Micron Technology, Inc., and Intel Corporation today revealed the availability of their 3D NAND technology, the world's highest-density flash memory. Flash is the storage technology used inside the lightest laptops, fastest data centers, and nearly every cellphone, tablet and mobile device.

This new 3D NAND technology, which was jointly developed by Intel and Micron, stacks layers of data storage cells vertically with extraordinary precision to create storage devices with three times higher capacity than competing NAND technologies. This enables more storage in a smaller space, bringing significant cost savings, low power usage and high performance to a range of mobile consumer devices as well as the most demanding enterprise deployments.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, today introduced a high-performance mobile memory storage based on Embedded MultiMediaCard (eMMC) 5.0 technology. The new 128-gigabyte (GB), 3-bit NAND-based eMMC 5.0 storage is targeted at the smartphone and tablet mass markets.

"With the introduction of our value-focused, 3-bit NAND-based eMMC 5.0 line-up, we expect to take the lead in the expansion of high-density mobile storage," said Dr. Jung-Bae Lee, Senior Vice President of Memory Product Planning and Application Engineering Team, Samsung Electronics. "We are continuing to enhance our next-generation embedded mobile memory offerings with improved performance and higher densities to meet increasing customer demand across the mobile industry."

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has begun mass producing the industry's first 3-bit multi-level-cell (MLC) three-dimensional (3D) Vertical NAND (V-NAND) flash memory, for use in solid state drives (SSDs).

"With the addition of a whole new line of high density SSDs that is both performance- and value-driven, we believe the 3-bit V-NAND will accelerate the transition of data storage devices from hard disk drives to SSDs," said Jaesoo Han, Senior Vice President, Memory Sales & Marketing, Samsung Electronics. "The wider variety of SSDs will increase our product competitiveness as we further expand our rapidly growing SSD business."

The 3-bit V-NAND is Samsung's latest second generation V-NAND device, which utilizes 32 vertically stacked cell layers per NAND memory chip. Each chip provides 128 gigabits (Gb) of memory storage.

Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc., (TAEC), a committed leader that collaborates with technology companies to create breakthrough designs, today announced the launch of a class of e-MMCTM embedded NAND flash memory products that are among the world's smallest.The new products integrate NAND chips fabricated with Toshiba's cutting-edge 15 nm process technology and a controller to manage basic control functions for NAND applications into a single package.

Fully compliant with the latest JEDEC e-MMC standard, the new chips are designed for application in a wide range of digital consumer products, including smartphones, tablet PCs and wearable devices. Sample shipment of the 16 gigabyte (GB) products begins today, with 8GB, 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB products to follow. By utilizing the 15nm process technology, the new product's package size is approximately 26 percent smaller than comparable Toshiba products and offers faster read/write performance due to improvements in basic chip performance and controller optimization. The read speed is approximately eight percent faster (max.), while the write speed is approximately 20 percent faster (max.).

Toshiba's Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today introduced EXCERIA UHS-I SD Memory Cards, a new line of EXCERIA products focused on continuous shooting and full HD (including 4K resolution) video, a perfect fit for professional or amateur photographers in a wide-range of sizes at an affordable price.

Great for professional DSLR photographers, videographers and content creators who demand high-performance tools, these EXCERIA SD cards offer faster write speeds than Class 10 SD cards, have greater mobile storage capacity (up to 128GB) than other EXCERIA products and include UHS Speed Class 3 (U3) support for 4K2K video recording and playback. With EXCERIA UHS-I SD cards, digital pros, enthusiast photographers and amateurs can enjoy fast-motion capture and playback of high-resolution content, plus the benefits of high-speed continuous shooting, real-time full HD video recording and the time-saving value of lightning-fast data transfers for large files. With EXCERIA, backing up 1,000 photographs takes only one-third the time needed by other UHS-I SD cards.

SMART Modular Technologies, Inc., a leading designer, manufacturer and supplier of specialty memory and storage solutions, including memory modules, flash memory cards and other memory and solid state storage products, has announced today the introduction of its next generation DDR4 NVDIMMs. Offering non-volatile memory functionality while utilizing the latest DDR4 DRAM technology, this memory solution is designed to improve application performance and data integrity in server environments.

Unique to these new DDR4-2133 NVDIMMs is SMART's proprietary SafeStor technology, the engine which initiates backup and restore operations upon command from the host controller. The NVDIMM modules also support multiple command delivery options to trigger SafeStor backup during a host-detected power outage and recovery events. The SafeStor engine employs multi-channel fast NAND and high-speed switching circuitry to provide robust backup and restore capability, all while functioning as a JEDEC standard DDR4 RDIMM during normal operation. Temporary power is provided to the NVDIMM during a power loss by a hybrid supercap module, which can be tailored to individual application environments. The new NVDIMMs also feature an end-to-end error checking and correction capability to ensure a high level of data integrity during backup and restore operations.

