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.

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!

WD, a Western Digital company and a world leader in storage solutions for the connected life, today expanded its recently introduced My Cloud family of personal cloud solutions with My Cloud EX4, a high-performance four-bay network attached storage (NAS) solution for creative professionals, prosumers, workgroups and anyone looking for a reliable way to save, share, back up, stream and manage massive amounts of digital data.

"The reception for our recently introduced My Cloud personal cloud platform was extremely positive," said Jim Welsh, executive vice president and general manager of WD's branded products and consumer electronics groups. "Our single drive My Cloud system is the perfect solution for users that want an easy and private way to store all of their data at home and then share, save and manage it from anywhere in the world, on any device. Expanding our My Cloud platform to a four-bay system delivers the advanced features, customization capability and capacity that many of our customers are looking for."

In addition to readying the RUF3-PW Series flash drives, Buffalo is also set to introduce a speedy new external drive that uses Thunderbolt connectivity, the SSD-WAT Series. Suited for video editing and other intensive work, the upcoming drive measures 154 x 102 x 45 mm, it weighs 540 grams, has an aluminum chassis, active cooling, and it packs two solid state drives set in RAID0 which enable speeds of up to 763 MB/s. The drive includes two Thunderbolt (10 Gbps) ports to allow daisy chaining of up to six devices.

The SSD-WAT Series drive will ship in 256 GB (78,015 yen / ~ 790 USD), 512 GB (111,615 yen / ~ 1,131 USD) and 1 TB (189,000 yen / ~ 1,916 USD) capacities.

Lenovo today announced, at the EDUCAUSE annual conference here, two new performance-optimized rack servers, the ThinkServer RD540 and ThinkServer RD640. Armed with the latest Intel Xeon E5 processors, these highly efficient and flexible servers are designed for easy integration into existing IT infrastructures that handle demanding virtualization, cloud and compute-intensive workloads.

Lenovo's ThinkServer RD540 and RD640 are an ideal choice for educational institutions seeking affordable options that pack a punch. The RD540 and RD640 provide the performance, security and reliability needed to support large university workloads and operations. When optionally equipped with Stoneware's webNetwork software, school administrators, students and staff can access data, applications and services from a multitude of devices and platforms using just a browser. With low price points, built-in redundancy, high reliability components and sophisticated cooling technology, the RD540 and RD640 deliver outstanding value for higher education.

Synology Inc. today launched the DiskStation DS214, a feature-rich 2-bay NAS server that delivers an optimal price-to-performance solution to share and protect data.

"The introduction of DS214 continues Synology's dedication to create intuitive and efficient storage solutions to satisfy the demands of our beloved users," said Chad Chiang, product manager at Synology Inc. The DS214 is built to deliver optimal multi-tasking experience at best price/performance ratio. Powered by a dual core 1.066 GHz CPU and 512 MB DDR3 memory, the DS214 outperforms its predecessor and delivers an average read and write speed of 111 MB/sec and 105 MB/sec respectively under RAID 1 configuration in a Windows environment.

ASUSTOR Inc., a leading innovator and provider of network storage solutions, has announced the launch of its brand new AS 2 series network attached storage (NAS) targeted at personal and home users. The series is further divided into 2 sub-series: the AS-20XT series (AS-202T/AS-204T) designed to give users the essentials for creating a personal cloud and the AS-20XTE series (AS-202TE/AS-204TE) designed to give users both personal cloud and digital entertainment functionality. Offering both high quality and functionality at an economical price, the 2 series not only was designed to meet the needs of consumers but is also a great entry level product for users who are using a NAS for the first time.

"In order to meet the diverse needs of individual and SOHO users, ASUSTOR has launched the economical 2 series featuring powerful Intel dual core processors that ensure for reliable, top-notch performance," said Allen Yen, Sales Director at ASUSTOR. "The 2 series provides customers with a great value at an extremely competitive price point which significantly lowers the barriers to an entry level NAS."

Other World Computing (OWC) www.macsales.com, the world's leading destination for cutting-edge and easy-to-install Mac and PC upgrades and accessories, has expanded its Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini portable hardware-RAID storage product line with two new 3.0 TB models, available as 3.0 TB RAID-1 (for robust data protection) or 3.0 TB RAID-0 (for maximum performance).

What it does: This bus-powered (no AC adapter is required) unit stores a tremendous amount of data safely using RAID technology, or even more data with super-fast access. Featuring hardware RAID-1 (mirrored) redundancy for data protection or RAID-0 (striped) for maximum throughput, the Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini contains two 2.5" hard drives or OWC Mercury Electra 6G SSDs for up to 3.0 TB of capacity. A "quad interface" of FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0, and eSATA connections delivers data transfer speeds of up to 300 MB/s with Mac and PC computers.

