Micron Technology, Inc. today announced results of operations for its second quarter of fiscal 2014, which ended February 27, 2014. Revenues in the second quarter of fiscal 2014 were $4.11 billion and were 2 percent higher compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2014 and 98 percent higher compared to the second quarter of fiscal 2013.

GAAP Income and Per Share Data - On a GAAP basis, net income attributable to Micron shareholders in the second quarter of fiscal 2014 was $731 million, or $0.61 per diluted share, compared to net income of $358 million, or $0.30 per diluted share, in the first quarter of fiscal 2014 and a net loss of ($286) million, or ($0.28) per diluted share, in the second quarter of fiscal 2013.

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation, a global leader in designing and marketing NAND flash controllers for solid state storage devices, today introduces new additions to its Ferri portfolio with single-package Ferri-eMMC and ultra-high performance SATA 6 Gb/s FerriSSD embedded memory solutions supporting industrial and commercial grade temperatures. Silicon Motion will be showcasing and demonstrating these new products at the upcoming EE Live! Conference and Expo in San Jose, CA from April 1 to 3.

Ferri-eMMC is designed for a wide range of embedded applications and is fully compliant with JEDEC-standard eMMC 4.5 protocol. With a 100-ball 1.0 mm pitch BGA package, Ferri-eMMC provides for more flexible PCB design and low-cost manufacturing. Ferri-eMMC delivers market leading data integrity and protection capabilities featuring Silicon Motion's advanced NAND management technologies including error correction, bad block management and NAND health monitoring.

Crucial announced its M550 series of performance SSDs, succeeding its existing M500 series. Built in 7 mm-thick 2.5-inch SATA, mSATA, and M.2 form-factors, the M550 series offers higher sequential transfer rates, and comes in higher capacities near existing price-points, over its predecessor. It also introduces a handful new features, such as NWA (native write acceleration), RAIN (redundant array of independent NAND), adaptive thermal protection (ATP), and hardware encryption. The drives appear to be based on a Marvell-made controller platform, with Micron-made MLC NAND flash. The mSATA 6 Gb/s and M.2 models come in capacities of 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB; while the 2.5-inch SATA 6 Gb/s models include 1 TB capacity. The drives offer sequential reads as high as 550 MB/s, with up to 500 MB/s of sequential writes. They're backed by 3-year warranties, and should eventually replace the M500 series from their existing price points.

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has brought a civil suit against Korea's SK Hynix Inc. at the Tokyo District Court, under Japan's Unfair Competition Prevention Act. The suit seeks damages for the wrongful acquisition and use of Toshiba's proprietary technical information related to NAND flash memory, which Toshiba pioneered in 1987 and now jointly develops and produces with SanDisk Corporation of the U.S.

Toshiba filed the suit on learning that a former employee of SK Hynix has been arrested in Japan for alleged criminal infringement of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act. The employee formerly worked for SanDisk in a NAND flash memory development project conducted in partnership with Toshiba at Yokkaichi Operations, Toshiba's flash memory technology development and mass production base in Mie prefecture, Japan. The employee is alleged to have illegally taken Toshiba's proprietary technical information in 2008, and to have subsequently provided it to SK Hynix.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash application products, has released a firmware update for the company's solid state drives equipped with LSI SandForce 2200 series controllers. This update is applicable to SSD models SX910/SX900/SP900/SP800/S511/S510/S396. The new firmware optimizes TRIM completion behavior and SATA stability, and improves disk recovery in instances of unsafe or improper shutdown. Purchasers who wish to update their SSD firmware should go to this page, select the corresponding SSD product, and then download the compressed Firmware 5.2.5 file and extract it. Then locate the executable file ADATA_SF_FieldUpdater and run it as administrator.

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of NAND Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, announces its USB 3.0 Express Motile drive. The USB 3.0 Express Motile fulfills the rising demand for the consumer sector which is constantly on the move. The ability to access this drive by plugging it into a USB port on a computer or a micro-USB port on a mobile device make it extremely versatile. Capacities range from 8 GB to 64 GB and it has read speeds of up to 67 MB/s and write speeds of up to 24 MB/s over the USB 3.0 interface.

The USB 3.0 Express Motile is backwards compatible with USB 2.0 and 1.1, easy to carry around, and will plug and play in any cell phone running the Android platform.

As SSDs play catch-up with HDDs on the capacity front, the focus will shift to NAND flash memory designers increasing transistor densities using newer silicon fabrication technologies. In the absence of that, SSD designers will have to cram more number of NAND flash chips to achieve desired high capacities. That throws up two key issues with having too many chips in one place - heat and power. Intel is gearing up to deal with heat on its upcoming "Fultondale" and "Pleasantdale" SSDs for data-centers. Leaked company documents seen by VR-Zone reveal renders of what Intel expects the drives to look like.

