Flash memory expert PhotoFast expanded its line of ultra-high performance SSDs with the GMonster3 XV2 series, which are based on the 2.5-inch SATA form-factor, making use of SATA 6 Gb/s interface. The drives use a Marvell-made controller, which combined with MLC NAND flash chips, churns out transfer rates of up to 500 MB/s read and 450 MB/s write. The drive supports the TRIM garbage-collection feature that keeps write performance up to the mark at all times. Available in capacities of 64 GB, 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB; the GMonster3 XV2 drives will be priced at $110, $200, $400 and $800, respectively, when initially released in Japan, later this year in April.

PhotoFast is working on yet another monster SSD, this time one that uses the PCI-Express x8 interface (fits inside x16 slots), the GMonster PowerDrive-LSI. As the name suggests, some of the drive's chippery (such as storage controller) is made by LSI, which runs an internal (abstract to OS) RAID a number of SSD modules. If 2 GT/s interface was any indication of the drive's speeds, then here goes: 1,400 MB/s read; 1,500 MB/s write. The controller has its own 512 MB of dedicated DDR2 memory. The GMonster PowerDrive-LSI comes in capacities of 240 GB, 480 GB, and 960 GB. It has a rated MTBF of 1.5 million hours. It is slated for next month. Once again, PhotoFast did not give out pricing.

Flash-memory expert PhotoFast is releasing its fastest SATA solid state drive (SSD) series, the GMonster 3X V1. Based on a new controller, the drive supports SATA 6 Gb/s interface, and significantly relies on the higher interface bandwidth. These drives carry read speeds of up to 430 MB/s, writing at up to 300 MB/s. Available in 64 GB, 128 GB, and 256 GB variants, these drives have different read/write speeds: the 64 GB model reads/writes at up to 370/120 MB/s, the 128 GB model at 410/190 MB/s, with the 256 GB model running full throttle at 430/300 MB/s. The controller makes full use of the NAND flash memory installed as data-area, while it has its own 128 MB DDR3 memory to carry out its tasks and use as cache. Aimed at consumers, these drives carry MTBF of 1.5 million hours. October is when these will hit the shelves, though prices have not been announced yet.

PhotoFast Global Inc. a pioneer in creative, high quality and extreme performance flash-based storage manufacturer, today revealed its new line up of USB 3.0 accessories. Relied the new standard and host controller introduced to the market, PhotoFast demand to bring even higher transfer rates to meet the bottleneck where every user has experienced before.

Upgrade market has always been a major concern to PhotoFast. Several series of products has been developed to fulfill the demands of these users. A full line of 1.8" PATA SSD and adaptors are available that would enable the aged laptops to fast response and shock resistance.

SSD and flash memory specialists PhotoFast developed what they call the GBox mini, an adapter that converts USB 3.0 to SATA. The adapter connects to the host with a USB 3.0 connector (for data and power), and an additional USB 2.0 (purely for power). The two connectors share the same cable so clutter is minimized. On its other end, the adapter has a SATA connector with both data and power ports. It can connect to any SATA HDD, SSD, or optical drive. Although the USB 3.0 interface has a generous maximum bandwidth of 4.8 Gb/s, the device has transfer speeds of up to 128 MB/s (SATA device to system) and 96 MB/s (system to SATA device). The GBox mini comes with a copy of DriveClone 7 Pro software bundled, necessary cable, and is expected to be priced at US $22, when it hits the Japanese markets next month.

PhotoFast, known for everything 'flash memory' in the IT world, is ready with an innovative USB stick, only this one is a 4-slot MicroSD and MicroSDHC card reader called the CR-5500. On one of its sides, the four slots tiny slots are located, which allow easy removal of the memory cards. The devices takes data from the four cards and creates a JBOD (just a bunch of disks) volume. Using four of the highest capacity MicroSDHC cards, the drive can provide 64 GB of storage (16 GB from each card). A cap covers the USB 2.0 interface. The entire unit is slightly bigger than the average USB flash stick, though not too big for a device with up to 64 GB of storage. It is priced at US around $64, package does not include memory cards. It is expected to ship in January.

