Samsung Electronics America, Inc., a worldwide leader in advanced memory solutions for more than two decades, today unveiled the Samsung 960 PRO and 960 EVO, its newest solid state drives (SSDs). The V-NAND based, M.2 form factor SSDs were built on the company's category-defining Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) SSD leadership. With powerful performance, endurance and capacity topped with all new and more robust Samsung Magician software package, Samsung continues to accelerate the NVMe era.

Packed with more technology and innovation than ever, the 960 PRO and 960 EVO are designed for users who seek smaller and faster storage solutions that deliver higher bandwidth and lower latency for processing massive amounts of data for everything from gaming and large file transfers to 4K video rendering, data analytics and more on their ultra-thin notebooks and PCs.

Samsung is giving finishing touches to a new line of PCI-Express solid-state drives (SSDs) that offer performance that matches or beats the current SSD 950 Pro series, at lower price-points, the 960 EVO. These drives leverage the company's 48-layer 3D-VNAND flash memory, and the new "Polaris" SSD controller by Samsung, to serve up performance that beats the 950 Pro. Samsung could transfer some of the cost-savings in using the inexpensive flash standard to the consumer, highlighted by the company's decision to brand these drives "EVO."

Tom's Hardware discovered that the Samsung PM961 drives are analogous to the 960 EVO, featuring identical components - the "Polaris" controller, and 48-layer TLC 3D-VNAND flash chips . These drives come in capacities of 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB, with sequential transfer rates of up to 3000 MB/s reads, with up to 1150 MB/s writes; up to 360,000 IOPS 4K random-read, and up to 280,000 IOPS 4K random-write. The 960 EVO will ship in M.2 NGFF-2280 and PCIe add-on card form-factors, with PCI-Express 3.0 x4 bus interfaces. The drives will support the NVMe protocol.

MSI is proud to announce the new Z170A GAMING M6 motherboard for the enthusiast gamers. Premiering two significant new features, Lightning USB and the next generation Killer networking technology, the Z170A GAMING M6 adopts evil gray as its major color scheme, bringing a whole new look and feel to the game table. This motherboard also offers Twin Turbo onboard M.2, Audio Boost 3 and a plethora of other game enhancing features.

The traditional ASMedia 1142 USB 3.1 controller chip on current motherboards is connected via either PCIe Gen2 x2 (10Gb/s) or Gen3 x1 (8Gb/s) which limits the USB 3.1 Gen2 transfer rates (10Gb/s). MSI is now proud to introduce the first ever motherboard to have the next generation Lighting Asmedia 2142 USB 3.1 Gen2 controller chip which runs at PCIe Gen3 x2 (16Gb/s) which is twice as fast. In combination with MSI's exclusive USB Speed Up there is no faster USB 3.1 Gen2 solution on the market. The PCIe Gen3 connection will also help to boost transfer speeds enormously when using two USB 3.1 Gen2 devices at the same time. The MSI Z170A GAMING M6 comes with both an USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A and Type-C interface.

Intel takes computing to the next level with the 7th Gen Intel Core processor family. The 7th Gen Intel Core processors are designed for the immersive Internet and built on a strong foundation of the Skylake microarchitecture. Intel's latest 14 nm processors deliver more responsive performance than ever, fantastic entertainment and gaming, robust security, and even more natural, intuitive interactions with your PC. With incredible improvements that transform the viewing experience with 4K UHD videos, 360-degree videos , multiple video streams, and premium content playback, the 7th Gen Intel Core processors for mobile platforms enable a new way to enjoy the sharp and engaging content across a range of form factors.

Intel scales 7th Gen Intel Core processors to a variety of PC designs at a wide range of price points, which may include features such as Thunderbolt 3 USB Type-C single-wire connection, low power premium audio and hassle-free facial recognition such as Windows Hello. Users can also expect to see PC designs based on 7th Gen Intel Core processors with a variety of intuitive input options such as touch, voice, and stylus.

Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) today announced that its popular HGST-branded Ultrastar SN150 PCI Express (PCIe) NVMe solid state drive (SSD) is now certified for use with VMware Virtual SAN and vSphere. Optimized for easy set-up, the Ultrastar SN150 SSD for VMWare environments reduces latency, and brings hyperscale-level performance and enhanced Quality of Service (QoS) time to virtualized servers and cloud storage. This can significantly lower the total cost of ownership of VMware storage environments over traditional storage architectures by reducing performance tuning and field support costs. In server-side environments where VMware virtualization management is utilized, the Ultrastar SN150 is an ideal option for data center managers building or deploying systems on VMware Virtual SAN or vSphere.