Built in the 3.5-inch form-factor the drives are built almost entirely of chunky metal, with a retractable top lid, and its body. The body doubles up as heatsink, it features metal ridges which dissipate heat drawn from the NAND flash chips of the SSD to the air. Internally, the drive will feature at least two PCBs, one which holds the controller, cache RAM (if any), and some NAND flash chips; while the other holds NAND flash chips entirely. How hot can things get? According to the source, the drive could draw as much as 25W of power. That could amount to enough heat to warrant a passive heatsink. Intel is expected to unveil the two drives at IDF Beijing, slated for Q4-2014.

Toshiba, a committed technology leader, announces the slim, 7mm MQ01ABF solid state hybrid drive (SSHD) series. Equipped with Toshiba's NAND flash and available in 500GB1 and 320GB capacities, the MQ01ABFH series is the first Toshiba SSHD drive family in 7 mm. The series continues Toshiba's legacy of providing world-class storage products, and offers customers a complete lineup of 2.5-inch solid state hybrid drives with the previously announced 1TB2 and 750GB MQ01ABDH series 9.5mm SSHDs for ultrathin and thin and light notebook PCs, multimedia and gaming applications, and traditional laptop PCs.

Drawing upon its knowledge and experience in NAND flash, Toshiba optimized the NAND flash performance into a tiered-storage approach that uses the speed of the DRAM and NAND components with the high-capacity of rotating media. The SSHD delivers SSD-like performance without dependence on external drivers or assistance from the host system. The PC Mark Vantage Score, the established industry method for measuring SSHD read/write performance and responsiveness, for the MQ01ABFH series is approximately 20,000, surpassing the 16,000 industry standard result.

SK Hynix Inc. announced that it has started full-scale mass production of 16 nm 64 Gb (Gigabit) MLC (Multi Level Cell) NAND Flash, which uses the industry's thinnest process technology.

SK Hynix has been mass producing its 1st version of the world's first 16 nm NAND Flash since June and recently has started to mass produce the 2nd version which is more cost competitive due to its smaller chip size. In consequence, the Company geared up for strengthening its competitiveness in NAND Flash.

Japanese company Green House has today announced multiple solid state drives based around controllers from Taiwan-based Phison Electronics. Among the models presented are the GH-SSD32B Series (2.5-inch form factor / SATA 6.0 Gbps interface), the GH-SSDP2A Series (2.5-inch / PATA) and GH-SSD21A Series (1.8-inch SATA 3.0 Gbps).

The GH-SSD32B line includes 60 GB, 120 GB, 240 GB and 480 GB units that utilize MLC NAND Flash memory and deliver speeds of up to 520/420 MB/s (reading/writing). The GH-SSDP2A SSDs reach 80/60 MB/s (reading/writing) and come in 16 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB, 128 GB and 256 GB flavors, while the GH-SSD21A family tops 200/120 MB/s (read/write) and goes from 32 GB to 128 GB. All these SSDs have a three-year warranty and are set to become available at the end of this month.

The Storage Products Business Unit of Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc., a committed technology leader, announces a new addition to its family of enterprise solid state drives (eSSD), the PX02SS. In capacities of up to 800GB1, the new 2.5-inch form factor SAS interface eSSD is designed for various write-intensive enterprise applications and is ideally suited for large workloads, such as data processing and online transactions.

The PX02SS features a 12 Gb/s SAS interface, and select models offer industry standard self-encrypting technology. With high transaction workloads in mind, the newest eSSD supports up to 30 full drive writes per day for all available capacity points and has a layered error correction code (ECC) approach for improved reliability. The PX02SS underscores the breadth of Toshiba's storage products, both SSDs and hard disk drives (HDDs) for mobile and enterprise markets, giving customers a "one stop shop" capability for their storage requirements.

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of NAND Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, announces its Super Talent PCIe DX1 SSD. The Super Talent PCIe DX1 is 22.00mm x 80.00mm x 3.5mm. Although small in form factor, it is lightning quick when it comes to speed to match and satisfy the demands of a server or mobile environment. Next generation mobile computing can take full advantage of performance with these space saving SSDs. The 128 MB internal cache on the Super Talent PCIe DX1 further speeds up application load times and the overall unit is easily mounted without any cables.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash application products, has launched an ultra-thin external solid state drive (SSD) with a SuperSpeed USB interface. Named the DashDrive Elite SE720, it combines the slim stainless steel chassis of the company's award-winning DashDrive Elite HE720 portable hard drive, with the performance of ADATA's market-proven NAND Flash storage solutions.

The advantages of SSDs include high shock resistance, noiseless operation, and low-power consumption. When these features are implemented in a portable USB 3.0 device, the result is a remarkably durable storage option with speeds that far outpace those of mechanical HDDs. The SE720 has read speeds up to 400 MB/sec, and write speeds of up to 300 MB/sec.

