The S20 Slider 2, the ideal mobile work station and leisure companion, just hit the market. Its elegant streamlined exterior, all-in-one design, Intel's 4th generation Haswell Core i5 processor, and all-weather, long-life battery meet are designed to meet your work and leisure needs and make the S20 Slider 2 stand out from the crowd of other ultrabooks.

Another MSI ingenious design, the S20 Slider 2 not only offers all the audio, visual, multimedia, reading, and gaming enjoyment of a tablet, it also sports a keyboard, USB, and HDMI capabilities of a mobile office notebook. This chicly mobile machine satisfies the needs of both on-the-go business people and students and the extended battery power ensures that you have plenty of time to do what you're doing. Ideal for Internet browsing, social networking, and word processing, the S20 Slider 2 is the perfect choice for anybody on the go. The S20's design with keyboard and sliding cover eliminates the limitations most people feel when they use tablets. MSI's innovative, user-friendly design have you the user in mind.

Ahead of its launch, SilverStone posted pictures of the new Raven RVZ01 mini-ITX gaming case. Built in the flat-bed design, the RVZ01 makes use of PCIe risers to orient the graphics card along the plane of its base. There's enough room for a sub-15 cm dual-slot graphics card, such as ASUS GTX 760 DirectCU Mini or the MSI GTX 760 Gaming-ITX it inspired; a standard ATX power supply; a slot-in slimline optical drive; and a number of 2.5/3.5-inch drives. SilverStone didn't reveal availability information, but we're still hopeful of a 2013 launch.

According to some newly-leaked slides, Intel is planning quite a solid state drive release spree for the second quarter of 2014, one that will see the introduction of three storage solutions - the SSD Pro 2500 Series (codename Temple Star), SSD DC P3500 Series (Pleasantdale) and SSD DC P3700 Series (Fultondale). All three SSD families are going to utilize 20 nm MLC NAND Flash memory, will be available in two form factors and will be backed by a five-year warranty.

Organizations with a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) can now get a significant performance boost with the Intel SSD Cache Controller RCS25ZB040. Powered by LSI Nytro Technology, the Intel RCS25ZB040 is designed to expedite data across a VDI while decreasing the cost per desktop.

The Intel RCS25ZB040 accelerates VDI performance with intelligent caching technology, which monitors frequently accessed data and retains it on its enterprise-grade flash for faster access. Plus, it moves data faster across a VDI and reduces the cost per desktop within the infrastructure.

At its annual Accelerating Innovation Summit (AIS), LSI Corporation today introduced its new family of 12 Gb/s SAS MegaRAID controller cards and expanders, built to power leading datacenters worldwide. As the proliferation of applications, data and mobile devices continues to place demands on datacenters, the new family of LSI storage solutions offers innovative technology for increased performance and improved enterprise RAID data protection.

LSI's new storage solutions deliver the application-accelerating performance, enhanced data protection and reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) required for the most demanding datacenters. These benefits were validated by recent industry standard transactional processing benchmark study results that showed LSI 12 Gb/s SAS MegaRAID controller cards delivered a 60 percent increase in database users without performance loss compared with 6 Gb/s SAS solutions. In addition, LSI 12 Gb/s SAS expanders showed throughput increases of 25 percent in conjunction with the popular Hadoop platform, a significant benefit for customers seeking to process big data.

At its annual Accelerating Innovation Summit (AIS), LSI Corporation today announced it has extended the Nytro portfolio of PCIe flash cards to include the Nytro XP6200 series. The Nytro XP6200 series provides hyperscale cloud datacenters with accelerated performance for read-intensive applications, optimized power and thermals, and an overall lower cost per gigabyte PCIe flash solution.

Hyperscale datacenters require cost-effective scaling to thousands of servers to meet the compute and storage demands of Web 2.0, cloud computing and big data analytics applications. Hyperscale infrastructures are often built using lower-cost, highly efficient servers, assembled from off-the-shelf, standard components, and generally require higher-density architectures and more efficient power and cooling.Images courtesy of StorageReview.com

HighPoint Technologies, a pioneering force in the storage industry for the past 18 years, launches a groundbreaking new breed of storage controller designed for high-speed applications: the RocketRAID 2720C2 6Gb/s SAS/SATA Cross-Sync RAID Solution.

