Razer, the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers (Hong Kong Stock Code: 1337), today unveiled three new additions to its Productivity range with the new Pro Click Mini wireless mouse, the Pro Type Ultra wireless keyboard, and the Pro Glide XXL mouse mat. The new Pro range features multi-device wireless connectivity, extended battery life, and a quieter sound profile. Coupled with Razer's expertise in producing high-performance, durable, ergonomic hardware, the new Pro range delivers the ideal work, home office, or mobile peripherals for today's flexible workspace locations.

As people continue to work from home, high-quality keyboards and mice have become more important to increase productivity and ensure a smoother, faster workflow. The new Pro range from Razer features the latest in hardware and software technology, honed from Razer's years of experience producing pro-level gaming devices. Combining industry-leading ergonomic designs with modern, sleek styling and high-performance gaming technologies, the Pro range delivers the comfort, battery-life and precision to enable users to win at work.

Intel CPUs have been rather notorious for system bugs recently. Starting from 2018's Spectre and Meltdown which used speculative execution to exploit systems, the string of new vulnerabilities just continued to this day. Recently we had CrossTalk exploit which represents a threat to cloud providers, where one user could compromise another just by using the same CPU from which the virtual instances are powered. These types of exploits are even more dangerous than ones that require local access, as that is already dangerous by itself. A lot of these issues are said to be ironed out by Intel's new microarchitecture designs like Ice Lake, Tiger Lake, and future revisions.

However, it seems like Intel is encountering some problems with even the latest Ice Lake CPUs when it comes to system bugs. JetBrains, a Czech provider of software development tools has a Java programming language development environment called IntelliJ integrated development environment. It was recently reported that on MacBook Air 2020 and Microsoft Surface Pro models equipped with 10th generation Intel Ice Lake CPUs, IntelliJ IDE causes system restart or a complete OS crash. In the report, the CPU ran in a Linux VM that isolates itself from MacOS so the macOS XNU kernel is not to blame. In the report thread, another user running Windows on Microsoft Surface Pro experienced the crash as well.

Nowadays, new products in the SSD market have mostly been upgraded to the more efficient and high-speed SATA interface solid-state drive. However, the majority of industrial computers (IPC) are still using the PATA interface (or IDE interface), which are now facing certain problems -- malfunctioning and bad tracks are beginning to emerge in the older technology and facilities.

To solve the problem, one of the most viable upgrade options at this stage in terms of data security and cost effectiveness would be the PATA interface solid-state drive with built-in security functions. In response to customer needs, Apacer launched this value-added PATA SSDs with Data Security benefit. These products come in two specifications - 2.5-inch, 44 pin AFD 257 and 1.8-inch 40 pin AFD 187. Both models come with three built-in data security functions - Full Erase, Destroy, and Write Protect to provide advanced and upgraded data security advantages.

Icy Dock is proud to introduce the MB981U3N-1SA USB 3.0 2.5" / 3.5" SATA & IDE Hard Drive Adapter. This adapter is an ultra portable yet space saving solution for users who require high transfer speed with multiple hard drives to swap, whether it is IDE / SATA or a 2.5" / 3.5" form factor.

The MB981U3N-1SA accepts almost all kinds of drives including ATA (IDE), SATA, 2.5", 3.5" hard drives and SSDs. It allows universal adaptability with modern PCs or Macs via SuperSpeed USB 3.0. With a theoretical maximum of 5Gb/s, you get the lightning fast transfer performance you need to finish your tasks fast. With USB 3.0 capable of backwards compatibility, the adapter can be used in older systems that only have USB 2.0. This is the best interface to date with reliable compatibility for many different systems.

Buffalo launched a new line of SSDs that incorporate MRAM (magnetic random access memory) caches. The caches provide increase tolerance to power loss, and momentarily hold data that's being transacted between the drive and the host, which buys the controller some time to prevent data loss, when the power goes down. Pictures suggest that Buffalo could have SSDs in both SATA and IDE flavors. So far, MRAM cache is the only distinctive feature of a new line of SSDs Buffalo is working on, which it will unveil a little later, at the Embedded Systems Expo (ESEC) 2012.

