Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc., a committed technology leader, today announces the Toshiba OCZ RD400 Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) solid state drive (SSD) series. Designed for cutting-edge notebooks and PCs, the Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) RD400 series provides improved storage bandwidth and enhanced latency resulting in a fast and responsive computing experience.

Unlike Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) based SSDs utilizing the legacy Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) protocol, NVMe is the first storage protocol designed with SSDs in mind making the RD400 series one of Toshiba's fastest consumer SSDs to date. Additionally, the RD400's PCIe Gen3 x4 lane interface shatters the traditional SATA bottleneck by delivering over four times the performance of SATA SSDs. The RD400 series features sequential read/write speeds of up to 2,600 MB/s and 1,600 MB/s and random read/write performance of up to 210,000 and 140,000 4KiB input/output operations per second (IOPS).

Innodisk, the service-driven provider of flash, memory and peripheral module for industrial and embedded systems, launches a new generation M.2 LAN card. M.2 (known as the NGFF -- Next Generation Form Factor) is a new generation of specifications for embedded extensions designed to support PCIe and USB 3.0 interface. High-speed bandwidth comes as a standard specification of mini-STX and NUC.

It may be used on type 2280, 2260 and other various modules. Innodisk announced the world's first M.2 LAN card EGUL series at the end of last year and was awarded Electronic Design's "Product of the Week." We launched its extension line EGPL series to support PCIe, type 2280 and additional operating platforms such as Linux, FreeBSD, Android and VxWorks.

AKITIO today unveiled the Thunder3 PCIe SSD, the industry's fastest external storage solution designed to unleash the groundbreaking speed and simplicity of Thunderbolt 3. Developed for high-speed transfer of large files, the Thunder3 PCIe SSD is the only product on the market today that combines the full PCIe Gen3 x4 bandwidth of Intel's 750 NVMe SSD with Thunderbolt 3's 40 Gbps port, giving an unprecedented performance of 2500 MB/s (2.5 Gigabytes per second) with a storage capacity of 1.2 TB, the highest capacity PCIe SSD drive available today.

"The Thunder3 PCIe SSD is designed for creative professionals that truly value their time and need to transfer files as quickly as possible," said Richard Wright, VP of Sales & Marketing for Akitio. "The revolutionary 40 Gb/s bandwidth is essential for anyone looking to increase workflow productivity by significantly reducing the time it takes to transfer media content, whether it is for audio, photography, video or large data files."

Micron Technology, Inc. today announced a new portfolio of PCIe solid state drives (SSDs) that leverage the high-performance NVMe protocol. The new Micron 9100 and 7100 PCIe SSDs provide data center customers with purpose-built storage products for implementing an agile, scale-out IT infrastructure. These new drives extend Micron's rich portfolio of SATA and SAS SSDs that enable customers to extend and improve their legacy data center infrastructure with proven flash products.

Customers are disaggregating storage from Storage Area Networks (SANs) and frame-based arrays, moving toward server-based storage as a solution because of today's changing computing landscape, which is largely driven by the influx of data being created, accessed and stored from the proliferation of mobile devices and cloud computing. Many of today's leading hyperscale companies, who have taken advantage of server-based storage, have deployed Micron memory and storage in their data centers, giving them consistent, accelerated access to the world's data wherever they are, whenever they want and from any device.

OWC Digital, a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, today announced the all-new Aura SSD for Mid 2013 and Later Mac laptops, the most anticipated SSD upgrade release in OWC's history. In an era of ever-expanding storage needs, this long-awaited upgrade allows users, for the first time ever, to expand the stock storage that came with their Mac laptops and reuse their original factory drive to transfer data and as a high-performance external storage solution.

Available in 480GB and 1TB capacities, Aura SSD upgrade kits are the first and only PCIe-based flash storage upgrades available for MacBook Pro with Retina display (Late 2013 and newer) and MacBook Air (Mid 2013 and newer) models.

Lite-On Storage Group, a global leader in the design, development and manufacturing of solid-state drives (SSDs) will be showcasing their latest enterprise and client storage solutions at its Aria suite this year for CES 2016. Lite-On announced its EP2 NVMe M.2 PCIe SSD at the Flash Memory Summit (FMS) 2015. At CES 2016, they are releasing the new addition EP2 PCIe Gen 3 x 4, NVMe 2.5" SSD with U.2 form factor.