SK Hynix Inc. announced it established a research and development (or 'R&D') center 'SK Hynix Flash Solutions Taiwan Ltd.'. The Company will strengthen global R&D competence and customer support by adding the R&D center in Taiwan.

The Taiwan R&D center will focus on intensifying its competence in development of high value added NAND Flash memory products. The center is located in Hsinchu, the hub of Taiwan IT industry, so it is expected to become a base of the technology support for Chinese and Taiwanese clients.

For today's PC users, high-performance, high-quality SSDs are increasingly the preferred choice. KINGMAX, a premium memory and Flash module manufacturer that serves the world market, is proud to introduce SME 32/35, the latest additions to its SME Xvalue SSD Series. The SME SATA III2.5"SSDs make a timely debut as many must be considering a replacement or upgrade of their HDDs. For most end users, performance is hardly the ultimate determinant for choosing between the two storage devices, empirical studies show. But they know SSDs are faster than HDDs and that the former does speed up their system both during booting and in operation.

An exceptionally attractive cost-performance ratio justifies SME as a bargain. This is especially the case with those who would rather go for a partial refresh as an across-the-board upgrade of their existing old devices seems hardly warranted. Pitted against comparable HDD counterparts, it stands out with an ultra-low cost per IOPS and extraordinary operational efficiency on the same measure of power consumption.

Micron Technology, Inc., today announced results of operations for its fourth quarter and 2013 fiscal year, which ended August 29, 2013. For the fourth quarter, the company had net income attributable to Micron shareholders of $1.71 billion, or $1.51 per diluted share, on net sales of $2.8 billion. The results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013 compare to net income of $43 million, or $0.04 per diluted share, on net sales of $2.3 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2013, and a net loss of $243 million, or ($0.24) per diluted share, on net sales of $2.0 billion for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012.

For the 2013 fiscal year, the company had net income attributable to Micron shareholders of $1.19 billion, or $1.13 per diluted share, on net sales of $9.1 billion. Cash flows from operations were $1.8 billion for fiscal 2013. The results for fiscal 2013 compare to a net loss of $1.03 billion, or ($1.04) per diluted share, on net sales of $8.2 billion for the 2012 fiscal year.

It could soon become possible to overclock the controller and NAND flash of your SSD, if Intel has its way. The company is set to demonstrate how to overclock Intel-branded SSDs using its Xtreme Tuning Utility (XTU), at IDF 2013, which goes underway this September. The item on Intel's IDF itinerary marked "AIOS001" deals with seminars on overclocking Intel's next-generation HEDT (high-end desktop) platforms. X-bit Labs believes Intel could talk about SSD overclocking during that session.

Options to tweak SSDs were discovered when poking around the code of an unreleased XTU version. XTU is a unified software utility by Intel, which lets you tweak CPU, memory, and system cooling on systems running Intel Desktop Boards. Among the things end-users should be able to tweak, apart from the controller clock-speed, are the NAND flash bus-speed. Taking away interface overheads and other round-offs, 560 MB/s appears to be the practical maximum bandwidth SATA 6 Gb/s SSDs have been able to achieve. It could always be handy getting your SSD a few dozen more MB/s sequential speeds at the expense of stability.

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."

Violin Memory, Inc., provider of memory-based storage systems, today announced the 6264 flash Memory Array, the next generation of flash memory storage that delivers 64 TB of capacity in a mere 3U footprint. Complementing the 6000 Series Arrays is the Violin Symphony Management System, enabling enterprise-wide management of Violin Memory Arrays through a single pane of glass view -- from any device, anytime.

With the 6264 flash Memory Array, Violin has once again set the bar for price-performance economics. By combining industry-leading flash controller technology with Toshiba's latest generation of 19 nm flash technology, the Violin 6264 delivers twice the density and three times the economics of its predecessor while significantly reducing power consumption. The Violin 6264 flash Memory Array incorporates several flash management innovations enabling disruptive economics for massively consolidated virtual infrastructures for enterprise customers.

In addition to the 15.6-inch GP60 Gaming Series, MSI rolled out the GP70 Gaming Series. This notebook features similar innards to the GP60, but with a larger 17.3-inch screen, which comes in 1600 x 900 and 1920 x 1080 options. Practically every other item on its specifications sheet, including a choice of Core "Haswell" processors, GeForce GT 740M graphics, up to 16 GB of RAM, hybrid drive with 24 GB NAND flash and 1 TB HDD, gaming-grade keyboard made by SteelSeries, connectivity that includes 802.11 b/g/n, gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 4.0, etc., are identical to that of the GP60. Measuring 418 x 269.3 x 39 mm, it weighs about 2.7 kg. Prices vary by configuration.