Part of Western Digital's HGST-branded Ultrastar data center storage solutions family, the certified Ultrastar SN150 is available in a low-profile, half-height, half-length (HHHL), add-in card form factor and is one of the first NVMe SSDs in the industry to utilize VMware's in-box NVMe driver. For data center administrators, this helps eliminate the hassle of time-consuming downloads and configurations, and allows faster deployment. The Ultrastar SN150 drive is available in capacities ranging from 1120GB1 to 3820GB and offers speeds which exceed Virtual SAN's highest performance class (Class F) specifications, enabling it to easily address the heaviest data workloads in a variety of virtualized server and storage configurations, including all-flash and hybrid configurations utilizing flash for caching and hard disk drives for storage capacity.

Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced Data Center 400 (DC400) SSD, the latest solid-state drive to its family of enterprise solutions. DC400 SSD is an entry-level enterprise drive designed for server use in data centers especially for customers who deploy a rip-and-replace strategy. It is ideal for read-intensive applications such as boot, web servers and lower data rate operational databases and analytics - especially in data center mixed workload environments where endurance and reliability are important.

DC400 SSD offers superior quality of service for data center customers whose workload environment calls for sustained IOPS and consistent low latency. An expanded on-board DRAM acceleration cache enables high, sustained IOPS to increase performance over a wide range of read/write workloads. Standard as well as user-adjustable over-provisioning improves random IOPS performance and endurance while enterprise firmware improves latency and delivers consistently low data access times under steady-state workloads. Additionally, DC400 SSD features enterprise-class reliability with end-to-end data path protection and firmware-implemented power-loss protection ("pFAIL").

At an event last night in San Francisco, AMD provided additional architectural details and a first look at the performance of its next-generation, high-performance "Zen" processor core. AMD demonstrated the "Zen" core achieving a 40% generational improvement in instructions per clock, delivering a landmark increase in processor performance.

During the event, AMD demonstrated an 8-core, 16-thread "Summit Ridge" desktop processor (featuring AMD's "Zen" core) outperforming a similarly configured 8-core, 16-thread Intel "Broadwell-E" processor when running the multi-threaded Blender rendering software with both CPUs set to the same clock speed. AMD also conducted the first public demonstration of its upcoming 32-core, 64-thread "Zen"-based server processor, codenamed "Naples," in a dual processor server running the Windows Server operating system.

ORIGIN PC launched upgraded models of their award-winning EON15-X, EON17-X, and EON17-SLX high-performance laptops today. Gamers, enthusiasts, and professionals all over the world can unleash mobile dominance with ORIGIN PC's new EON laptops featuring NVIDIA's game changing desktop class GeForce GTX 1080, 1070, and 1060 graphics cards. With the new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 10-Series graphics cards, ORIGIN PC offers up to 3X the performance of previous-generation GPUs, compatibility with the most popular VR headsets, 4K-gaming support, and support for DirectX 12 features to deliver the fastest, smoothest gaming notebook experiences ever.

The new EON15-X, EON17-X, and EON17-SLX laptops also feature support for up to an Intel Core i7 6700k desktop processor, ORIGIN PC professional CPU and GPU overclocking, up to 64GB of DDR4 Memory, PCIe NVMe m.2 drives in RAID and optional 1080p 120Hz displays or 4K displays; both with NVIDIA G-SYNC support.

MSI, industry leading motherboard brand, is proud to announce its latest addition to its X99 portfolio, the X99A WORKSTATION. Dedicated towards users demanding perfect stability & performance for optimal productivity while in search of a wide variety in connectivity & storage options, the new X99A WORKSTATION is sure to impress. Built from the ground up using Military Class 5 components, the X99A WORKSTATION is optimized to use ECC Registered DIMM (RDIMM) memory while benefiting from enhanced performance & stability through the presence of DDR4 Boost. The X99A WORKSTATION supports the latest Intel processors out of the box, both Broadwell-E and XEON based models. The X99A WORKSTATION motherboard is the perfect multi-tasking powerhouse to cater even the most demanding professional.

To be qualified as a true workstation motherboard, optimal & stable data handling needs to be guaranteed, no matter what. By using industries' highest quality components combined with an unmatched R&D design and extreme QA testing, the X99A WORKSTATION motherboard PCB design has been optimized to do just that. To protect the PCB and its components, besides looking cool an IO & audio cover ensures worry free use. The data and audio signals are also shielded against EMI. Heavy plated heatsinks, with a touch of grey, green and white, are used to ensure perfect operation at even the most extreme conditions. To transfer countless data, a wide variety of storage connecters such as U.2 , M.2 and SATA ports are demanded by most workstation users. The X99A WORKSTATION allows any of the latest and greatest HDD, SSD or other storage devices to be connected.