The EP2 with the U.2 connector is hot swappable, providing great flexibility to IT Managers to easily change drives without shutting down the server. By combining the PCIe form factor with NVMe protocol, the EP2 U.2 series increase server application performance, lowers latency and delivers fast and predictable data access in a datacenter environment. It delivers superior speed with 4KB random read performance of up to 290,000 IOPS, and 4KB write performance of up to 26,000 IOPS. The EP2 U.2 also features end-to-end data protection, guarding against corruption and errors, and Power Loss Protection, against sudden power loss. The EP2 U.2 is available up to 2TB capacity.

Plextor, a leading developer of high performance storage devices, will be adding the new third generation, four-lane PCI-Express NVMe M.2 M8Pe solid-state drive (SSD), and the M7V Series mainstream SATA SSD to its exemplary line of solid-state drive products at the upcoming 2016 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in the Plextor suite at the Aria.

The M8Pe is the first Plextor SSD with the revolutionary NVMe protocol that helps reduce access latency, allowing for faster speeds. It connects via PCIe, enabling 4KB random read performance up to 270,000 IOPS, and 4KB write performance up to 150,000 IOPS. M8Pe PCI express drives are designed to give gamers and other high intensity users complete synergy and maximum performance. M8Pe features M.2 form factor allowing better airflow and cooling, increases the speed and performance of the SSD. PlexTurbo latest version 3.0, an intelligent RAM caching solution uses the system memory to boost access storage performance compared to standard factory SSDs. Other features of M8Pe include PlexCompressor, a smart compression technology that gives the user more storage capacity without impacting user experience and system performance., and PlexVault, a useful feature allowing private data to be hidden securely for shared computers using Plextor SSDs.

Patriot, a leading manufacturer of SSDs, computer memory, flash storage solutions, mobile accessories and gaming peripherals, today announced the release of their latest solid-state drive offerings, the Patriot Hellfire M.2 PCIe SSD and the Hellfire PCIe AIC (Add-in Card).

The Hellfire will be Patriot's first M.2 PCIe SSD, and an impressive one at that. With a Gen 3 x 4 interface and NVMe 1.2 compliant, the Hellfire M.2 will reaches speeds of up to 2,500MB/s read and 600MB/s. Designed with the needs of content creators, gamers and PC enthusiasts in mind the, Hellfire will lower latency while increasing the productivity and response times of any PC, laptop or notebook. The Hellfire M.2 will be released in capacities of 240GB, 480GB and 960GB in a M.2 2280 form factor to fulfill the high performance storage needs of consumers looking to upgrade their systems. Powered by the Phison 5007 controller and MLC NAND, the Hellfire will be your weapon of choice when battling those latency bottlenecks.

AMD today announced new AMD Embedded R-Series SOC processors that establish performance leadership across a targeted range of embedded application market requirements for digital signage, retail signage, medical imaging, electronic gaming, media storage and communications and networking. Designed for demanding embedded needs, the processors incorporate the newest AMD 64-bit x86 CPU core ("Excavator"), plus third-generation Graphics Core Next GPU architecture, and state-of-the-art power management for reduced energy consumption. Combined, these AMD innovations and technologies provide industry-leading graphics performance and key embedded features for next-generation designs.

The single-chip system-on-chip (SOC) architecture enables simplified, small form factor board and system designs from AMD customers and a number of third party development platform providers, while providing astounding graphics and multimedia performance, including capability for hardware-accelerated decode of 4K video playback. With a robust suite of peripheral support and interface options, high-end AMD Radeon graphics, designed for the industry's first Heterogeneous Systems Architecture (HSA) 1.0 certification, and support for the latest DDR4 memory, the new AMD R-Series SOC addresses the needs of a wide range of markets and customers.

AMD today announced multiple new discrete AMD Embedded Radeon graphics options suitable for multiple form factors. The suite of products is specifically designed to advance the visual and parallel processing capabilities of embedded applications. The graphics cards represent continued AMD commitment to embedded market innovation, providing engineers with more choices to achieve their design goals, from leading performance to energy efficiency.

The new offerings cover a broad range of needs, from 192 GFLOPS to 3 TFLOPS of single precision performance, and from 20 to less than 95 watts of thermal design power. The products are offered as a Multi-Chip Module (MCM), Mobile PCI Express Module (MXM) and PCIe options, with AMD offering the only MCM solutions. All of these products offer extended support and longevity. The new discrete graphics cards offer the right balance of performance, power and graphics memory size, to meet the needs of most customers.

