Kingston Digital Europe Co LLP, an affiliate of Kingston Technology Company Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, is set to share its latest and upcoming products at CES. Kingston will have demonstrations highlighting the capabilities of their family of solid-state drives and encrypted USB Flash drives, as well as additions in the consumer lifestyle space with mobile and embedded solutions.

"We are excited to share what's to come from Kingston in 2018. CES week provides a great opportunity to showcase the many quality technology solutions that make up the Kingston family," said Robert Allen, Director Marketing and Technical Services -EMEA, Kingston. "From enterprise SSDs, encrypted USBs, consumer mobile products to embedded solutions, we continue to offer customers rock-solid reliability, ultimate security and maximum performance. When guests visit our suite, they will fully understand Kingston's commitment to offering the most complete family of performance solutions."

Plugable's new 480GB external NVME SSD drive hits performance levels not possible before Thunderbolt 3. Connect the drive to a Thunderbolt 3 port to gain 480GB of extra storage with amazing speeds of up to 2400+ MB/sec read and 1200+ MB/sec write, all without the need for an external power connection. These speeds make this external drive a no-compromise performance solution for video editing, backup, and any tasks which demand maximum disk performance. "Thunderbolt 3 is a revolutionary technology," said Bernie Thompson, CEO of Plugable Technologies. "We've created our line of high-end docks, adapters, and drives to show it off."

Toshiba Memory America, Inc. (TMA), the U.S.-based subsidiary of Toshiba Memory Corporation, will be highlighting the use of its industry-leading BiCS FLASH 3D memory in several applications - including its new lineup of NVMe SSDs, the RC100 Series.

At CES, TMA is collaborating with its customers and technology partners to take on the future - together. Toshiba was the first company in the world[1] to announce 3D flash memory technology, which effectively addresses the processing, storage and management of the growing volume of data generated worldwide. Recent announcements see the company continuing to lead the industry forward, including the introduction of a 96-layer 512Gb die; the debut of the industry's first[2] flash memory device with quadruple-level cell (QLC) technology; and the addition of Through Silicon Via (TSV) technology. Already enabling the enterprise, data center, PC and mobile applications of today, TMA's BiCS FLASH has paved the way for the applications of tomorrow. In everything from artificial intelligence and virtual reality to a growing number of automotive applications (such as infotainment), high performance computing and the ever-expanding "internet of things," storage density needs will climb higher and higher - and BiCS FLASH was designed with this in mind.

Cost effectiveness is a key factor that drove many successes in a well established company. With ICY DOCK's ToughArmor series removable 2.5" SSD / HDD enclosures, we are introducing a different kind of cost effectiveness or we called it "space efficiency" by creating flexible configurations for data drives in a standard drive bay as seen in many HP and DELL workstations or servers. Whether you need to add 8 x 4TB 2.5" SATA SSD in a single 5.25" bay of your HP workstation, or replace the slim optical disk drive with hot-swappable 2.5" HDD/SSD bay, the ToughArmor got you covered!

• Key features of ICY DOCK ToughArmor series:
• Ruggedized Full Metal Construction
• Heavy Duty Removable Drive Caddy
• High Storage Density Design for Space Saving
• Approved and Used by First Tier Company such as HP and GE
• Complimentary Technical Support with 3-Year Warranty

PLEXTOR, a leading manufacturer of award-winning solid-state drives (SSDs) and other high-performance digital storage devices for consumers, today announced the launch of its newest NVMe PCIe SSD the M9Pe Series. The new M9Pe SSD Series has adopted advanced 64-layer 3D NAND and flagship controller along with exclusive PlexNitro, smart cache technology, delivering unprecedented sequential read/write up to 3,200/2,100 MB/s and random read/write up to 400,000/300,000 IOPS. The M9Pe puts improved performance and durability in its crosshairs.