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

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

Seagate Technology announced today at the Flash Memory Summit conference two new flash innovations that extend the limits of storage computing performance in enterprise data centers to unprecedented levels. The new products include a 60 terabyte (TB) Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) solid-state-drive (SSD) - the largest SSD ever demonstrated - and the 8TB Nytro XP7200 NVMe SSD. These two new products represent the high performance end of Seagate's Enterprise portfolio - a complete ecosystem of HDD, SSD and storage system products designed to help customers manage the deluge of data they face and move the right data where it's needed fast to meet rapidly evolving business priorities and market demands.

The 60TB SAS SSD and 8TB Nytro XP7200 NVMe SSD are the newest additions to Seagate's data center portfolio and are designed to help enterprise IT leaders obtain more value from the rapidly expanding amount of data they must contend with, even under the most demanding application requirements. The 60TB SAS SSD features twice the density and four times the capacity of the next highest-capacity SSD available today - equivalent to the capacity needed to accommodate 400 million photos on a typical social media platform, or 12,000 DVD movies. This single controller architecture also delivers the lowest cost per gigabyte for flash available today.

VIA Technologies, Inc, today announced that it be will demonstrating its latest VIA NVMe PCIe Gen III & SATA III SSD controllers in Booth#818 of the 2016 Flash Memory Summit being held from August 9th to 11th in the Santa Clara Convention Center, California, USA. Featuring the VIA LDPC PLUS ECC decoding engine with Gear-Shifting technology, the second generation VIA SSD controllers offer best-in-class error correction capability and ensure high-throughput performance without overheating issues.

"VIA Gear-Shifting technology leverages our unique dual hardware decoding architecture to maximize data integrity and longevity," said Richard Brown, VP International Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc. "Our second generation VIA SSD controllers are the ideal choice for computing devices that require superior SSD performance with high cost-efficiency."

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) today announced that the GT51CA gaming desktop is now available with the latest NVIDIA GeForce GTX 10-Series graphics cards. This includes the top-spec NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080, which delivers up to three times (3X) the performance of previous-generation NVIDIA graphics cards. GT51CA even supports up to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 2-Way SLI for super-smooth gaming visuals. It is powered by a 6th-generation Intel Core i7 processor, with Turbo Gear for one-click full-core CPU overclocking to 4.6GHz without having to reboot.

The flagship NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card is designed around the new NVIDIA Pascal architecture, and is the most advanced gaming graphics card ever created. ROG GT51CA supports up to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 in 2-Way SLI to create stunningly beautiful and stutter-free 4K UHD gaming worlds. In product development tests, a GT51CA equipped with a GeForce GTX 1080 2-Way SLI performed 60% better than a similar system featuring GeForce GTX 980 2-Way SLI graphics. GT51CA ran DOOM at 'Ultra' graphics settings in 4K UHD with an average frame rate of 66fps.

Marvell, a world leader in storage, cloud infrastructure, Internet of Things (IoT), connectivity and multimedia semiconductor solutions, today announced the expansion of its solid-state drive (SSD) portfolio to include the 88NV1160 Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) Express DRAM-less SSD controller. Marvell's 88NV1160 DRAM-less SSD controller provides the industry's leading performance per Watt and up to 1600MB/s read speeds. The 88NV1160 can be used in a single ball grid array (BGA) package SSD, as well as in a standalone controller in a tiny 9x10mm package which makes it compatible with M.2230 and M.2242 form factors. These features make the 88NV1160 optimized for a new generation of slim computing devices such as productivity tablets and ultrabooks. The new controller is currently available for sampling to key customers globally.

"As the world's leading storage controller provider, Marvell has a long track record of bringing to market world-class innovations, including the pioneering integration of Host Memory Buffer technology into DRAM-less products. Working closely with other ecosystem leaders, Marvell has continued to advance the industry and drive a new generation of low power, small form factor mobile computing systems," said Dr. David Chen, Vice President of SSD Business at Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. "The 88NV1160 controller is optimally engineered for high performance tablets and ultrabooks, providing unparalleled performance per Watt and the largest NAND compatibility on the market."

SMART Modular Technologies, Inc., a leader in specialty memory, storage and hybrid solutions including memory modules, Flash memory cards and other solid state storage products, today announced sample availability of its 32GB DDR4 NVDIMM-N, making it the highest density DDR4 NVDIMM-N module available in the industry. SMART will begin sampling at the end of August 2016. The new 32GB density significantly improves application performance making it ideal in server and storage environments.