Plextor, a leading developer of high performance storage devices, will be attending the Flash Memory Summit, August 5-7, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, California. Plextor will be showcasing their complete M6 line-up featuring the M6 Pro SSD with PlexTurbo. PlexTurbo technology-Plextor's exclusive intelligent SSD caching-can boost the M6 Pro far beyond SATA interface's best bandwidth of 6Gb/s to reach speeds unmatched by any other SATA SSD. Expect amazing read and write speeds during the live demonstrations. In addition to boost in performance, PlexTurbo can also increase flash life for an unmatched feature set.

Plextor's performance standards insist that outstanding speed be accompanied by equally outstanding reliability. The Plextor M6 Pro is the first consumer SSD from Plextor to pass its new ultra-strict enterprise-grade design standard, requiring hundreds of test units to survive over a 1000 hours (up from 500 hours) of function tests. Plextor SSDs typically have a MTBF (mean time between failures) of 2.4 million hours-the highest reliability ranking in the industry. Plextor SSDs are manufactured with the industry's leading aging process to weed out weak flash memory. Furthermore, the Plextor M6 Pro carries a full 5-year warranty for added peace of mind.

Fusion-io today announced Atomic Series, the newest flash memory platform featuring breakthrough innovations that achieve unparalleled performance and double the capacity on the smallest available NAND footprint for appliance and server environments. Companies both big and small, from small and medium enterprises (SME) to the Fortune 500 and hyperscale, all rely on Fusion-io to accelerate their applications.

"Patience is no longer a virtue in a world where we expect information at our fingertips with ever increasing velocity," said Fusion-io CEO and Chairman of the Board Shane Robison. "Latency is the new dial up. Our newest advancements in flash memory with the release of Atomic Series ensure that data flows seamlessly and with greater speed, efficiency and reliability by accelerating data-driven applications."

Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO:6502) today announced that it has filed a suit in the Intellectual Property Court in Taiwan against Taiwan's Powerchip Technology Corporation and three companies, Powerflash Technology Corporation, Zentel Electronics Corporation, and C.T.C. Co., Ltd., together, for infringement of Toshiba's Taiwan patents for NAND flash memory Nos. 154717 and I238412. Toshiba is asking the court to enjoin the manufacture and sale of infringing NAND flash memory products, including part No. A5U2GA31BTS-BC, etc., and for compensation for damages.

Powerchip Technology and three other companies offer NAND flash memories without a license to use technologies covered by Toshiba patents. Toshiba has issued notices to Powerchip Technology, all of which have been ignored, leaving no recourse other than legal action. Toshiba invented NAND flash memory in 1987 and has subsequently directed resources to maintaining technology leadership. The company has also supported NAND flash memory market development. Toshiba will protect its investment and respond resolutely to unauthorized use of its patented technology, in order to maintain the advanced technical competence that is the source of its competitive strength.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has begun mass producing the industry's first three-dimensional (3D) V-NAND flash memory using 32 vertically stacked cell layers, which is its second generation V-NAND offering. Samsung's 32-layer 3D V-NAND - also referred to as Vertical NAND - requires a higher level of design technology to stack the cell arrays than the previous 24-layer V-NAND, yet delivers much greater production efficiency because Samsung can use essentially the same equipment it used for production of the first generation V-NAND.

In addition, Samsung has just launched a line-up of premium SSDs based on its 2nd generation V-NAND flash memory with 128 gigabyte (GB), 256GB, 512GB and 1TB storage options. After introducing 3D V-NAND-based SSDs to data centers last year, Samsung is now extending its V-NAND SSD line-up to high-end PC applications, in expanding its market base. "We increased the availability of our 3D V-NAND by introducing an extensive V-NAND SSD line-up that covers the PC market in addition to data centers," said Young-Hyun Jun, executive vice president, memory sales and marketing, Samsung Electronics. "Look for us to provide a consistent, timely supply of high-performance, high-density V-NAND SSDs as well as core V-NAND chips for IT customers globally, contributing to fast market adoption of 3D NAND technology."

Spansion Inc., a global leader in embedded systems solutions, today announced Spansion HyperBus Interface, a breakthrough that dramatically improves read performance while reducing the number of pins. The Spansion HyperBus Interface is being implemented broadly by leading system-on-chip (SoC) manufacturers.

Spansion is also introducing today the first family of products based on this new interface, Spansion HyperFlash NOR Memory devices, with read throughput of up to 333 megabytes per second-more than five times faster than ordinary Quad SPI flash currently available with one-third the number of pins of parallel NOR flash.

