500 GB, and ending in the 1 TB mark. All capacities have the same performance rating: 560 MB/s sequential read, 510 MB/s sequential writes, 90K random write and 95K random read IOPS.

Crucial, a leading global brand of memory and storage upgrades, today announced the availability of the Crucial MX500 SSD. The new drive features second generation Micron 3D NAND technology and is 45 times more energy efficient than a typical hard drive. Available in capacities up to 2TB in the 2.5-inch form factor and up to 1TB in the M.2 form factor, the MX500 has sequential reads/writes up to 560/510 MB/s and random reads/writes up to 95K/90K IOPS.

"This next generation MX500 SSD features a stackable 64-layer, 256-gigabit component. Micron's floating gate NAND is designed with CMOS Under the Array (CUA), which allows us to minimize the footprint of the die. At 59 square millimeters, it's among the world's smallest 256-gigabit die," said Jon Tanguy, Crucial Senior SSD Product Engineer. "Our engineering team has incorporated this leading-edge NAND technology in an SSD that includes all the advanced features Crucial customers have come to expect to keep their data safe."

Crucial, a leading global brand of memory and storage upgrades, today announced the immediate availability of 128GB DDR4 LRDIMMs, a new offering in its server memory product portfolio. The 128GB DDR4 LRDIMM is the highest density server memory module that Crucial has offered to date, and with speeds starting at 2666 MT/s, the new DDR4 server memory modules increase the installed memory capacity per server to help maximize CPU and server hardware capabilities.

Memory-dependent server applications like virtualization, in-memory database computing, and high-performance computing (HPC) require massive amounts of available RAM. These new server modules support a number of memory-intensive computing applications, such as Microsoft SQL, Oracle, Microsoft Azure, VMware VDI, Cloudera, Hortonworks and SAP HANA. Additionally, each module is 100 percent component- and module-tested to mission-critical server standards, ensuring quality from start to finish through a 34-stage manufacturing process and more than 100 tests and verifications. For qualified customers, the 128 GB LRDIMM server modules are also backed by the Crucial Reliance Program.

Crucial, a leading global brand of memory and storage upgrades, today announced the availability of a new offering in its solid state drive product portfolio: BX300. It combines Micron 3D NAND with a value-conscious design to deliver the features DIY upgraders and builders are looking for. The new SSD includes 3D MLC NAND in a 2.5-inch form factor drive, and is available in 120GB, 240GB, and 480GB capacities.

Upgrading from a traditional hard drive to a solid state drive has never been easier. The Crucial Advisor tool helps users determine a compatible upgrade based on their system's manufacturer, make, and model. Supporting the BX300 is Crucial's mobile-friendly install guide so users of all technical ability levels are armed with the straightforward, step-by-step information they need to successfully install an SSD. Data migration is also simplified with free access to Acronis True Image HD software.

No, that isn't a major typo on this article's headline. According to print magazine c't, who conducted a test bench consisting of two pieces each of OCZ's TR150, Crucial's BX 200, Samsung's 750 Evo, Samsung's 850 Pro, SanDisk's Extreme Pro and SanDisk's Ultra II, the last SSD to actually give out the last breath was Samsung's 256 GB 850 Pro, with a staggering 9100 TB (that's 9.1 Petabytes) written. This is well beyond Samsung's suggested longevity for this particular SSD, which stands at 150 TBW.

The first particular model to give out was one of Crucial's BX 200, at 187 TBW (still more than twice over the manufacturer's 80 TBW). The second model to fail was the second Crucial BX 200, at 280 TBW. The remaining SSDs apparently died after a power peak (unclear whether a surge or a spike), save for the Pro models, in the form of SanDisk's Extreme Pro and Samsung's 850 Pro (it seems those Pro-oriented features do serve some purpose, eh?.) One of these SanDisk Extreme Pro models lasted for about 2,200 TBW, the same amount of writes the first Samsung 850 Pro model endured. However, the second Samsung 850 Pro broke through all records with its total 9,100 TB written. Naturally, these are interesting and impressive overall results, but they can't really be counted upon as being statistically significant; two models each aren't enough to achieve a representation of the tested SSD models' endurance. However, this also probably means that save a defect on your SSD's manufacturing, you can count on it for a considerable amount of writes.

Crucial is giving final touches to its next-generation mainstream SATA SSDs, under the BX300 series. A follow-up to its MX300 series, the BX300 series will be launched later this Summer. The drives combine a Marvell-made controller with Micron 3D TLC NAND flash memory, and likely come in capacities of 240 GB, 480 GB, and 960 GB. Crucial will sell these drives only in the 7 mm-thick 2.5-inch form-factor with SATA 6 Gb/s interface, initially. While the company didn't talk about performance, it mentioned that the drives offer "SATA-saturating performance," meaning that at least its sequential reads could be around the 530 MB/s mark (that of the MX300), if not higher. With the BX300, Crucual is launching a new multi-media SSD install tutorial website that's made as simple to understand as possible, so anyone with a screwdriver can replace their HDD with a new SSD.