Aimed at high-level PC gaming such as eSports, the M9Pe boasts of its superior components to deliver less lags and 20% faster boot up times compared to a typical SATA drive. The new M9Pe (HHHL/AIC version only) also sports a new eye-catching design with its programmable 3-mode RGB LED lights for the perfect visual appeal on any desktop gaming setup. Similar to its predecessors, the new M9Pe features a high-performing thermal heatsink (M9PeY and M9PeG only) to help regulate SSD temperatures during prolonged gaming sessions resulting to stabilized performance.

Silicon Motion announced their ultra-high speed SM226x PCIe NVMe SSD controllers back in August. The family consists of four controllers (SM2262EN, SM2262, SM2263, and SM2263XT) that are aimed at different segments. Taipower's new Mirage NP900 NVMe SSD is the first consumer product to utilize one of Silicon Motion's latest controllers. We don't expect the SSD to be available in large numbers outside the Asian continent. Nevertheless, the Mirage NP900 grants us a glimpse of the SM2262 controller's performance. The drive registers sequential read speeds of 2685 MB/s and write speeds of 1695 MB/s in the AS SSD benchmark. With CES 2018 almost upon us, we are positive that Silicon Motion partners like Adata, Intel, Micron/Crucial, and SanDisk/Western Digital are surely going to present their new Silicon Motion powered NVMe SSDs soon.

Plextor's M9Pe is likely the company's worst-guarded secret by this point; the company has always hinted at a performance-part release that would supersede their M8Pe's offering performance and take the battle back to Samsung's reigning 960 Evo and 960 pro NVME SSDs, albeit at an expected lower price-point and a better $/GB ratio. The company is apparently so proud of what it sees as the future for its M9Pe SSDs, however, that they couldn't help themselves to contain their excitement, and shared a small teaser image for the M9Pe's performance.

The performance figures come courtesy of Plextor's USA Facebook page, and are represented in a CrystalDiskMark run. Performance numbers for this NVME drive are impressive, to say the least, with the results of this 1 TB drive besting Samsung's 960 EVO, and coming very close to Samsung's 960 PRO NVME SSD. Of course, pricing should still be one of the determinant factors in consumers' choice, but it seems that the NVME high-performance storage space is seeing some companies fighting to overturn Samsung's dominance - and fiercer competition is usually better for consumers. Of course, users should be aware that for most use cases, a good SATA III SSD will still deliver performance in spades and the best $/performance ratio on the high-speed SSD market, but for those that want uncompromising performance, having another player in the Samsung space is definitely good news.

SilverStone rolled out the TP02-M2, a heatsink for 80 mm-long M.2 SSDs (M.2-2280). This chunky aluminium heatsink is 1 cm tall, and weighs a little over 16 g. In addition to a 3 g-ish adhesive thermal pad, it would have added close to 20 g of weight onto the various soldered components of your drive; but SilverStone is clever enough to include two silicone bands that strap the heatsink onto the drive, offloading some of that weight. The heatsink was tested by its designers to significantly lower temperatures of NAND flash chips and controllers, which pose performance penalties on faster NVMe SSDs. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Corsair rolled out the range-topping 1,600 GB variant of the Neutron NX500 PCI-Express SSD series, which made its debut in August 2017 (variant SKU: CSSD-N1600GBNX500). The drive is priced at 1,770€ (including taxes). The half-height, single-slot add-on card features PCI-Express 3.0 x4 bus interface, and takes advantage of the NVMe 1.2 protocol. The drives combine Phison PS5007-E7 controllers with Toshiba-made 15 nm MLC NAND flash memory.

It has a rated sequential performance of up to 3,000 MB/s reads, with up to 2,300 MB/s writes when tested with ATTO; up to 2,800 MB/s reads with up to 1,600 MB/s writes when tested with CrystalDiskMark; and random-access performance of up to 300,000 IOPS 4K reads, with up to 270,000 IOPS 4K writes, when tested with IOMeter. Its endurance is rated at 2,793 TBW, and is backed by a 5-year warranty.