Macronix International Co., Ltd. , a global leader providing non-volatile memory solutions, announced that it has filed a patent infringement law suit against Spansion LLC and Spansion Inc. in the United States for infringement of seven Macronix patents directed to numerous aspects of flash memory. Macronix has taken this step to address Spansion's rampant infringement of Macronix's patent rights.

The seven patents relate to manufacturing of flash memory chips, compact memory with serial interfaces, security of memory cells, and circuit designs for flash memory. The patents in suit represent only a small fraction of Macronix world-wide patent portfolio.

PNY Technologies Inc, announces the introduction of StorEDGE: a revolutionary new Flash Memory Expansion Module designed exclusively for use in MacBook computers to quickly and easily increase available storage capacity while keeping you mobile. Engineered as a semi-permanent storage solution, StorEdge simply plugs directly into your MacBook to radically upgrade your flash memory without compromising your notebook's sleek design. StorEdge hosts a small form factor and unobtrusive patent pending design, allowing it to sit nearly flush to your MacBook. Available in 64GB and 128GB capacities, StorEdge allows users to store even more images, videos, music, and files - without compromising system speed or performance.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, today introduced the first solid state drive (SSD) based on its industry-leading 3D V-NAND technology. Samsung announced its new SSD, designed for use in enterprise servers and data centers, during a keynote at the Flash Memory Summit 2013 here.

"By applying our 3D V-NAND - which has overcome the formidable hurdle of scaling beyond the 10-nanometer (nm) class*, Samsung is providing its global customers with high density and exceptional reliability, as well as an over 20 percent performance increase and an over 40 percent improvement in power consumption," said E.S. Jung, executive vice president, semiconductor R&D center at Samsung Electronics and a keynote speaker at the Flash Memory Summit. "As we pioneer a new era of memory technology, we will continue to introduce differentiated green memory products and solutions for the server, mobile and PC markets to help reduce energy waste and to create greater shared value in the enterprise and for consumers."

WD, a Western Digital company, announced that it has founded the Storage Products Association (SPA) with other hard drive companies to promote the merits and value of rotating magnetic storage technologies, as well as to make consumers and professionals aware of how critical hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state hybrid drives (SSHDs) are to their digital lives.

SPA members include HGST, Seagate, Toshiba and WD. The organization helps storage manufacturers and users understand and support current and future storage needs, including the key role of hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid state hybrid drives, in an effective storage mix for all consumer and business environments. SPA will provide education to its customers, partners, members and users of HDDs and SSHDs. SPA will also participate in industry and user events, and will publish materials about end users' storage needs and effective usage of a mix of storage technologies.

BIWIN, a world-leading expert in the development and manufacture of flash and advanced NAND flash memory, has launched a new business-grade SSD that is perfect for the digital signage market, the half slim H6201. There are many different industrial applications for digital signage and the field is growing. To operate in public and outdoor environments, it is critical that the components are reliable, scalable, efficient and of low maintenance cost.

Flash memory is suitable for industrial grade products for a variety of reasons. By comparing with traditional HDD, SSDs are far more reliable because they have no moving parts. This makes them an ideal solution for deployments where heat, cold, dust, humidity and even shock and vibration are common. BIWIN SATA II Half-slim SSD H6201's MTBF of 2,000,000 hours is more than doubled comparing with mechanical hard drives, leading to lower maintenance costs. H6201 is extremely fast with the ability to handle high IO data throughput such as multiple data streams suitable for graphics and video in a very small package. SSDs are much more energy efficient. For example, H6201's maximum power consumption is 0.97W, which eliminates the dependency on system fans for cooling. The result is a quieter design with lower annual energy costs.

Intel Corporation today announced the Intel Solid-State Drive DC S3500 Series, its latest solid-state drive (SSD) for data centers and cloud computing. Designed for read-intensive applications such as Web hosting, cloud computing and data center virtualization, the Intel DC S3500 Series is an ideal replacement for traditional hard disk drives (HDD), allowing data centers to save significant costs by moving toward an all-SSD storage model.

Intel SSDs, including the Intel SSD DC S3500 Series, enable transformational improvements in cloud infrastructure, fostering new and enriching Web experiences. End customers experience quicker Web page loads and improved response times as a result of dramatically improved data access times and reduced latency. IT managers and cloud developers are rewarded with improved total cost of ownership as a result of reduced power consumption, more consistent performance and smaller space requirements. More than half of U.S. businesses now employ cloud computing applications, and IDC predicts that worldwide spending on cloud services will reach $44.2 billion this year. Data centers powering these cloud applications need to quickly, efficiently and reliably scale to handle the tremendous growth of connected users and data traffic.

Toshiba Corporation today announced that the company has developed second generation 19 nanometer process technology that it will apply to mass production of 2-bit-per-cell 64 gigabit NAND memory chips later this month.