HighPoint's 6Gb/s Cross-Sync RAID Solution aims to revolutionize DAS applications. Cross-Sync synchronizes up to two RocketRAID 2720C2 controller cards to work as a single RAID storage unit. The Cross-Sync RAID Solution provides 16 SAS/SATA6Gb/s Ports over a Dual PCIe x8 Host Interface, and is capable of delivering up to 4 GB/s of transfer performance!

LSI Corporation today unveiled the third generation of its market-leading SandForce flash controller line, the industry's most widely deployed flash management technology for driving PCIe and SATA solid state drive (SSD) and flash card solutions. Designed to support power-sensitive client computing applications as well as I/O-intensive enterprise and hyperscale environments, the new LSI SandForce SF3700 flash controller family provides the increased levels of flash performance, reliability and endurance needed to meet the exacting needs of SSD manufacturers.

The SF3700 family is the industry's first flash controller that provides the flexibility to support both native PCIe Gen2 x4 and SATA 6 Gb/s host interfaces in a single ASIC design. This unique capability greatly simplifies SSD designs and helps to significantly reduce development and manufacturing costs for SSD makers.

The past year has seen a flurry of Thunderbolt related activity. Already present on every current Apple Mac, Thunderbolt has continued to grow within PC circles. And the Thunderbolt ecosystem responded, with over 100 Thunderbolt devices now shipping and available, most certified for both Mac and PC. Thunderbolt makes new experiences possible and developers are seeking to take advantage of Thunderbolt's key benefits, including simultaneous data and display transfer, with speeds of up to 10 Gbps, and daisy-chain connectivity of up to six devices. Building upon that foundation, the first Thunderbolt 2 systems were introduced in October this year, with speeds up to 20 Gbps, and support for the DisplayPort 1.2 protocol. Thunderbolt is clearly the fastest, most versatile connection to your PC.

Now we have a new announcement for you - an exciting new program to quickly expand the footprint of Thunderbolt for desktop and workstation users. This new initiative is called "Thunderbolt ready", and it enables PC manufacturers to offer Thunderbolt upgradeable motherboards within desktop and workstation computers. By using a Thunderbolt card, Thunderbolt's blazing fast speed and uncompressed video capabilities can now be added to any motherboard that includes a GPIO header (general purpose input/output header), so even if your system doesn't have Thunderbolt it is now possible to "upgrade" to it. Users that are interested in adding Thunderbolt 2 technology to an existing Thunderbolt ready system can combine a Thunderbolt card with a growing number of enabled motherboards, all identified by the use of the "Thunderbolt ready" moniker. The Thunderbolt ready program makes it simple to identify which components work together to upgrade your PC with Thunderbolt 2 capability.

ADATA Technology has announced its presence at the 6th annual Accelerating Innovation Summit (AIS 2013) as a gold sponsor. Responding to the latest industry and market needs, ADATA will display two potent solid state drive (SSD) offerings: the SX1000L server SSD and the company's groundbreaking PCIe based SSD solution. These storage systems are designed for both server applications, and for system integrators to effectively manage the rising data challenges faced by today's organizations and systems planners.

The SX1000L server SSD is a 2.5" form factor SATA 6Gb/sec solution that is provided with customized over-provisioning and high data compression efficiency. With the majority of data in enterprise environments being compressible, the SX1000L provides sustained performance, as well as superior endurance and reliability. Sequential read speeds reach 550 MB/sec, and sequential write is as high as 500 MB/sec, with IOPS of 75K and 45K (Maximum 4K random read and write, respectively).

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.