Donya introduced a unique accessory that lets you install a 2.5-inch HDD or SSD in the optical drive bay of your notebook (while stripping it of one). Called the DN-69810, these adapters are available in 12.7 mm and 9.5 mm-thick variants with SATA and IDE interface options. The enclosures aren't much more than a SECC cage with an interface relay. Measuring 128 x 126 x 12.7/9.5 mm, the adapters weigh about 60 g. The adapter could be sold through various peripheral brands, worldwide.

StarTech.com, a leading manufacturer of hard-to-find connectivity parts has announced the release of the (SKU: SATDOCK4U3RE) USB 3.0/eSATA to SATA Standalone 1:3 Hard Drive Duplicator Dock, which enables users to perform 1:3 sector-by-sector duplication from a single SATA hard drive onto three others simultaneously, without having to connect the dock to a host computer. The Duplicator Dock also includes a SATA to IDE adapter, which provides the option of connecting an IDE hard drive in one of the SATA slots.

"IT professionals are always looking for ways to make their jobs more efficient and this new multi-drive duplicator allows them to accomplish just that," commented StarTech.com Senior Product Manager, Carey Cline. "The ability to perform a sector by sector duplication on up to three drives simultaneously, frees up the user's time to perform other functions while the back-ups are created in the background. The fact it acts as a standalone unit also means it doesn't use up resources on their computer system."

Japanese cooling expert Scythe is hereby announcing the improved version of its multi functional Kama Connect adapter. Scythe is steadily enhancing the product portfolio and pushes Kama Connect to the next level. Third version of Kama Connect is of special use to technicians, DIY users as well as end-users who own various drives and require fast access to their media and files.

Compared to Kama Connect PLUS which was equipped with an internal card reader, new Kama Connect 3 is built more compact and comes without the card reader. Key improvement is the support of new USB 3.0 Standard for Super Speed data transfer which was achieved by implementing new controller alongside with the blue USB 3.0 type B connector. In case the end device such as PC or Notebook lacks USB 3.0 support Kama Connect 3 will automatically switch down to USB 2.0 or USB 1.1 mode to assure wide range compatibility and safe operation.

Gigabyte released a new utility that allows you to change the mode of the chipset SATA controller between IDE, AHCI, and RAID (if available), from within Windows. While the switching isn't exactly on-the-fly (because changing SATA mode is effectively changing the SATA controller as Windows sees it, and hence can't happen on-the-fly), it certainly saves the trouble of going into BIOS setup and digging out that option. The utility works by writing the value of the selected mode to the CMOS, and prompting a system reboot for the change to take effect. Gigabyte's Disk Mode Switch utility works on Gigabyte motherboards based on Intel 6-series chipset (H61, H67, P67, and Z68). Now why you'd need a Windows-based utility to change a BIOS setting as infrequently changed as SATA controller mode is something we'll leave it to you to comment on.DOWNLOAD: Gigabyte Disk Mode Switch

Active Media Products, a world leading manufacturer of DOMs and small form factor SSDs, today announced eight new low-profile IDE DOMs for server, industrial and embedded computing applications in capacities from 8GB to 64GB.

AMP's new Type-3 and Type-4 IDE / PATA DOMs are both designed in a low-profile orientation to fit into very tight enclosures. Both types are available in 8GB, 16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities. Type-3 models have an industry standard 40-pin female IDE connector, and Type-4 models have an industry standard 44-pin female IDE connector. These two new types give AMP a complete line of IDE DOMs.

Active Media Products is now shipping what may be the world's fastest 1.8" ZIF drive designed expressly to boost storage performance in laptop upgrades. The new SaberTooth ZF from AMP is an industry standard 40-pin PATA ZIF SSD, available in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB capacities, that offers previously unheard of performance from a PATA drive, with sequential transfer speeds up to 130 MB/sec.