NVDIMMs transform main DRAM memory into persistent memory, resulting in higher performing servers by allowing big data, transaction logs, and other latency and performance-sensitive data to be accessed at DRAM speeds without the risk of data loss. Rather than reading and writing data or transaction logs to traditional storage media such as SATA SSDs, PCIe NVMe SSDs, or HDDs, data can be written to and read from main memory without the risk of data loss due to any catastrophic power loss event. Server performance as measured by lower latency, higher IOPS, and greater endurance, all dramatically increase with the integration of NVDIMMs.

Seagate Technology plc, today unveiled a first-of-its kind, high-capacity drive that can help data centers more easily accommodate exponential data growth, while still maintaining high levels of computing power and performance. The two terabyte (TB) version of its Nytro XM1440 M.2 non-volatile memory express (NVMe) Solid State Drive (SSD) is the highest-capacity, enterprise-class M.2 NVMe SSD available today, making it well suited for demanding enterprise applications that require fast data access, capacity and processing.

As the latest addition to the Seagate Nytro SSD product line, the 2TB Nytro XM1440 M.2 NVMe SSD is designed to accelerate enterprise data access, with twice the density of prior M.2 NVMe environments. Optimized for read-intensive and mixed workloads, its high capacity and small form factor are ideal for today's cloud and enterprise data center environments, where speed and processing power in a small footprint are increasingly important. The drive can help meet the needs of demanding enterprise applications including online transaction processing, high-performance computing and big data analytics. It also helps manage storage growth with deduplication and compression, allowing data centers to easily create more virtual machines instantly without having to add additional servers - enabling today's data centers to more easily manage their ever-expanding storage growth.

MSI, world leading in gaming hardware design, is thrilled to announce two new M-ATX GAMING motherboards, the B150M BAZOOKA PLUS & B150M MORTAR ARCTIC. With Turbo M.2 (32 Gb/s, Gen3 x4) and USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-C offering more connectivity options and a plethora of features improving your gameexperience, these new Micro-ATX motherboards are designed for gamers looking for a small gaming PC while getting the best performance & gaming experience. DDR4 Boost technology is available, providing maximum performance and stability while also offering improved memory compatibility. Audio Boost and GAMING LAN ensure you have upper hand on your enemies on the battlefield, ready to finish on top.

The B150M MORTAR ARCTIC is not only a better version of the regular MORTAR model, this special edition comes in a full white PCB design and features a stunning Arctic camouflage styled heatsink and IO cover design. With great attention to detail, the B150M MORTAR ARCTIC not only delivers in terms of specs & features, but manages to bring something truly unique to the B150 motherboard segment. Featuring a new design with a stronger heatsink, more black & white colors, and upgraded specs such as Steel Armor, Turbo M.2 and USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-C, the new BAZOOKA PLUS motherboard is ready to set a new standard in the B150 Micro-ATX gaming motherboard segment. With Audio Boost & GAMING LAN offering dedicated gaming features tailored to the most demanding gamers, the BAZOOKA PLUS is sure to satisfy any gamer.

Intel's first client SSDs based on the company's revolutionary 3D XPoint memory technology, under the company's new Optane brand, could debut alongside the company's 7th generation Core "Kaby Lake" processors (late-2016), according to a leaked company slide. According to the slide, the company could launch at least three Optane branded SSD lines in either late Q4-2016 or Q1-2017, addressing three distinct market segments.

Leading the pack is the Optane "Mansion Beach" SSD, positioned in the upper-end of the "Enthusiast Workstation" segment, with PCIe gen 3.0 x4 interface, and NVMe support. A notch underneath this is the Optane "Brighton Beach" series, featuring PCIe gen 3.0 x2 interface. Interestingly, Intel doesn't have a mainstream SSD based on the 3D XPoint tech around this time, yet has an entry-level "System Accelerator" segment drive codenamed "Stony Beach," which also takes advantage of PCIe gen 3.0 x2. This drive comes in M.2 form-factor. Some time later (2018?), the company plans to launch a single-chip successor to "Stony Beach," codenamed "Carson Beach."

NVM Express, Inc., the organization that developed the NVM Express specification for accessing solid-state storage technologies on a PCI Express (PCIe) bus, today announced the release of its NVM Express over Fabrics specification for accessing storage devices and systems over Ethernet, Fibre Channel, InfiniBand, and other network fabrics. NVM Express, Inc. has also recently published Version 1.0 of the NVM Express Management Interface specification.

The NVM Express over Fabrics specification extends the benefits of NVM Express beyond rack-scale architectures to datacenter-wide Fabric architectures supporting thousands of solid state devices, where using a fabric as an attach point to the host is more appropriate than using PCI Express.