PROMISE Technology, Inc. announced today that they will be demonstrating at Intel's Developer Forum (IDF) the next generation Pegasus2 Series with Thunderbolt 2 Technology. PROMISE shipped the world's first storage solutions with the original Thunderbolt technology and continues its track-record as a leading innovator of storage solutions for the rich media space with the new Pegasus2 Series.

Thunderbolt technology is an enormous enabler for video with its exceptional performance and bandwidth, and Thunderbolt 2 further embraces the growing 4K applications in media and entertainment, mobility and computing. Running bi-directionally at 20 Gbps, double the bandwidth of Thunderbolt, Thunderbolt 2 is a breakthrough for video creators as it enables simultaneous 4K video file transfer and display. The advancement in bandwidth will enable professionals to edit and view live 4K streams while backing up the same file to a Pegasus2 system, all with the same cables and connectors as the previous generation.

Addonics Technologies today unveiled the Sapphire Snap-In Disk Array, a high performance external storage device family that is easily expandable with RAID capability. The Sapphire Disk Array is a great portable storage solution for a wide range of applications that demand high performance and large amount of storage in the field.

The new product comes in a choice of models equipped with different interfaces for fast external storage performance via an eSATA, SuperSpeed USB 3.0, or a mini SAS connection. The Sapphire Disk Array allows users to hot swap up to four SATA 2.5-inch hard drives, SDDs, just like using a tape cassette. The four drives can be set up as four individual drives or a large volume and high performance RAID group with redundancy for reliability. On the model that comes with USB 3.0 connections, the four drives can also be instantly turned into a network attached storage (NAS) solution for sharing data over the network by attaching to the optional Addonics NAS 4.0 adapter.

HighPoint unveils Hardware RAID Solutions for Storage Applications that require Point-To-Point connectivity and 6Gb/s transfer performance. One size does not always fit all - the demand for cost-effective direct-attached hardware RAID solutions is now stronger than ever before. SAS-based hardware RAID remains the solution of choice, but the high-cost of entry, and a feature set that favors expansive storage configurations is often at odds with the needs of SMB's and media professionals. Why pay SAS prices for applications that depend on SATA Storage?

Many SMB's are faced with the following dilemma - I/O intensive applications that require the consistent performance and security only hardware RAID can provide, but faced with the sky-high costs associated with conventional SAS-based host-RAID solutions. Again, the question arises: why invest in costly SAS storage and expansion hardware when the target application's is satisfied with direct-attached, point-to-point solution? Today's 6Gb/s SATA storage devices deliver the capacity, performance and reliability necessary to meet the demands of a growing range of professional storage applications, such as HD video editing and post production, video streaming, SMB servers and media workstations. HighPoint understands the needs of this market, and has unveiled a new HBA series that addresses this problem - affordable 6Gb/s hardware RAID solutions: the RocketRAID 362x HBA series.

Eurocom has expanded the storage capacity and custom options of the Panther line of Mobile Workstations with the addition of the highest storage density hard disk drive for mobile products. The 6 TB of RAID 0/1/5/10 storage is accomplished with four 1.5 TB HGST Travelstar 5k1500 SATA 6 Gb/s storage drives.

"Eurocom understands that modern professionals are requiring larger and larger storage capacity, running heavy duty applications such as Autodesk and Solidworks, that is why we are now offering the 1.5 TB HGST Travelstar 5k1500 to our clients, on top of high performance, high endurance enterprise level solid state storage options, such as Intel DC S3500 and DC S3700 with HET. At the same time there is a requirement for redundancy and performance that we offer through RAID 0/1/5/10 support." Mark Bialic, Eurocom President.

Who says that a top-of-the-line gaming notebook has to weigh a ton? Not MSI. Marvel at our newest feather-light GS70 Stealth gaming notebook. Measuring less than 2.18 centimeters thick, the GS70 is the industry's thinnest 17" gaming notebook powerhouse. At just 2.65 kilograms, the GS70 is even lighter than most 15.6" models, so you can conveniently take the action anywhere. With a big 17.3" Full HD monitor packed into a sleek 21.8 millimeters, this gaming platform is equipped with a long-lasting, high-capacity battery that can power nearly four hours of video.

We also beat the heat with our two channel cooling system design. Take your game on the road without worrying about your battery life or overheating. Now with that attention to detail, how could we possibly neglect the excitement of in-game video? The MSI GS70 Stealth, exclusively equipped with the newest Steelseries backlit keyboard, also features 2.1 channel surround sound that rivals most home entertainment systems. Even when wearing headphones, you can enjoy awesome 5.1 channel audio. Gamers are bound to appreciate the bright colorful visuals and booming audio experience exclusively available on the GS70 Stealth.

Buffalo Technology, a global leader in the design, development and manufacturing of wired and wireless networking and network and direct attached storage solutions, today announced the availability of the TeraStation 3000 Series of high performance NAS and iSCSI unified storage. The new TeraStation 3000 Series delivers a feature-rich solution ideal for small offices and professional users requiring cost-effective network storage to easily share and safeguard assets with the reliability of RAID data protection.