The SaberTooth ZF will dramatically improve bootup and application load times compared to conventional ZIF hard disk drives. It incorporates the new EastWho IDE controller, which features garbage collection, wear leveling and bad block management, combined with highly reliable MLC NAND flash. The ZF was designed specifically for laptop upgrades, and includes a mini screwdriver and installation guide. It measures 2.8 x 2.1 x 0.2 inches (70 x 54 x 5 mm) and uses an industry standard PATA ZIF interface so it is interchangeable with standard 1.8-inch ZIF HDDs. It is one of the fastest and easiest ways to upgrade dozens of different netbooks and UMPCs to higher performance and more local storage.

Other World Computing (OWC), a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, announced today its new Mercury Legacy Pro Solid State Drive (SSD) line as the first and fastest SandForce processor based SSD available for pre-Intel PowerPC based Mac notebooks, PCs, and other notebook/laptop computers that utilize an internal 2.5" sized IDE/ATA drive. This announcement establishes OWC as the most comprehensive U.S. manufacturer of industry leading SandForce processor based SSDs available today with OWC Mercury Pro brand SSD models available for nearly every Mac and PC produced over the past decade. OWC will be demonstrating the new Mercury Legacy Pro and other first-to-market OWC Mercury Pro SSDs in booth #3935, LVCC North Hall, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which begins tomorrow in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Active Media Products, a leading manufacturer of DOMs, SSDs and USB drives, today announced a new line of IDE Flash DOM (Disk on Module) drives that are smaller, lighter, faster and more reliable than rotating media, making them ideal for use in servers, networking, industrial, military and embedded applications. These new Parallel ATA flash disk modules are offered in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB capacities, built with highly reliable MLC NAND Flash.

"We developed these PATA DOMs in response to demand from our industrial customers who need relatively small but highly reliable storage drives for use in server appliances," explained Active Media Products VP of Sales, Jerry Thomson. These DOMs have been validated on the latest Opteron 6100 (Magny Cours) server motherboards to ensure compatibility with the newest server hardware. Designed with industry standard 40-pin and 44-pin female IDE connectors, they are compatible with myriads of existing motherboards and systems.

Buffalo Technology released a new 2.5" IDE Solid State Drive (SSD) for notebooks that still use the disk interface. The company's SHD-NHPU2 SSD come in capacities of 256 GB, and make use of MLC NAND flash chips. The drives have also feature USB 2.0 interface that lets you access it as a USB mass storage device. In the ATA mode (when connected by IDE), the drive provides transfer rates of 101 MB/s, and is aided by 64 MB of cache. If you're thinking of buying one, keep US $1220 ready.

Active Media Products, manufacturer of SSDs and endangered species USB drives, today released new 32GB and 64GB 1.8-inch PATA ZIF SSDs that support read speeds up to 100MB/sec and, thanks to their DRAM cache, reach write speeds up to 85MB/sec. These new Turbo ZIF SSDs are available now through Amazon.

With no moving parts, SaberTooth ZT is rugged enough for use in industrial, embedded and network computing applications where a very compact yet high speed storage solution is needed. Its PATA / IDE ZIF interface supports PIO mode 4 and UDMA mode 6. It also supports SMART commands. The ZT includes excellent ECC, wear leveling and bad block management technologies that improve reliability and extend endurance. These drives have the same physical dimensions as industry standard 1.8-inch HDDs, measuring only 2.8 x 2.1 x 0.2 inches (71 x 54 x 5 mm), making them an easy plug-in replacement in many laptops and netbooks.

Transcend Information, Inc., a global leader in storage and multimedia products, today announced a radical redesign of its 2.5-inch solid state drives (SSD). The updated SSDs now offer a superior outer casing and additional tamper-resistant features, making them the most reliable and secure alternatives to conventional hard disk drives.