Kingston Digital Europe Co LLP, an affiliate of Kingston Technology Company Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced it has shipped over 18 million SSDs worldwide utilizing Phison controllers symbolizing the strength of a longstanding relationship. Kingston and Phison Electronics Corp have been close collaborators for over a decade, first starting in USB Flash drives and then moving onto SSDs.

In 2010, both companies jointly invested in a new company to create embedded solutions to ease the design-in effort for handheld device makers expediting the overall product development cycle and bringing products to market faster. Both Phison and Kingston share and combine their expertise in engineering, production, sales and procurement. The company, Kingston Solutions, Inc., has grown exponentially from smart phones and tablets to a diverse portfolio including wearables, slot machines and consumer appliances such as smart beds and thermostats.

Apacer knows it best when it comes to speed and uncompromised gaming performance. Z280, the latest answer to advanced SSDs, supports PCIe Gen 3 x4 and is compliant with NVMe 1.2 in a M.2 form factor. The blazing speed will boost the game status without getting too costly. With sustained read/write performance at 2750MB/s and 1500MB/s, the compact M.2-2280 keeps everything efficient at a massive capacity of 480GB. Want to be one step ahead of others? Look no further than Z280, the high-performing SSD that is compatible with mini PCs and laptops.

Rapidity & Jumbo Storage
Built with upscale SSD technologies that Apacer is synonymous for and excellent quality MLC, the cutting-edge Z280 is compliant with NVMe 1.2 standard and features the latest PCIe Gen 3 x4 interface to provide up to 4 times of bandwidth. The expert team at Apacer raised the bar of the industry by creating a blistering transmission at 2750/MB & 1500MB per second. Offering a massive memory capacity of 480GB, Z280 has a random write of 175,000 IOPs to ensure all actions in each gaming scene is smoothly processed, fluid and sharp, efficiently boosting a gamer's status.

Toshiba Memory Corporation, the world leader in memory solutions, has enhanced its line-up of client SSDs with the launch of premium models in its XG5-P series. The new NVM Express (NVMe) client SSDs improve on the performance of the current XG5 series models and double the maximum capacity to 2 TB. Sample shipments to OEM customers start today in limited quantities, and Toshiba Memory Corporation will gradually increase shipments from the first calendar quarter of 2018.

The XG5-P series also utilizes a PCI Express (PCIe) Gen3 x4 lane and NVM Express Revision 1.2.1 interface, and delivers performance of up to 3000 MB/s sequential read and 2200 MB/s sequential write, and up to 320,000 IOPS random read and 265,000 IOPS random write. Its random read/write performance in full access range is approximately 55% better than that of standard XG5 series products. At the same time, low power consumption is maintained at less than 60 mW during operation.

EK Water Blocks, the Slovenia-based premium computer liquid cooling gear manufacturer, is releasing new passive heatsinks for M.2 NVMe Next Generation Form Factor SSDs in multiple color options! The popularity of the existing Black and Nickel plated M.2 NVMe heatsinks clearly indicated the need for more color options, so here they are! It is not a secret that M.2 NVMe SSDs can overheat very easily and be affected by thermal throttling, thus losing performance. The EK-M.2 NVMe Heatsink can lower the SSDs operating temperature by 7 to 30°C.

The design of the heatsink ensures that it is easy to install, it is low profile, easily reusable and aesthetically non-intrusive. Simple clips ensure that the heatsink is very easy to install and to re-use if the SSD is upgraded. The ribbed surface of the heatsink acts as a very effective passive cooler, as well as aesthetic cover. Its simple design ensures a sleek, non-intrusive look that can be easily combined with any aesthetical requirement of the user. The compact design makes it highly compatible so that it does not interfere with other components. EK Water Blocks are offering the new EK-M.2 NVMe Heatsink in red, blue, green and purple variants. The gold variant will be available within two weeks of time.