"The demand for rich, vibrant graphics in embedded systems is greater than ever before, and that demand is growing," said Scott Aylor, corporate vice president and general manager, AMD Embedded Solutions. "Our latest additions to the embedded product lineup help designers build mesmerizing user experiences with 4K multi-screen installations and 3-D and interactive displays. In addition, the powerful capabilities of our GPUs can address the toughest parallel compute challenges."

Samsung Electronics today announced the introduction of the Samsung 950 PRO solid state drive (SSD), designed to meet the demands of high-performance consumer and business laptops and PCs. The drive's M.2 form factor means that users with ultra-slim notebook PCs and workstations can benefit from industry-leading storage endurance, reliability and energy efficiency.

The Samsung 950 PRO SSD is Samsung's first consumer-ready Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) M.2 form factor SSD with vertical NAND (V-NAND) technology; supporting the Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) 3.0 interface. With the introduction of NVMe, the first protocol optimized for SSDs, users of the Samsung 950 PRO will benefit from improved performance and power saving which can help increase battery life and potentially reduce operating costs. The drive is ideal for professionals who want cutting-edge performance, higher bandwidth and lower latency from their high-end PCs and workstations, for projects such as computer-aided design, data analysis and engineering simulation. The compact M.2 2280 form factor ensures compatibility with next-generation desktop and mobile platforms that support the M.2 PCIe slot and interface.

Ahead of its launch, ASUS showed off its flagship socket LGA1151 motherboard, the ROG Maximus VIII Extreme. Based on the Intel Z170 Express chipset, this board offers the largest feature-set from ASUS' stable, for the enthusiast crowd. Built in the ATX (almost E-ATX wide) form-factor, the board retains the styling of its series siblings, such as the Maximus VIII Hero, but does away with the red+black for a more contemporary golden orange+black scheme, which made its debut with the GeForce GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum graphics card (also pictured here).

The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX, 8-pin EPS, and 4-pin ATX power connectors, and conditions it for the CPU with a 16-phase VRM. The CPU socket is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots. Expansion slots include four PCI-Express 3.0 x16, from which three are wired to the CPU, and one to the PCH. All four are PCIe gen 3.0. Storage connectivity includes an SFF-8639 U.2 32 Gb/s connector, an M.2 32 Gb/s slot, two SATA-Express 16 Gb/s, and eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports. Networking includes 802.11 ac WLAN, Bluetooth 4.0, and gigabit Ethernet (all Intel controllers). The new SupremeFX onboard audio solution borrows a lot of tech from ASUS' discrete sound cards, and comes with an 5.25-inch front-panel bay with rotary controls, and front-panel jacks. The board features a boat-load of overclocker-centric features, including dual-BIOS.

Crono Labs is a new crowd-funded startup that's on a mission to turn monitors with VESA mounts into AIO-looking, gaming monstrosities. Their contraption is a lightweight micro-ATX chassis that mounts on to the back of your monitor over standard VESA mounts, and houses a micro-ATX or mini-ITX motherboard, a standard ATX PSU (with reasonable length restrictions), two each of 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch drive bays, and a 2-slot graphics card bay that's arranged along the plane of the motherboard, rather than perpendicular to it, using a PCIe riser. It has room for graphics cards as long as 10.5 inches (26.67 cm).

It comes with its own sturdy stand, so you needn't worry about a >10 lbs object (the case and your build) weighing in on your monitor's frail stand. The case is airy along its sides and is topped off with a groovy brushed-aluminium panel. Then there are nifty bits like the handle. Crono Labs is seeking as little as $2,000 to get build prototypes, on its Indiegogo campaign, it's already halfway through that goal, but your coins could help. Check them out here.

Lenovo, the world leader in convertible notebooks and traditional commercial desktops, today announced a broad redesign of its ThinkPad YOGA and ThinkCentre portfolios. A recent Lenovo survey of more than 6,000 businesses suggested that security, mobility and reliability were amongst the top pain points today and more than a quarter plan to introduce convertible devices. The latest generation of thinner and lighter ThinkPad YOGA 260 and 460 convertibles and faster than ever ThinkCentre desktops have been designed to provide customers with solutions to their critical needs.