Designed to deliver the highest level of quality, the new versions of Transcend's 2.5-inch SATA and IDE Solid State Drives provide customers with extra peace of mind, incorporating innovative tamper-resistant features, including an anti-counterfeit Transcend logo security hologram and tamper-evident seals. These new features assure the end-user receives a 100% genuine Transcend product that has never been tampered with or opened by unauthorized third parties or other customers, thus further guaranteeing the SSDs' authenticity and quality.

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."

EVGA seems to be ready with two of its first motherboards based on the Intel H55 Express and H57 Express chipsets, supporting processors in the LGA-1156 package, along with support for Intel Flexible Display Interface to make use of the iGPU embedded in some dual-core Pentium, Core i3, and Core i5 processors. The two look nearly similar - infact seem to have the same PCB layout. The LGA-1156 socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots for dual-channel memory support. There are two PCI-Express slots (x16, x4), and three PCI slots. The EVGA H57 model further packs two PCI-Express x1 slots.

The H55/H57 chipset provides six SATA 3 Gb/s ports, all of which are assigned as internal ports. A JMicron-made storage controller provides additional two SATA 3 Gb/s ports, along with an IDE connector to support two devices. Display connectivity on both models includes DVI and D-Sub. Other features include 8-channel audio, gigabit Ethernet, Firewire, and a number of USB 2.0 ports. The H55 model has two internal ports less, along with other internal features that the chipset lacks, such as Remote PC Assist, and Rapid Storage Technology. More details will be out soon.

Come Q1 2010, and Intel will be expanding its socket LGA-1156 platform with dual-core processors, and processors with on-die graphics. Along with these, Intel will be releasing the H57 Express chipset which supports the Flexible Display technology which handles the connectivity for the processors' on-die graphics. Motherboard vendors seem to be ready well ahead, and the second such company with a product on display is MSI, with its H57M-ED65. This motherboard is based on the micro-ATX form-factor, and builds on the chipset's features, while also appearing to be enthusiast-friendly.

The CPU is powered by a lavish 10-phase VRM with elaborate heatsinks over the DrMOS chips. It completely does away with PCI, and features only PCI-Express slots. There are are two PCI-Express x16 slots (electrical x16, x4), and two PCI-Expres x1 slots. Apart from the six SATA 3 Gb/s ports the chipset provides, an additional storage controller provides two more SATA 3 Gb/s ports, and an IDE connector. The board makes full use of the Flexible Display technology, providing DVI, D-Sub, HDMI, and DisplayPort as display connectivity options. A number of USB ports, PS/2, gigabit Ethernet, 8-channel audio with optical SPDIF, eSATA, and FireWire make for the rest of the rear-panel. Its enthusiast-friendliness is further vindicated by the presence of the OC Genie feature, on the fly base clock controls, and power/reset buttons onboard. Expect this to feature in the company's first wave of H57 motherboards.

PhotoFast announced three new solid state drives in the 1.8 inch form-factor. All three use IDE interfaces, and hence are ideal for consumer electronics such as PMPs, video cameras, etc. The new series these come under is the G-Monster V4. The drives offer capacities ranged between 32 and 256 GB (probably including 64 GB and 128 GB models along the way), and are characterized by the interface type: 40-pin ZIF, 44-pin IDE, and 50-pin IDE. All three feature MLC NAND flash chips, with 64 MB DRAM memory for the NAND flash controller. The controller offers a "Built-in Garbage Collection" feature that clears deleted data, relocating existing data onto its area. In this way, data fragmentation is reduced. The read-write speeds on offer are 128/90 MB/s, respectively.

The Japanese cooling expert Scythe Co., Ltd. expands its product portfolio to external enclosures for 2.5" Hard Disks. Kamazo 2 series are available in three different versions.