LiteOn today introduced the MUX line of "entry-level" M.2 PCI-Express SSDs in the M.2-2280 form-factor. Available in 128 GB and 256 GB capacities, the drives feature PCI-Express 3.0 x2 host interface, and take advantage of the NVMe protocol. They combine Phison PS5008-E8 controllers with Toshiba BiCS3 3D-TLC NAND flash memory.

The 128 GB variant offers sequential transfer rates of up to 1500 MB/s reads, with up to 450 MB/s writes; up to 91,000 IOPS 4K random reads, and up to 110,000 IOPS 4K random writes; while the 256 GB variant is slightly faster, offering up to 1600 MB/s sequential reads, up to 850 MB/s sequential writes, up to 145,000 IOPS 4K random reads, and up to 140,000 IOPS 4K random writes. Both variants are backed by 3-year warranties.

LiteOn today introduced the EPX series enterprise-grade, high-performance SSDs in the M.2-22110 (110 mm long) form-factor, featuring PCI-Express 3.0 x4 interface, and taking advantage of the NVMe 1.2 protocol. The drive comes in 960 GB and 1920 GB capacities, and features an active power-loss protection mechanism. A bank of capacitors on the drive holds just enough charge for the drive to "park" by completing outstanding write operations, and turning off the drive, to mitigate data-loss.

The 960 GB variant offers sequential transfer rates of up to 1700 MB/s reads, with up to 670 MB/s writes; and random access throughput of up to 300,000 IOPS reads, with up to 30,000 IOPS writes. The 1920 GB variant, on the other hand, puts out sequential transfers of up to 1800 MB/s reads, with up to 800 MB/s writes, up to 330,000 IOPS random reads, and up to 30,000 IOPS random writes. Both drives are rated for 2 million hours MTBF, and 1 DWPD for 3 years. The drives are backed by 3-year warranties.

MyDigitalSSD today announces the SBX-series, the consumer grade MyDigitalSSD Super Boot eXpress (SBX) PCIe 3.0 x2 NVMe SSDs featuring the Phison E8 (PS5008-E8) controller. The follow-up to MyDigitalSSD's award-winning enterprise BPX series, SBX NVMe SSDs offer a cost-competitive upgrade option to SATA SSDs with max sequential speeds of 1.60 GB/s read and 1.30 GB/s write.

Designed with best-in-class price, performance, and endurance in mind, SBX pairs Toshiba TLC 3D NAND with NVMe technology to maximize bandwidth while lowering latency for guaranteed peak performance under heavy workloads for near-instant responsiveness when used as either a boot or storage device in Z97 / X99 / X199 / X299 / Z170 based motherboards and more.

The first product based on Intel's ambitious "Kaby Lake-G" multi-chip module, which combines a quad-core "Kaby Lake-H" die with a graphics die based on AMD "Vega" architecture, will be a NUC (next unit of computing), and likely the spiritual successor to Intel's "Skull Canyon" NUC. The first picture of the motherboard of this NUC was leaked to the web, revealing a board that's only slightly smaller than the mini-ITX form-factor.

The board draws power from an external power brick, and appears to feature two distinct VRM areas for the CPU and GPU components of the "Kaby Lake-G" MCM SoC. The board feature two DDR4 SO-DIMM slots which are populated with dual-channel memory, and an M.2 NVMe slot, holding an SSD. There are two additional SATA 6 Gb/s ports, besides a plethora of other connectivity options.

LiteOn rolled out the CA3 line of NVMe SSDs in the M.2-2280 form-factor. Available in 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB capacities, the drives combine a Marvell 88SS1092 controller with Toshiba-made TLC NAND flash memory. The drive takes advantage of PCI-Express 3.0 x4 and the NVMe protocol, to put of sequential read speeds of up to 2100 MB/s for the 256 GB variant, and 2900 MB/s for the 512 GB and 1 TB variants; and sequential write speeds of up to 600 MB/s, 1200 MB/s, and 1700 MB/s for the three variants, respectively.