Crucial, a leading global brand of memory and storage upgrades, today announced the availability of its latest DDR4 server DIMMs. With speeds of 2666 MT/s, new Crucial DDR4 server memory modules allow for increased performance and bandwidth within data centres and hyperscale environments. They are also available in a variety of server module types and densities ranging from 8GB to 64GB.

New Crucial 2666 MT/s 8Gb-based server memory modules are approximately 11 percent faster than the previously released 2400 MT/s DIMMs. Additionally, the newly expanded portfolio of Crucial server memory will support cloud and enterprise environments that are migrating to next-generation Intel server platforms.

The Ballistix sub-brand of Crucial, Micron Technology's consumer products subsidiary, is now its own brand, and no longer labeled next to Crucial. The Ballistix Gaming brand will now include PC gaming hardware, including memory (RAM), and perhaps even SSDs and gaming peripherals in the future. Ballistix products will be targeted at DIY gaming PC builders and enthusiasts.

Commenting on the story, Crucial stated: "Ballistix is now it's own defined brand, becoming a sibling to Crucial (previously a sub-brand). For more than a decade, Ballistix has injected speed and style into PC gaming in a way that can't be imitated. As the only major brand of gaming memory that builds and tests products from start to finish, Ballistix brings you the proven performance and reliability that pro gamers build with. Ballistix performance memory (RAM) is designed to give the upper hand to gamers, performance enthusiasts, and overclockers."

Crucial today, in a statement to TechPowerUp stated that it has canceled the Ballistix TX3 PCIe solid-state drive launch. The company canceled the product on the basis of "prioritization of company resources and investments." The company however stated that it will continue to develop SSD products that target the gamer-enthusiast market that the Ballistix TX3 PCIe was intended for. "We are, however, continuing to explore potential opportunities for future gaming products and will provide an update as new plans are formalized," the company stated.

Crucial first unveiled the Ballistix TX3 at the 2016 Computex Expo, where it demonstrated its M.2 variants. The drives combined Silicon Motion's new SMI2260H processor with Micron-made 3D MLC NAND flash memory. The drive took advantage of 32 Gb/s PCIe and the new NVMe protocol to offer transfer rates up to four times higher than current performance-segment SATA 6 Gb/s SSDs.

Crucial, a leading global brand of memory and storage upgrades, today announced additional capacities of the Crucial MX300 solid state drive (SSD). Built for speed and loaded with advanced features, the new drives deliver an immediate increase to system performance.

With read speeds up to 530 MB/s and write speeds up to 510 MB/s on all file types, the Crucial MX300 enables users to boot up almost instantly, load programs with ease, and accelerate demanding applications. The drive is engineered with Micron 3D NAND technology, resulting in an endurance rating of up to 220 TB total bytes written by leveraging larger NAND cells to deliver top-notch performance and prolong endurance.

Crucial, a leading global brand of memory and storage upgrades, today announced the availability of Nonvolatile DIMM (NVDIMM) server memory to help companies protect data in the event of a system power loss. Historically, companies have used uninterruptible power supplies, solid state drives (SSDs), mechanical hard drives (HDDs) or other devices to ensure the security of critical data. While this method of preserving critical data has been effective, the backup and restore times have been very long due to the latency and write times of the SSD and HDD. Today's applications such as relational databases, scale-out storage, data analytics, and in-memory databases require much faster backup and restore times.

Crucial NVDIMM server memory combines DRAM and NAND onto a single module, providing the performance of DRAM with the persistence of NAND. In the event of a power loss, the NVDIMM will back up all DRAM data to the NAND while utilising a backup power source, known as an ultracapacitor. The DRAM on the NVDIMM ensures critical data can be operated on from a low-latency memory space without the risk of losing it. The NAND on the module ensures that the contents of the DRAM are not lost during a power failure, making the DRAM persistent. When power is restored to the system, the data in the NAND is restored on the DRAM.

Crucial is ready with a high-performance SSD in the M.2 form-factor, which leverages 32 Gb/s PCI-Express, and the NVMe protocol to belt out four to five times the read/write performance of SATA 6 Gb/s SSDs. The new Crucial Ballistix TX3 line of M.2 SSDs features the Silicon Motion SMI2260H processor, mated to Crucial-made 3D (stacked) MLC NAND flash, cushioned by a large DRAM cache. A similar setup is found on the ADATA SX8000NP, and the sequential speeds of that drive are rated at up to 2,000 MB/s reads, with up to 800 MB/s writes.

Even as Crucial's 2.5-inch SATA MX300 drive is nowhere close to market launch, its M.2 cousin is already unveiled. Built in the M.2-2280 form-factor, the drive appears to feature SATA 6 Gb/s interface, logically with the same controller, DRAM cache, and 3D stacked TLC NAND flash memory as the 2.5-inch SATA MX300. One could speculate looking at that large bank of SMT capcitors that the drive offers some sort of power failure protection that finishes up active write operations before powering down 'gracefully.' Crucial did not put out performance numbers.