Sonnet today introduced the Tango 3.0 PCIe, a combination USB 3.0 and FireWire 800 PCIe adapter card. The Tango card provides users with a simple way to add USB 3.0 and FireWire 800 connectivity to Mac Pro and Windows computers with PCIe slots, and to Thunderbolt-to-PCI Express expansion chassis. This Sonnet adapter can run bus-powered devices such as hard drives through each of its ports, and it is also backward-compatible with USB 2.0 and FireWire 400 devices.

USB 3.0, which offers a tenfold increase in data transfer speeds over USB 2.0, has become a standard interface on Mac systems and most Windows PCs, as well as external storage devices. The iconic, but now discontinued, Mac Pro tower never included native USB 3.0 ports, and many perfectly functional PCs were built with only USB 2.0 ports. Therefore, users wanting to take advantage of the new fast interface have to rely on third-party expansion cards. The Sonnet adapter provides four USB 3.0 ports: two external USB 3.0 ports and a 20-pin header for two internal USB 3.0 ports. The internal ports support panel-mount connector kits (sold separately).

ASUS announced the GeForce GTX 760 DirectCU Mini (model: GTX760-DCMOC-2GD5). Practically identical in design and construction to the GTX 670 DirectCU Mini launched this April, the card swaps out the GTX 670 ASIC for a pin-compatible GTX 760. It is characterized by a 170 mm-long full-height PCB that's suited for space-constrained cases. The PCB features a 5-phase VRM that draws power from a single 8-pin PCIe power connector. The cooler features a vapor-chamber plate that draws heat from the GPU, dissipating it to a donut-shaped aluminium fin array, which is ventilated by a unique fan that combines top- and lateral-flow blades into a single impeller. The card sticks to NVIDIA-reference clock speeds of 980 MHz core, 1033 MHz GPU Boost, and 6.00 GHz memory. It is expected to be priced at US $299, a $50 premium over the reference design.

Mushkin, Inc., an industry-leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance and mission-critical computer products, announced today the global availability of the powerful and highly anticipated Scorpion Deluxe PCIe Solid-State Drive.

Built with a sleek black design, the Scorpion Deluxe PCIe SSD is a rising player that outpaces its competitors in speed and performance. The Scorpion -- equipped with Quad Sandforce SF-2281 and un-throttled IOPS -- clocks in at 2150 MB/s read and over 1900 MB/s write. All storage capacities of the Scorpion Deluxe PCIe SSD -- which include 240GB, 480GB, 960GB, and 1920GB -- will boast just over 100,000 4K read and write IOPS as well as 1 million hours MTBF with a 3-year warranty.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced that it will expand its Research & Development (R&D) Center in Orange County, California which is focused on enterprise development for the company's next-generation SSDs. The company has a current presence in the area and is moving to a new expanded Irvine R&D location.

"Orange County, California has a rich base of engineering talent covering semiconductors and storage that makes it a viable location for us to expand our design center," said James Tout, SVP of Global Engineering for OCZ Technology. "With a leading and widely recognized portfolio of SATA, SAS and PCIe-based solid-state solutions, we believe that the opening of our new OC-based design center will attract the professional resources and talent we need to create leading-edge, next-generation enterprise products for the storage industry."

OCZ Technology Group, a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, will showcase its latest solid state drive storage products at the 2013 Intel Developer Forum (IDF), September 10th through September 12th at Moscone Center, San Francisco. This event is an excellent opportunity for OCZ to connect with customers and partners using the latest Intel technology by demonstrating its complete portfolio of SSD solutions tailored for big data, cloud computing, and other enterprise applications.

Offering solutions for applications including virtualization, database, and cloud management, OCZ will display a comprehensive lineup of innovative products designed to solve performance, availability, and reliability roadblocks in IT infrastructures. OCZ will unveil the upcoming smaller form factor Z-Drive R4 PCIe SSD, featuring the same exceptional performance but with the ability to be deployed in a much greater range of platforms, including support for the Open Compute Project (OCP). The OCP Foundation is a growing community of engineers around the world whose mission is to design and enable the delivery of the most efficient server, storage, and data center hardware designs for scalable computing, and provides a structure in which individuals and organizations can share their intellectual property.