MSI rolled out its GP60 Gaming Series mid-range gaming notebook. It features the same styling as the rest of the Gaming Series, black with a dash of red. Its 15.6-inch screen comes in two variants, 1366 x 768 and 1920 x 1080 (options). A gaming-grade keyboard by SteelSeries decks up the bottom-half. On the left-hand side you'll find gold-plated headset jacks, with an audio device tuned for gaming headsets, and a pair of USB 3.0 ports; next to an air-vent. On the right-hand side, you get the gigabit Ethernet jack, D-Sub (VGA) and HDMI 1.4a connectors, next to a tray-loading optical drive, which can be either Blu-ray + DVDRW combo, or simply DVDRW. An SDIO slot supports SDXC cards.

Under the hood, the GP60 runs a 4th Generation Intel Core "Haswell" processor (options), up to 16 GB of DDR3-1600 MHz memory, and NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M graphics with 2 GB of DDR3 memory. MSI is deploying a hybrid drive, which combines 24 GB of NAND flash, with 1 TB of magnetic storage. Connectivity includes gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WLAN, and Bluetooth 4.0. A 6-cell 4,400 mAh battery powers the notebook. Measuring 383 x 249.5 x 32.3~37.6 mm, it tips the scales at around 2.4 kg. Prices vary by configuration.

Emerging from stealth-mode today, Crossbar, Inc., a start-up company pioneering a new category of very high capacity and high-performance non-volatile memory, unveiled its Crossbar Resistive RAM (RRAM) technology. This new generation of non-volatile memory will be capable of storing up to one terabyte (TB) of data on a single 200mm2 chip, enabling massive amounts of information, such as 250 hours of HD movies, to be stored and played back from an IC smaller than a postage stamp. Crossbar today also announced it has developed a working Crossbar memory array at a commercial fab, a major milestone in the development of new memory technology, signaling its readiness to begin the first phase of productization.

Due to its simple three-layer structure, Crossbar technology can be stacked in 3D, delivering multiple terabytes of storage on a single chip. Its simplicity, stackability and CMOS compatibility enable logic and memory to be easily integrated onto a single chip at the latest technology node, a capability not possible with other traditional or alternative non-volatile memory technologies.

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) Vertical NAND (V-NAND) flash memory, which breaks through the current scaling limit for existing NAND flash technology. Achieving gains in performance and area ratio, the new 3D V-NAND will be used for a wide range of consumer electronics and enterprise applications, including embedded NAND storage and solid state drives (SSDs).

Samsung's new V-NAND offers a 128 gigabit (Gb) density in a single chip, utilizing the company's proprietary vertical cell structure based on 3D Charge Trap Flash (CTF) technology and vertical interconnect process technology to link the 3D cell array. By applying both of these technologies, Samsung's 3D V-NAND is able to provide over twice the scaling of 20nm-class planar NAND flash.

Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq:MU) ("Micron") and Elpida Memory, Inc. ("Elpida") trustees announced today the closing of Micron's acquisition of 100 percent of Elpida's equity, pursuant to a Sponsor Agreement entered into on July 2, 2012 in connection with Elpida's corporate reorganization proceedings conducted under the jurisdiction of the Tokyo District Court. In a related transaction, Micron also announced today the completion of its acquisition of a 24 percent share of Rexchip Electronics Corporation from Powerchip Technology Corporation and certain of its affiliates. The transactions will be recorded for accounting purposes as being effective at 11:59 p.m., Tokyo time, on July 31, 2013.

Elpida's assets include a 300 millimeter (mm) DRAM fabrication facility located in Hiroshima, Japan; an approximate 65 percent ownership interest in Rexchip, whose assets include a 300mm DRAM fabrication facility located in Taiwan; and a 100 percent ownership interest in Akita Elpida Memory, Inc., whose assets include an assembly and test facility located in Akita, Japan. Together with the Rexchip shares acquired from Powerchip, Micron will control approximately 89 percent of Rexchip's outstanding shares and 100 percent of Rexchip product supply. The manufacturing assets of Elpida and Rexchip together can produce more than 185,000 300mm wafers per month, which represents an approximate 45 percent increase in Micron's current manufacturing capacity.

Greenliant Systems, a leader in energy-efficient, highly secure and reliable solid state storage products, has entered the removable solid state drive (SSD) market and is sampling its new mSATA ArmourDrive GLS86 product line. Based on SATA NANDrive, using Greenliant's internally developed NAND controller, mSATA ArmourDrive is designed for applications that require industrial temperature capability, high reliability and long-life data storage.

mSATA ArmourDrive operates at extreme temperatures between -40 to +85 degrees Celsius with 1-bit-per-cell (SLC) or 2-bits-per-cell (MLC) NAND flash memory, which gives customers a dependable, industrial temperature mSATA SSD using cost-effective MLC NAND. Addressing the needs of space-constrained embedded systems, mSATA ArmourDrive measures 29.85mm x 50.80mm x 4.80mm (JEDEC MO-300).