Toshiba has used the new generation technology to develop the world's smallest 2-bit per-cell 64 gigabit NAND memory chips, with an area of only 94 square millimeters. Using a unique high speed writing method, the next generation chips can achieve a write speed of up to 25 megabytes a second - the world's fastest class* in 2-bit-per-cell chips.

Toshiba Corporation today announced that its new line of high performance CompactFlash (CF) memory cards, the EXCERIA PRO series, will go on sale from April 27th in the Japanese market. Sales will also follow in Asia, Europe and North America. The initial line-up of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB cards offers the world's highest level read and write speeds and complies with the new Video Performance Guarantee Profile 2 (VPG-65) standard.

The EXCERIA PRO CF cards integrate Toshiba's high performance NAND flash memory and specially developed dedicated firmware. They achieve a read speed of 160 MB/s and write speed of 150 MB/s, the highest level yet reported.

SMART Storage Systems, an innovative enterprise solid-state drive (SSD) technology provider, today announced the results of an international industry survey revealing that 77 percent of respondents believe NAND Flash endurance is the key to widespread SSD adoption in the enterprise. Further underscoring the need for improved endurance of more cost-effective multi-level cell (MLC) NAND Flash, 55 percent of respondents identified cost as the primary barrier to transitioning to an all-Flash enterprise storage environment.

The SMART Storage Systems survey was conducted at the company's exposition booth during the 2012 Flash Memory Summit, VMworld 2012, SNW Fall (U.S.) 2012, and SNW Europe 2012 conferences, collecting 722 responses. Survey participants included IT management and infrastructure professionals, storage architects, and engineering and product managers from the United States and Europe.

PNY Technologies, Inc., a leading designer, manufacturer and a worldwide leader in DRAM Memory and Flash Memory products, continue adding to its enormously successful HP USB Flash Drives the stylish and fashionable HP v280w.

The HP USB Flash Drive v280w ideal of a knife shaped USB drive, coming as a capless swivel design that is easy to open and close. Furthermore, its capless design also prevents cap loss and better protects the drive. Using high quality aluminum brushed-metal brings stylish glamour and also durable for long term use. HP v280w offers large capacity (from 4GB to 64GB) for a slim way to store and share all of your digital contents. There is no hindrance anymore if you want to carry your precious data on the go.

The NAND and NOR flash memory market landscape is shifting rapidly, with increasingly sophisticated mobile handsets playing a leading role in driving industry trends and determining which suppliers will be successful, according to an IHS iSuppli Mobile & Embedded Market Tracker Report from information and analytics provider IHS.

Revenue for the flash memory market by year-end is projected to decline to $24.3 billion, down 4.7 percent from 25.5 percent from $25.5 billion in 2011. The NAND segment this year will account for $20.8 billion and the NOR sector will make up the remainder at $3.5 billion.

Spansion Inc., a leading innovator in Flash memory solutions for embedded markets, today announced production of a new low-density serial Flash memory family to expand its product portfolio and address additional applications in the consumer segment and in Greater China. The new 4 Mb, 8 Mb and 16 Mb Spansion FL-2K family is targeted for code storage applications in consumer electronics such as optical disk drives, cable and DSL modems, printers and routers as well as industrial applications such as smart meters. The family features read performance of up to 85 MHz for fast application boot, industrial temperature range, high quality and reliability.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, will showcase its latest storage products, encompassing a mix of both solid state drives and software solutions, at this year's Flash Memory Summit, Booth #208, Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, California, from August 21st through August 23rd.

Demonstrating SSD products along with recent partner implementations, OCZ will showcase a comprehensive lineup of innovative solutions for business, server, and OEM clients. This includes product presentations of both the impending Intrepid 3 SATA III-based SSD solution based on the company's Indilinx Everest 2 architecture, along with the company's leading PCI Express (PCIe)-based Z-Drive R4 featuring new Linux Acceleration software (LXL) that unleashes the full performance potential of infrastructures that use this popular open source operating system. Live technical demos of LXL and Z-Drive R4 SSDs will include a VDI boot storm, efficient SQL CPU utilization, and vMotion and Fault Tolerance support.

SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, today marked the 25-year anniversary of flash memory, the transformational technology used by billions of consumers and countless businesses in smartphones, tablets, ultra-thin laptops, data centers and other electronic devices.

Companies such as SanDisk have increased the capacity of flash memory by 30,000 times while decreasing its cost by 50,000 times over the past two decades. SanDisk's first product, a 20 megabyte solid state drive (SSD), sold for $1,000 in 1991 but would cost only two cents today. This efficiency has driven the wide adoption of flash memory and enabled the smart digital lifestyle of anywhere, anytime access to digital content. Flash memory fuels the three forces behind this trend - mobile computing, pervasive connectivity and the proliferation of digital content.