Plextor (www.plextor.com), leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance digital media and storage equipment, gave a sneak preview of the upcoming M6 Drive and M.2 form factor SSD solutions at the IFA show in Berlin.

Plextor M6 Series
The M6 is the anticipated successor to the Plextor M5 Series. The M6 is a 2,5", 5 mm solid state drive for the consumer market and is scheduled to come in the following versions: a version for the high performance segment, the Pro version; and a version to cater the needs of average computer users, the S version. The M6 features the next generation of Plextor's proprietary TrueSpeed technology that works in tandem with the Marvell 88SS9187 controller for enhanced performance and reliability.

In the swarming SSD market, what better way to blast your way from obscurity to worldwide attention, than launching a ludicrously fast SSD? KingSpec unveiled the MC2J677M1T, a PCI-Express SSD that's tested to be capable of sequential speeds as high as 2.5 GB/s (gigabytes per second). Pictured below, the drive is an almost full-height add-on card with PCI-Express 2.0 x8 bus interface. The card seats a high performance SATA 6 Gb/s RAID controller by LSI (under that fan-heatsink), which is wired to eight mSATA 6 Gb/s ports, holding the eight sub-units.

The eight mSATA SSD sub-units on the MC2J677M1T each hold 120 GB of data (totaling 960 GB). Each sub-unit runs a JMicron-made controller, Intel-made MLC NAND flash, and Nanya-made DRAM cache. The LSI RAID controller is designed to be plug-and-play, i.e., the drive is bootable, and you won't need an F6 driver during Windows installation to detect the drive. A quick ATTO benchmark run by TheSSDReview, which has one of these drives, yielded sequential read speeds well past 2,500 MB/s.

Diamond Multimedia has introduced the newest addition to their sound card collection, the Diamond Xtreme Sound 7.1 PCI-e Low Profile 24 Bit Record and Playback Internal Sound Card, model name: XS71HD. The high performance HD sound card improve Your Sound Experience for Gaming, Movies, Music and more in true 7.1 channel surround sound.

The Xtreme Sound 7.1 HD sound card provides theater quality sound, all in true 7.1 channel surround sound and support for 24bit 192KHz/96KHz/48KHz/44.1KHz playback and 24bit 192KHz/96KHz/48KHz/44.1KHz recording, anti-Pop protection circuitry, special effects including concert hall and more. The Xtreme Sound 7.1 HD sound card also includes a digital optical output, which provides a multichannel, pure digital, distortion-free signal that can be connected via a single optical digital cable, therefore eliminating multiple cable connections and guaranteeing high fidelity audio for your home theater experience.

Mushkin, Inc., an industry leading designer and manufacturer of high performance and mission critical computer products, has announced the company will be at the 2013 Flash Summit. The leading performance solutions manufacturer will be present at the AVANT Technologies booth and will be showing off the Scorpion Deluxe and Ventura Ultra for the first time.

"Participating in the Flash Summit is a great opportunity for us to show just what we are getting ready to release and how we continue to innovate. We are confident in the Scorpion Deluxe and Ventura Ultra, and there is no better way to express that than to display just how fast and powerful they are," said Nicolas Villalobos, Director of Global Marketing at Mushkin, Inc.

Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO), the industry consortium dedicated to sustaining the quality, integrity and dissemination of Serial ATA (SATA) technology, today announced the ratification of its revision 3.2 specification. The latest specification includes SATA Express, a new specification that enables the coexistence of SATA and PCIe storage devices, as well as enhancements in power management, new SATA form-factors, and optimizations for solid state hybrid drives (SSHDs).

"SATA technology continues to evolve to accommodate ever-changing storage industry requirements," said Mladen Luksic, SATA-IO President. "The updates featured in the revision 3.2 specification, such as SATA Express and enhancements for emerging solid state hybrid drives, are driven by current market trends. These new features demonstrate SATA-IO's ongoing commitment to providing low-cost, high-performance storage solutions."