Storage technologies are quickly innovating to reduce latency, providing a significant performance improvement for today's cutting-edge applications. NVM Express (NVMe) is a significant step forward in high-performance, low-latency storage I/O and reduction of I/O stack overheads. NVMe over Fabrics is an essential technology to extend NVMe storage connectivity such that NVMe-enabled hosts can access NVMe-enabled storage anywhere in the datacenter, ensuring that the performance of today's and tomorrow's solid state storage technologies is fully unlocked, and that the network itself is not a bottleneck.

Patriot Memory unveiled its flagship Hellfire line of SSDs, which take advantage of 32 Gb/s PCIe host interface, and the NVMe protocol, to belt out transfer rates that are 5-6 times those of SATA 6 Gb/s drives. The drives come in M.2-2280 and PCIe add-on card form-factors. Both drives combine Phison 5007 PCIe SSD processors with MLC NAND flash memory. The drives take advantage of the latest NVMe 1.2 protocol.

The add-on card variant comes in capacities of 480 GB and 960 GB, while the M.2-2280 variant comes in 240 GB, 480 GB, and 960 GB. Both drives feature 512 MB DDR3 DRAM caches. The add-on card variant offers sequential speeds of up to 3,000 MB/s reads with up to 2,200 MB/s writes, with up to 150,000 IOPS 4K random-reads, with up to 230,000 IOPS 4K random writes. The M.2-2280 variant offers the same sequential speeds, but with up to 116,000 IOPS 4K random reads, and up to 210,000 IOPS 4K random writes.

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

ECS Elitegroup showed off its latest flagship socket LGA1151 board, the Z170-Lightsaber, likely designed for its RGB LED product styling. The board features a 14-phase VRM powering the CPU, and expansion slots that include two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (x8/x8 when both are populated), a third x16 (electrical x4) slot wired to the PCH, and four other x1 slots. Storage connectivity includes a 32 Gb/s M.2 with NVMe boot support, 16 Gb/s SATA-Express, and six SATA 6 Gb/s ports.

The modern connectivity on offer include two USB 3.1 ports (apparently both of them are type-A), six other USB 3.0 ports, DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 1.4, a gigabit Ethernet interface driven by Killer E2400 controller, and an audio solution with a 115 dBA SNR CODEC, ground-layer isolation, electrolytic capacitors, and a user-replaceable OPAMP. Overclocker friendly features include dual-BIOS with an on-demand BIOS backup/restore button, three performance preset buttons, power/reboot buttons, and a 3-digit POST error readout.

ADATA showed off its flagship M.2 PCIe SSD lineup, the SX8000NP. These drives will target a price-performance sweetspot between the fastest SATA drives, and the enthusiast M.2 ones. They're driven by a Silicon Motion SMI2260H processor, wired to 3D (stacked) MLC NAND flash memory. This drive takes advantage of PCI-Express 3.0 x4, and the new NVMe protocol, to serve up sequential transfer rates of up to 2,000 MB/s reads, with up to 800 MB/s writes. ADATA put up its own CDM performance numbers for a 480 GB variant of this drive.

Here's the first picture of MSI's next premium socket LGA2011v3 motherboard targeted at overclockers, the X99A XPower Gaming Titanium. Likely positioned a notch below the X99A GODLIKE Gaming Carbon, and a successor to the X99A XPower AC, this board features MSI's signature metallic silver PCB, mated with silvery heatsinks denoting "Titanium." This scheme caught up with the company's recent Z170A XPower and Z170A MPower Gaming Titanium boards. The board is packed to the brim with the company's latest motherboard innovations, such as reinforcement braces along the eight DDR4 DIMM slots, five PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (which are ready for 4-way multi-GPU solutions), and a host of modern connectivity options, such as 32 Gb/s U.2, USB 3.1 (including type-A and type-C ports), and a 32 Gb/s M.2-22110 slot with NVMe boot support. The board comes with out-of-the-box support for Core i7 "Broadwell-E" processors.

MSI's drive to "carbonate" its Gaming Pro motherboard lineup is extending to the AMD platform, with the 970A Gaming Pro Carbon. Designed with the latest features available to this platform, this board resembles the 970A Gaming Pro, with the notable exception of faux carbon fiber patterns on the metal stickers heading the chipset and VRM heatsinks. You get quite a few modern features on this AMD 970+SB950 chipset based motherboard, such as dual-channel DDR3-2133 support out of the box, 20 Gb/s M.2 with NVMe support, two USB 3.1 ports (one each of type-A and type-C), and Intel gigabit Ethernet.