Kamazo 2 IDE (KMZ2-25IDE) and the Kamazo 2 SATA (KMZ2-25SATA) can be connected via USB to your PC, and can connect an IDE or SATA HDDs. Both devices are compatible to the USB 2.0/1.1 standard and don't require any additional power source. For more versatility, the e-SATA Version (ESATA-KMZ2-25) is compatible with "the" e-SATA Standard as well as "the" USB 2.0/1.1 standard. Operating Kamazo 2 over the e-SATA Interface use of supplied Power-over-USB connector is required in order to properly supply the power to HDD. All three versions are made of solid aluminum which is covered by black paint and require little space which makes this product to be a compact and space saving design.

Speed plays a decisive role in computing. When the computer runs slowly, not only will the work progress be delayed, even our thoughts will be interrupted. Therefore, hard drives with higher speed will mean efficiency to professional graphic designers. The 2.5-inch P2 IDE Solid State Disk (SSD) from Team Technologies not only enhances the computer startup and data transfer speed, but also loads programs much faster than conventional mechanical hard drives. The excellent speed performance of the P2 IDE SSD is particularly felt when users open many windows at the same time. This saves designers a lot of time from searching images and drawings and allows them to enjoy speedy reading and writing, thus fully displaying computing performance and speed.

Active Media Products, manufacturer of SSDs and WWF series USB drives, today launched the new SaberTooth ZX series of 1.8-inch PATA ZIF SSDs that are ideal for upgrading popular netbooks such as the Dell Inspiron Mini 12, selected models of Sony Vaio, and more. The new SaberTooth ZX supports sequential read speeds up to 80MB/sec and sequential write speeds up to 38MB/sec. Combined with sub-millisecond access times, these new SSDs deliver double or triple the performance of the default hard drives in most netbooks, resulting in substantially faster bootup, application load and shutdown speeds.

Measuring 70 x 54 x 5 mm, the ZX was designed to the same physical specs as 1.8-inch HDDs. It uses a parallel ATA (PATA / IDE) ZIF interface, and supports PIO mode 6 and Ultra DMA mode 6. SaberTooth ZX is compatible with most netbooks that use 1.8" PATA ZIF hard drives. It is one of the fastest and easiest ways to upgrade dozens of different netbooks and UMPCs to higher performance and more local storage.

Due to numerous customer requests, Sharkoon has expanded their "QuickPort" hard drive adapter-series with a model that now includes an additional IDE-interface: The Sharkoon QuickPort Combo now offers an interface for IDE-devices located beside the SATA-hard drive connection port.

Sharkoon's QuickPort models are the ideal solutions for hard drive collectors, allowing them to attach their external storage mediums quickly and easily to their PC or notebooks- perhaps occasionally for a fast HD-backup or for also accessing the private hard drive media center as an application for a TV streaming client. The hard drive is simply inserted into the QuickPort and immediately recognized as a device, therefore eliminating time consuming installation to a computer or external housings. The adapter itself is attached via USB to the computer. Like the previous models, the QuickPort Combo also accommodates SATA-Hard Drives in both 2.5 and 3.5 inch formats. A folding mechanism ensures a secure hold on either size model. When finished, users can simply take the hard drive with them by utilizing the eject button.

Japanese manufacturer Green-House recently announced lines of internal and portable SSDs. The company now announced two new IDE SSDs, in 1.8 and 2.5 inch form-factors. Both the 1.8 inch GH-SSDxxGP-1yA and 2.5 inch GH-SSDxxGP-2yA (where "x" is the capacity amount in GB, "y" being S or M, denoting SLC or MLC NAND flash type respectively) use the aging parallel ATA interface, and come in capacities of 16, 32, 64, and 128 GB.

The 1.8 inch drive's SLC variant offers read/write speeds of 65/55 MBps, while its MLC variant offers speeds of 60/35 MBps. The speeds of the 2.5 inch drive shows a simlar trend. The SLC variant provides speeds of 70/60 MBps, with the MLC variant trailing it at 60/40 MBps. While the 1.8 inch drive uses a ZIF ATA interface, the 2.5 inch drive has a standard 44-pin IDE interface. Sales will begin soon in Japan. While not exactly making a mark with its speeds, the SSDs could use durability and low access-times as their selling points for aging notebooks with the older interface.