Data from the Lenovo survey showed that 53% of employees work from home at least some of the time, 61% are required to travel for business and 46% are aged between 18 and 34 years. These progressive customers are the emerging workforce and decision makers of tomorrow and actively seek leading edge technology to maintain a competitive edge. They need truly reliable and mobile devices with no compromise on performance.

Thecus Technology Corp. today announced the launch of the next generation 7-bay, N7770-10G and 8-bay, N8880U-10G NAS. The newest additions to Thecus' line of SMB/Enterprise NAS deliver high-performance, resilience, and a wide range of industry-class solutions that are able to handle the rigorous mission critical storage needs of businesses.

"Innovation has been and continues to be at the very pinnacle of our success at Thecus," said Florence Shih, CEO at Thecus Technology Corp. "Today's growing businesses require a complete storage solution that can fulfill day to day operations and adapt to unforeseen circumstances and new innovations. With cutting-edge hardware, a comprehensive set of data management features, and attractive price points, these next generation NAS provide an ideal business storage solution."

In a bid to regain market share lost to Intel and Killer (Qualcomm) in the DIY motherboard market, particularly with motherboards targeted at online gaming PC builds; Realtek unveiled a new onboard LAN solution called the Realtek Dragon. Intel and Killer have replaced Realtek as a preferred onboard Ethernet chip provider for DIY PC motherboards over the past two generations, as perception of their lower driver overhead, lower latencies, and other advantages spread. Sensing that merely improving drivers for its existing RTL8111 family of PCIe gigabit Ethernet PHY chips won't fix the situation, Realtek sought to give its latest generation an off-beat brand name that it hopes could appeal to the DIY crowd.

At the heart of the Realtek Dragon is the new RTL8118AS, a PCIe gigabit Ethernet PHY, much like the 8111 family. Realtek says it made refinements to the chip over previous generations, which will offer better performance (lower driver overhead) for traffic with small UDP packets, which is how most online multiplayer games work, and lower power consumption than competing solutions, such as the Killer E2200. Realtek even set a new branding for its chip, and will allow motherboard makers to print it on their PCBs, just as they print branding for Killer or Intel onboard LAN solutions. Realtek Dragon will make its debut with certain socket LGA1151 motherboards by ECS.

Lite-On, a global leader in the design, development and manufacturing of enterprise Solid-State Drives (SSDs), introduces low latency M.2 PCIe drives to support I/O intensive workloads for one of the largest cloud service providers. Lite-On's EP1 series gives cloud service providers the competitive advantage by offering premium storage for its end users.

Lite-On's Gen2x4 M.2 PCIe SSDs are becoming widely adopted by the cloud computing industry. The M.2 PCIe interface EP1 series are compact, power-efficient solid-state solutions that fit directly into the server's PCIe bus to increase server application performance while delivering fast and reliable access to data without burdening the host CPU and memory resources.

The bets are off, AMD's latest flagship graphics card will indeed get a fancy name, and it will be named Radeon R9 Fury X. Korean tech-site HardwareBattle leaked a product flyer with the SKU name, and its catchphrase "revolutionary, inside out." Based on the 28 nm "Fiji" silicon, the R9 Fury X is expected to feature 4,096 stream processors, 256 TMUs, 128 ROPs, and a 4096-bit wide HBM memory interface, holding 4 GB of memory.

The reference-design Fury X will come with an AIO cooling solution, likely designed by Asetek, featuring a Cooler Master made fan, ventilating its 120 x 120 mm radiator. Just as the Radeon R9 290X did away with D-Sub (VGA) support (even with dongles), Fiji does away with the DVI connector. You still get three DisplayPort 1.2a ports, and a single HDMI 2.0 connector. The card has been pictured on the web featuring two 8-pin PCIe power connectors.

G.Skill unveiled a product that makes it abundantly clear that Phison has established itself as not just a cheap SSD controller maker, but one that can cater to the most choosy PC enthusiasts. The second-generation Phoenix Blade PCIe SSD from G.Skill is driven by a Phison PS5007-E7 processor, which features a native PCI-Express 3.0 x4 host interface, wired to up to 1920 GB of MLC NAND flash. The drive succeeds the PCIe 2.0 x8-based first-generation drive which was launched last October. The drive offers sequential transfer rates of up to 2,600 MB/s reads, with up to 1,400 MB/s writes; and 4K random access performance of 300,000 IOPS reads, with up to 200,000 IOPS writes. The drive is designed to compete with the likes of Intel SSD 750 series, and will be competitively priced.