PhotoFast announced three new solid state drives in the 1.8 inch form-factor. All three use IDE interfaces, and hence are ideal for consumer electronics such as PMPs, video cameras, etc. The new series these come under is the G-Monster V4. The drives offer capacities ranged between 32 and 256 GB (probably including 64 GB and 128 GB models along the way), and are characterized by the interface type: 40-pin ZIF, 44-pin IDE, and 50-pin IDE. All three feature MLC NAND flash chips, with 64 MB DRAM memory for the NAND flash controller. The controller offers a "Built-in Garbage Collection" feature that clears deleted data, relocating existing data onto its area. In this way, data fragmentation is reduced. The read-write speeds on offer are 128/90 MB/s, respectively.

Quick-draw Flash storage specialist PhotoFast introduced mini SATA flash drives (essentially compact SATA SSDs that plug into the connectors). The G-Monster mini-SATA and G-Monster mini-DOM drives are about as big as cartridges of retro portable game consoles, measuring 45 x 37 x 7.5 mm and weighing 10 g. They come in capacities of 32 and 64 GB, and offer reasonably good transfer rates at 110 MB/s (read) and 60 MB/s (write). With the standard arrangement of SATA data and power connectors, the G-Monster mini-SATA should plug into any SATA drive docks/enclosures. Apart from being a portable storage medium, it can also be tucked away as a system drive for a NAS server. The G-Monster mini-DOM on the other hand, can plug directly into one of the motherboard's SATA ports, and draw power using its 5V adapter. The two will hit shelves in October. Pictured below are (in order) G-Monster mini-SATA and G-Monster mini-DOM.

PhotoFast's solid-state drive (SSD) development has been on a roll in the last year or so. The company has been coming up with new SSD designs on a regular basis. Its latest doing is the G-Monster "Quad-Drive". Simply put, this SSD encloses four PhotoFast CFast (compact-flash derived standard) cards driven by a JMicron RAID controller, which then connects to the host machine over standard SATA II interface, and is seen as a single drive. Internally, the controller lets you configure the cards in RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, and JBOD modes. With the default configuration, the drive boasts of speeds of up to 250 MB/s read, and 170 MB/s write. Its price is yet to be known, as the product is on its way to the markets.

Solid-state drive specialist PhotoFast innovated an easy RAID builder solution, which doesn't boast of being an expansion card, and doesn't require additional drivers from the OS. The G-Monster Evolution "Simple RAID Adapter", is a small orange PCB with SATA II and power input on one side, and two sets of SATA II data and power connections on the other. Users can connect two hard drives or SSDs to the device, and connect the device like any other hard drive, to the computer's storage controller. The RAID array the device builds using the member drives connected to it, remains abstract to the host machine, which sees it as a single hard-drive. The G-Monster Evolution supports RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID JBOD modes, with maximum transfer rates of 270 MB/s for both read and write. RAID modes are configurable with the bundled software. One limitation of this device is that it does not support SSDs that have internal RAID 0 connections between two or more sets of NAND flash memory. This is perhaps because the device uses the same controller, or at least the basic design, that goes into making SSDs with internal RAID connections. Popular SSDs of this type (incompatible with this device) include PhotoFast G-Monster V2, Patriot Warp V3, OCZ Apex, and G.Skill Titan. Its availability and pricing are yet to be known.

Photofast is on a roll with its G-Monster series solid-state storage, with product launches on a monthly basis. This time around, the company is readying two products that are unique in their own ways. First up, is the G-Monster-3.5, the company's first SSD in the standard 3.5" form-factor. The drive uses internal RAID to achieve high-capacities. While most other SSD manufacturers would simply stripe two SSD modules in internal RAID 0 configurations, Photofast used an internal RAID 5 configuration that ups reliability. The array is completely abstract to the host machine, which only sees it as a single drive. The drive uses a standard SATA II interface. It comes in capacities of 64, 128, 256, 512 GB, and 1, 2 TB. As far as its performance goes, the company rates the read/write speeds around 270 MB/s. The drive will be backed by a one-year warranty.

Next up, is the G-Monster ExpressCard/54 SSD. This drive serves the purpose of expandable, removable storage for notebooks, that performs on par or faster than the hard-drive. The card comes in the standard 54 mm ExpressCard form-factor. It can function in both PCI-Express and USB 2.0 modes for the slot. When in PCI-Express mode, the drive provides stellar read/write speeds of 170/100 MB/s, and in USB 2.0 mode, 36/30 MB/s. It comes in 32, 48, and 64 GB variants, and boasts of 1.5 million hours MTBF. It will be backed by a standard one-year warranty. There is no word on the pricing and availability.