Crucial, a leading global brand of memory and storage upgrades, today announced the availability of Ballistix Sport LT DDR4 SODIMMs. Ideal for gamers and performance enthusiasts, the new modules accelerate gaming laptops and small form factor systems by packing faster speeds into every memory slot, enabling users to run demanding games and applications with ease.

With speeds starting at 2400 MT/s, Ballistix Sport LT SODIMMs offer better latencies, reduced load times, and improved frame rates with integrated graphics. The new modules also feature a sleek black PCB and digital camo design and support Intel XMP 2.0 profiles for easy installation. "We're constantly seeking ways to empower gamers with affordable, easy-to-use products that help them gain that competitive, performance edge," explained Jeremy Mortenson, product marketing manager, Crucial. "With new platforms supporting faster DDR4 SODIMMS coming to the market, the newest Ballistix SODIMM module does just that."

Crucial is reportedly readying a successor to its best-selling MX200 performance-segment SSD. The new MX300, which will initially be launched in a 750 GB capacity (model: CT750MX300SSD1), will feature 3D (stacked) NAND flash memory. This particular model serves up sequential transfer speeds of up to 530 MB/s reads, with up to 510 MB/s writes. Looking at the way Crucial is pricing the drive in Japan (JPY ¥24,000), its stateside pre-tax MSRP could very well be sub-$200, working out to a price/GB of at most $0.26. According to the source, the drive could launch later today.

Crucial unveiled the Ballistix Sport LT Red DDR4 memory module. Available in densities of 4 GB, 8 GB, and 16 GB, and in kits of single-module, dual-channel, and quad-channel; the module offers PC4-19200 (DDR4-2400 MHz) speeds, with timings of 16-16-16, and module voltage of 1.2V. The module is characterized by a full-height black PCB, and a racy red heatspreader, with a very G.Skill-like styling. The company didn't reveal pricing or availability.

Crucial, a leading global brand of memory and storage upgrades, today announced the availability of two new offerings in its server memory product portfolio: 32 GB DDR4 VLP RDIMMs and 64 GB DDR4 LRDIMMs. With speeds of 2400 MT/s and engineered to enable higher densities by implementing a dual stack of 8 Gb DDR4 DRAM die to engineer a single 16 Gb component, these new DDR4 server memory modules allow for increased memory density, performance and bandwidth.

The 32 GB VLP RDIMMs are the highest density server memory modules Crucial offers for that module form factor, and are almost half the height (40 percent shorter) of a standard RDIMM module. These high density modules help enable memory dense systems like blade servers and microservers without compromising performance. Additionally, they can be installed at a 90-degree angle to the motherboard in these height-constrained systems, which enables better airflow to keep the system cool..

Crucial, a leading global brand of memory and storage upgrades, today announced the availability of Crucial DDR4 2400MT/s 8Gb-based RDIMM, LRDIMM and ECC UDIMM server modules. Engineered to enable higher density modules, 8Gb-based DDR4 enables increased performance, bandwidth and energy efficiency. The modules are available for immediate purchase through select global channel partners and at www.crucial.com.

Higher-density, 8Gb-based modules allow for greater channel bandwidth and channel density and are also up to 20 percent more energy efficient than 4Gb-based modules. Ultimately, these benefits provide more value per gigabit than current 4Gb-based offerings, making it easy to scale up server deployments in the future. Designed for Intel's next generation processor product families, Crucial's 8Gb-based server memory is extensively tested to mission-critical standards and is backed by a limited lifetime warranty.

Crucial, a leading global brand of memory and storage upgrades, today announced the new Crucial BX200 solid state drive (SSD), which offers substantial yet affordable performance gains compared to a standard hard drive. The drive, designed for consumers and SMBs, allows users to load applications in seconds, boot up almost instantly, and accelerate every day applications.

The new BX200 provides sequential read and write speeds up to 540 MB/s and 490 MB/s respectively on all types of data, as well as random read and write speeds up to 66k and 78k IOPS respectively. Additionally, when compared to a typical hard drive, the new BX200 is more than 13 times faster and 40 times more energy efficient for almost instantaneous access to data, resulting in longer battery life and a cooler, quieter system. The new drive utilises a Silicon Motion SM2256 Controller and is coupled with Micron verified firmware, allowing users to upgrade their existing infrastructure at an affordable price, which is a great alternative to buying a whole new system.

Intel plans to launch the first consumer SSD based on its new 3D Xpoint memory technology, a successor to NAND flash which promises exponential gains in performance and capacity, some time in 2016. The Intel-branded drive will be called Intel Optane, will come in modern form-factors such as M.2/NGFF, SATA-Express, PCI-Express (add-on card), and will take advantage of the new NVMe protocol.

Early prototypes of Optane demoed at IDF already offer up to 5.5 times the throughput of NAND flash-based DC P3700 series SSDs, and we're only talking about single-queue performance. Compared to the queue depth of just 32 commands for AHCI, NVMe offers command queue depth of a staggering 65,535 commands. Since Micron Technology is the co-developer of 3D Xpoint, it's likely that we'll also see Micron/Crucial branded drives based on this tech.