Random access speeds of the LiteOn CA3 series drives are up to 150K/150K IOPS (read/write) for the 256 GB variant; up to 260K/260K IOPS for the 512 GB variant, and up to 380K/260K IOPS for the 1 TB variant. The controller supports 3rd generation LPDC error correction, NVMe deallocate, TCG-OPAL 2.0 native encryption, and 256-bit AES native encryption. The company didn't put out endurance numbers, but stated that its MTBF is rated at 1.5 million hours. The drives are backed by 3-year warranties. The company didn't reveal pricing.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash products, today launched theXPG SX6000 SSD. The product represents a bold move to provide PCI Express storage performance for nearly the same price to end users as that of traditional 2.5" SATA SSD. The SX6000 uses the compact M.2 form factor and reaches 1000MB/s read and 800MB/s write, easily doubling SATA SSD throughput without a relative increase in price. This is part of an ADATA focus on high speed, compact M.2 drives aimed at gamers, overclockers, and PC DIY enthusiasts. The SX6000 meets NVMe 1.2 specs and offers up to 1TB capacity, all at an approachable entry-level alongside its more premium stablemates the SX7000, SX8000, and SX9000.

The leading advantage of the SX6000 is embodied in its superb cost-performance ratio. Using 3D TLC NAND, a Realtek controller, NVMe 1.2 technology, and a PCIe Gen3x2 interface, it reaches 1000MB/s read and 800MB/s write. Compared to a typical 500MB/s by 400MB/s on SATA III SSDs, this means doubled performance for less than 10% more spend in same-capacity comparisons. Increasingly, motherboards ship with two and four M.2 slots, up from a single slot on select boards just two years ago. Therefore, PCIe M.2 SSDs are expected to become more normative and the SX6000 encourages this trend as an affordable high speed alternative that works great as an OS drive and mass storage.

The Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) special interest group (SIG) published the first official specification (version 1.0) of PCI-Express gen 4.0 bus. The specification's previous draft 0.9 was under technical review by members of the SIG. The new generation PCIe comes with double the bandwidth of PCI-Express gen 3.0, reduced latency, lane margining, and I/O virtualization capabilities. With the specification published, one can expect end-user products implementing it. PCI SIG has now turned its attention to the even newer PCI-Express gen 5.0 specification, which will be close to ready by mid-2019.

PCI-Express gen 4.0 comes with 16 GT/s bandwidth per-lane, per-direction, which is double that of gen 3.0. An M.2 NVMe drive implementing it, for example, will have 64 Gbps of interface bandwidth at its disposal. The SIG has also been steered toward lowering the latencies of the interconnect as HPC hardware designers are turning toward alternatives such as NVLink and InfinityFabric, not primarily for the bandwidth, but the lower latency. Lane margining is a new feature that allows hardware to maintain a uniform physical layer signal clarity across multiple PCIe devices connected to a common root complex. This is particularly important when you have multiple pieces of mission-critical hardware (such as RAID HBAs or HPC accelerators), and require uniform performance across them. The new specification also adds new I/O virtualization features that should prove useful in HPC and cloud computing.

Last week, we were introduced to Samsung's upcoming PM981 SSDs, which should give way to higher-performance parts such as the 980 series. Today, however, it's the slightly lower-tier PM971 platform that has surfaced, which should give way to Samsung 970 series of NVMe SSDs. Remember that the company seems to be moving away from their "EVO" and "PRO" monikers as performance differentiators, and this new nomenclature series should replace it come launch time.

The PM971-based SSDs will feature a 22mm x 16mm x 1.5mm multi-chip package that includes Samsung's Proton controller, LPDDR4 DRAM cache, and V-NAND flash into a single chip. As was to be expected from a more mainstream solution, performance will be noticeably lower (at least in pure numbers) when compared to the higher-tier 980 series.

Super Micro Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMCI), a global leader in enterprise computing, storage, networking solutions and green computing technology, today announced the launch of its new enterprise class 8-socket server.