Team Group showed off its flagship M.2 PCIe SSD at Computex, the TM8FP7 series. Available in 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB sizes, the drive takes advantage of PCI-Express 3.0 x4 (32 Gb/s), and offers up to 2,300 MB/s reads with up to 380 MB/s writes on its smallest variant, and up to 2,500 MB/s reads with up to 720 MB/s writes on its biggest one. The drive uses MLC NAND flash, supports DevSleep and TRIM, although there's no word on whether its controller supports NVMe.

In the latest picture leaked of AMD's upcoming flagship graphics card, codenamed "Fiji-XT," we get a final confirmation of the reference-design card's length, particularly its short PCB. Since this card uses a factory-fitted AIO liquid cooling solution, and since the Fiji XT package is effectively smaller than that of Hawaii, with the surrounding memory chips gone (moved to the GPU package as HBM stacks), the PCB is extremely compact, with just the GPU package, and its VRM. Speaking of which, the card draws power from a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors. The coolant tubes stick out from the rear of the card, making their way to a 120 x 120 mm radiator, with a single included 120 mm PWM fan. With this card, AMD is doing away with DVI altogether. Connectors will be a mixture of DisplayPort 1.2a and HDMI 2.0.

Other World Computing announced today the Accelsior S, a new PCIe card with direct mount support for a 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s SSD. The latest addition to OWC's award-winning Accelsior line enables PC, Mac Pro tower and Thunderbolt interface expansion chassis users to quickly and easily add additional storage. Utilizing the robust PCIe architecture, the Accelsior S card offers both storage expansion and 6Gb/s speeds up to 550MB/s - more than double the performance of SATA 3Gb/s.

When equipped with the Accelsior S PCIe card and an SSD, Mac Pro tower and PC users can launch, capture, render and process I/O-intensive apps without long wait times. The Accelsior S PCIe card is also extremely easy to install - no drivers or software are required.

OCZ Storage Solutions -- a Toshiba Group Company and leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced its Z-Drive 6000 SSD Series that combines PCI Express (PCIe) Gen 3 and Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) technologies with an extensive enterprise feature-set and robust endurance and reliability. The NVMe-compliant Z-Drive 6000 Series is available in multiple configurations supporting a variety of form factors, capacity points, and endurance ratings.

The NVMe specification extends traditional PCIe flash storage to new levels and was architected from the ground up to enable specific benefits of non-volatile memory-based solid-state storage. It features a streamlined memory interface, command set and queue design that delivers faster access to critical data and highly resilient storage capabilities. This enables both system builders and storage vendors alike to develop different parts of a storage ecosystem to a standard specification with broad interoperability support between storage devices, host platforms and software. NVMe is expected to open new opportunities for faster, better and stronger flash-based storage applications while significantly improving PCIe SSD deployments over the next five years.

Noctua today announced two new additions to its portfolio of premium-quality, quiet CPU coolers with 140mm fans. Whereas the NH-D15S is a high-compatibility single fan version of the elite-class dual tower model NH-D15, the NH-C14S replaces the proven top-flow cooler NH-C14. Both the NH-D15S and NH-C14S feature an asymmetrical layout in order to avoid blocking the top PCIe slot.

"140mm coolers have become the default choice for enthusiasts who seek superior cooling performance for overclocking or near-silent operation, but these tend to block the top PCIe slot on many current motherboards," says Mag. Roland Mossig (Noctua CEO). "With the NH-D15S and NH-C14S, we've updated our successful 140mm dual tower and top-flow coolers with asymmetrical layouts that ensure the best PCIe compatibility."

ASUS today announced that it is the world's first motherboard brand to support all NVM Express (NVMe) storage devices via a simple UEFI BIOS update and optional ASUS Hyper Kit expansion card.

The free UEFI BIOS update enable all ASUS X99 and Z97 motherboards to be compatible with the latest NVMe storage devices, including those with PCI Express (PCIe) and M.2 (PCIe) interfaces. All ASUS X99 motherboards are also compatible with the latest 2.5-inch NVMe SFF-8639 solid-state drives (SSDs), via the exclusive ASUS Hyper Kit expansion card - for ultimate data-transfer bandwidth up to 32 Gbit/s.