PhotoFast unveiled yet another 1.8-inch SSD, this time, compliant with more recent standards. The new G-Monster V3 uses a micro-SATA interface, that is available on some netbooks. Apart from its main NAND-flash storage, that comes in capacities of 32, 64, and 128 GB, it also features 64 MB of DDR2 memory to serve as a high speed buffer. The buffer ensures latency reduction on the host controller's side, especially since the drive offers high data transfer rates of 230/180 MBps (read/write). This may yet another product lined up for launch at Computex.

Although it barely introduced the G-Monster V2 drives, PhotoFast is already planning on letting loose the V3 line-up of 1.8-inch SSDs. Set to be unveiled at the Computex show next month, the V3 will be available in 32 and 64GB capacities, have 64MB of built-in cache memory and come in three flavors - with 40-pin ZIF, 44-pin IDE or 50-pin IDE connectors.

PhotoFast hasn't provided any read/write speed estimates for the drives. Pricing is unknown at this moment in time.

PhotoFast announced two 1.8-inch IDE solid-state drives under its G-Monster series. The two are demarcated by the interface, although both are IDE technically. The G-Monster 50 IDE V2 uses a 50-pin IDE interface, while the G-Monster 1.8" ZIF V2 uses a zero insertion-force IDE interface that's commonly found in portable devices such as PMPs, HD video cameras, etc. Both come in capacities of 32, 64, 128 GB, and offer transfer rates of 80/50 MB/s (read/write). The drives offer an MTBF of 1 million hours and are backed by a 1 year company warranty. Although there isn't anything spectacular about SSDs with sub-100 MB/s transfer-rates with the IDE interface, the durability of the drives over conventional hard-drives, especially for the kind of devices they end up in, may be their biggest selling points.

Japanese storage specialist, famed for its recent 1000 MB/s G-Monster Promise SSD Card is on the prowl with what looks like an entry-level notebook SSD that offers some of the core advantages of solid-state storage along with legacy compatibility. The Photofast G-Monster 1.8" IDE V2 is exactly what its name carries: a 1.8-inch SSD with the IDE interface. The speeds it offers can be easily matched by a high-end conventional hard-drive in its form-factor, 85 MB/s sequential read, and 50 MB/s sequential write, though its USP isn't exactly its speed: it is that of portability, much better shock-resistance against conventional hard drives, and the lower access time flash-based storage offers. It comes with a capacity of 128 GB, and a MTBF of 1 million hours. The drive is backed by the company's 1-year warranty. Its price isn't known just yet. Detailed specifications can be read here.

Recently there has been a boom in production of PCI-Express SSD cards. The cards offer fast storage by coupling arrays of SSDs across dedicated storage controllers to achieve high bandwidths. With market-heavyweights such as OCZ in the ring, this little class of storage products is here to stay. Fresh out with its first G-Monster PCI-E SSD that offers godly read/write speeds of 750/700 MB/s, Photofast is looking to push the bandwidth envelope with the G-Monster Promise. This SSD card "promises" bandwidth that scrapes the 1 GB/s mark, a significant milestone for fixed-storage.

The 3+ slot monstrosity packs 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, or even 1 TB of data. It uses MLC NAND-flash chips, along with a storage controller that has 256 MB of dedicated ECC DDR2 memory. The controller uses PCI-Express x8 to connect to its host. The device assures 2.5 million hours of MTBF, and read/write speeds of 1000 MB/s. All of this comes at a price, US $1616 for the 128 GB variant, $2002 for 256 GB, $3015 for 512 GB, and $4534 for 1 TB, in Japan, where it will start selling later this month.

PhotoFast is readying two new additions to its solid state drive lineup, with the G-Monster V2 series SSDs. These drives brandish high-performance and capacities by standards of SSDs. The two drives, models PF25S128GSSDV2 and PF25S256GSSDV2 come with capacities of 128 GB and 256 GB respectively. The drives offer read speeds up to 230 MB/s and 160 MB/s writes. They use the standard SATA II interface. The drives support all major operating systems, and sport durability in the form of a high MTBF of 2.5 million hours. The company is expected to start shipping these SSDs by the end of this year.