Supermicro's 7089P-TR4T supports eight Intel Xeon Scalable processors with three Intel Ultra Path Interconnects (UPIs) per CPU at 10.4 GT/s to deliver next-generation 8-socket server performance. Customers can unleash the ultimate potential of their high-performance computing (HPC) clusters or in-memory databases by installing up to 12TB of DDR4 memory, 41 NVMe devices (32 hot-swap), 23 PCI-E 3.0 cards, or eight double-width GPU cards. For virtualization, imagine the confidence customers will feel while running their Virtual Machines (VMs) on 224 Intel Xeon processor cores (448 threads), or as they scale to meet their rapidly growing compute requirements.

Samsung is the most well-regarded company when it comes to consumer SSDs. even if their SSD solutions do usually carry a premium versus the competition, that price delta is usually well justified: Samsung's SSDs are frequently the most reliable, fastest option in the market. Samsung's 960 PRO and 960 EVO SSDs have done a good job of clarifying the company's market positioning, and now, the successors for those Samsung SSDs have already surfaced.

The next-gen Samsung NVMe drives carry the PM981 code-name - where "PM" stands for TLC NAND (in this case, based on 64-layer 3-bit per cell V-NAND chips), "9" stands for Samsung's highest performing solutions, and "81" stands for the part number - two tiers ahead of Samsung's 960 series. It's expected that there will be a 970 part, since Samsung seems to be steering away from the "EVO" and "PRO" monikers to differentiate products according to performance - a straight numeral is expected to be the norm going forward. For now, the parts that have surfaced carry 512 GB and 1 TB of memory. These will make use of Samsung's Polaris V2 controller (with a metal heatsink over it to aid in cooling), and deliver 3,000 MB/s and 3,200 MB/s sequential read speeds (for the 512 GB and 1 TB versions respectively) and 1,800 MB/s and 2,400 MB/s sequential write, respectively. The models surfaced from a Vietnamese retailer, which has them going for $233 and $439 - which doesn't mean this will be the final consumer retail price, but seems reasonable for the technology and performance tier of these NVMe SSD solutions.

SilverStone rolled out the SST-MS09C, an interesting accessory that converts M.2 SATA SSDs into USB 3.1 flash-drives. The accessory, shaped like a large flash drive, features an aluminium body, and encloses a PCB with an M.2 B-key slot. You can install drives up to 80 mm (M.2-2280) in length. The VIA Labs VL715 controller at the heart of this device connects to your drive over SATA 6 Gbps, converting it to 10 Gbps USB 3.1 gen 2. You cannot install M-key (PCIe/NVMe) drives. Measuring 110 mm (W) x 9 mm (H) x 26 mm (D), it dry-weighs about 33 g. Its type-A USB 3.1 connector is mechanically retractable. The company didn't reveal pricing.

AMD has delivered on its teased promise, and today introduced a software-driven NVMe RAID driver that enables users to, you guessed it, create bootable NVMe arrays on their X399, Threadripper platform. The new solution demands that users download the appropriate drivers from AMD (follow the source links), and that you backup and dismantle your puny SATA RAID - note that you won't be able to use dual SATA and NVMe RAID on your platform. Any X399 motherboard will support this, there are no restrictions on the models of the NVMe drives, but your OS will have to be Windows 10 (build 1703).

The installation can be done via BIOS (which depends on manufacturer's BIOS releases and QA schedules - or via software with AMD's own RAIDXpert2 software. You can also opt for either of three RAID modes: RAID0 (striping), RAID1 (mirroring), and RAID10 (striping with mirroring). RAID10, by design, requires four or six NVMe devices. AMD is quoting scaling values that are close to 100% for RAID read scaling, and somewhere around 90% write scaling with up to 6 NVMe drives (1-6x Samsung 960 Pro NVMe SSD with 512 GB each). That amounts to almost 21.2 GB/s read, and 11.53 GB/s writes for a 6x NVMe SSD RAID. If you want the ultimate storage system performance for us mortal consumers, now you know where you can get it.