Dutch power and cooling components maker Nexus announced the 2013-edition of its RX-8500 power supply (PSU). The PSU can deliver 850W of continuous power. Its efficiency is rated by the manufacturer at 85 percent, although it doesn't hold an 80 Plus certification. The PSU features partially-modular cabling, with the 24-pin ATX, 8-pin EPS, additional 4-pin CPU power, and a pair of 6+2 pin PCIe cables being fixed to the unit; while a second pair of 6+2 pin PCIe cables, two cables with three SATA connectors each, and two cables with one Berg and three Molex connectors each, are modular. The RX-8500 features active-PFC, a single 64A +12V rail design, a silence-prioritizing fan curve governing the 135 mm Nexus RealSilent fan, and standard protection mechanisms. Nexus didn't reveal pricing information.

MSI, the leading provider of industrial PC, has released a new embedded system to the market. The newly launched MS-9A29 is an ultra compact size fanless embedded system with low-power Intel Atom processor, offering a perfect cool solution for industrial applications. The versatile installation options of wall mounting, display-attaching, and cabinet installation allow the embedded system to be easily integrated in various field sites, especially fits to space-critical application sites. Great flexibility can also be found in this product with its rich networking, storage, and expansion options. Thanks to all the friendly design, the MS-9A29 offers great cost-effectiveness with maximum flexibility and convenience for your future maintenance or expansion.

While GIGABYTE's first motherboards based on Intel's new entry-level H81 Express chipset were mostly focused on small business PC builds, its latest one could lure HTPC builders. The new H81M-HD3 is built in the narrow micro-ATX (244 x 190 mm) form-factor as the other H81-based motherboards from the company, with a feature-set tuned for the living room. To begin with, the board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS connectors; the LGA1150 socket is powered by the same simple 2+1 phase VRM. The CPU socket is wired to two DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting up to 32 GB of dual-channel DDR3 memory; and a PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slot (as PCIe gen 3.0 is outside the platform's feature-set). A pair of legacy PCI slots and a PCI-Express 2.0 x1 make for the rest of the expansion area.

The H81 PCH gives out two each of SATA 6 Gb/s and SATA 3 Gb/s ports. With the help of an additional VLI-made USB 3.0 host controller, the board features a total of six USB 3.0 ports (four on the rear panel, two by header). Display connectivity includes dual-link DVI, D-Sub (VGA), DisplayPort, and HDMI. 8-channel HD audio with optical (TOSLINK) SPDIF output, driven by Realtek ALC892 CODEC; and gigabit Ethernet, driven by Realtek 8111F controller, make for the rest of the connectivity. COM and LPT ports are given out by headers. The board is driven by AMI Aptio UEFI BIOS, backed by GIGABYTE's dual-UEFI technology. We expect this one to go for around $60.

GIGABYTE announced its first socket LGA1150 motherboards based on Intel's new H81 Express chipset for entry-level desktop platforms, among the trio of H81-based motherboards launched today, are the H81M-DS2, H81M-D2V, and H81M-D3V. The three are based on a common compact micro-ATX PCB design measuring 226 x 170 mm, and differ with connectivity features. The H81 Express is basically B85 Express without SBA, and fewer SATA 6 Gb/s ports, and PCIe gen 2.0.

The H81M-DS2 has a focus on legacy connectivity, which could go well with POS (that's point-of-sale, but we won't disagree with what you made out) PCs that are wired to old LPT printers. Its legacy ports include an LPT parallel port, an RS232 COM serial port, separate PS/2 ports for mouse and keyboard. Its lone display output is a D-Sub (VGA). The H81M-D2V sheds LPT while retaining a the RS232 COM port, and a slightly more modern display connectivity that includes D-Sub (VGA) and DVI. It features a single, common PS/2 connector. The H81M-D3V has the least legacy connectivity, with just DVI and D-Sub for display outputs, no rear-panel COM or LPT ports, and a common PS/2 connector.