Comprised of two four-drive configurations, including a 1U rack mount, and capacities from 4 TB - 16 TB, the TeraStation 3000 offers high-performance RAID-based network storage, powered by a dual-core ARM processor and 1 GB of installed DDR3 RAM for high performance and efficiency. It offers complete data protection with available real-time replication and 10 licenses of NovaBACKUP Business Essentials software for Windows devices.

Motherboards running C2-stepping Intel 8-series chipsets should begin surfacing on the market in September 2013, according to a DigiTimes report. The C2-stepping addresses a design flaw in the 8-series chipset's integrated USB 3.0 host controllers, which causes connected devices to improperly reinitialize after the system resumes from a sleep state such as S3 (suspend-to-RAM), forcing users to unplug and replug such devices; which can particularly be an irritant for people running USB 3.0 external RAID boxes.

The USB 3.0 erratum came to public light a bit too late for Intel to delay the June launch of its 4th generation Core "Haswell" processors platform. By the time it emerged that Intel was working on the C2-stepping, production of socket LGA1150 motherboards were already on full-swing, and at the time it was predicted that motherboards with the rectified chipsets would fill up inventory by late-Q3 or early-Q4, 2013. This update point out at September checks out.

ASUSTOR Inc., a leading innovator and provider of network storage solutions, has announced the launch of its brand new AS 3 Series Network Attached Storage (NAS). The AS 3 Series NAS devices feature powerful multimedia applications including support for 1080p high definition video playback and are the first devices in its class to come equipped with Intel Atom 1.6 GHz dual-core processors along with 1 GB of DDR3 memory. The devices in this new series consist of the 2-bay AS-302T model and the 4-bay AS-304T model. All devices boast a wealth of power saving features including internal and external disk hibernation, Night Mode and System Sleep Mode (S3). During System Sleep Mode, only 0.8 W of power is consumed, helping users to save a significant amount of energy.

With respect to hardware, the AS 3 Series was designed with multimedia and home cloud server applications in mind. In addition to its HDMI interface inherited from ASUSTOR's AS 6 Series, the AS 3 Series features an infrared receiver and 3.5 mm audio jack giving users added convenience and flexibility for multimedia applications. After installing the XBMC multimedia player App from ASUSTOR's App Central, users will be able to use the HDMI interface to play audio and video from the NAS directly to any HDMI ready display. Further pairing XBMC with the ASUSTOR remote control (optional purchase) will allow users to freely and conveniently control all multimedia playback from their NAS. Additionally, users are also free to play the music they have stored on their NAS by connecting it to USB speakers, utilizing the audio jack or connecting the NAS to an amplifier via HDMI.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) and power management solutions for computing devices and systems today announces selected preliminary financial results for the first quarter ended May 31, 2013, subject to customary closing and audit procedures.
Preliminary revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2014 is estimated to be between $50 and $55 million. The sequential decrease in revenue was primarily due to the continued tight supply of NAND flash. The Company's revenue mix continued to shift towards the mainstream and higher-end client markets, as well as enterprise and OEM solutions as the Company continued to focus on these end markets. At the end of the quarter there was an additional $23 million of shippable backlog that was unrealized in the quarter due to supply constraints.

Gross margin continued to improve and is estimated to be between 17% and 20% for the first fiscal quarter as revenue generated from our Enterprise solutions increased sequentially. The Company continued to reduce its operating expenses by further reducing non critical spending. The Company's break-even level continues to improve due to these actions. Operating expenses for the first quarter are estimated to be between $20 and $22 million, which include restatement related expenses of approximately $1.5 million and stock compensation charges of approximately $2 million. Cash flow improved as we reduced our quarterly cash usage to approximately $6 million in the quarter. Cash ended the quarter between $6 and $7 million with total debt outstanding of $10 million. The Company expects that it will require access to additional capital which it is currently in the process of securing.

WD, a Western Digital company and world leader in digital storage solutions, today unveiled the fourth generation of WD Arkeia network backup appliances, delivering an all-in-one backup and disaster recovery solution for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The new line up consists of four rack-mount appliance models with larger internal disk capacities, faster processors, increased memory, and integrated solid state drives (SSDs) to shorten backup time and accelerate data recovery. The bundled WD Arkeia v10.1 software delivers new support for "seed and feed" technology to support hybrid cloud backups. This allows companies to move backups offsite via network replication rather than shipment of tapes.

"In announcing their fourth generation of purpose-built network backup appliances, WD Arkeia is delivering comprehensive SMB backup solutions that go beyond simple raw capacity increases," said Liz Conner, senior research analyst, IDC. "WD Arkeia offers easy-to-use data protection that takes the guess work out of purchasing, configuring and managing data backup & recovery, while also embedding features such as deduplication and hybrid cloud backup for small- and medium-sized businesses or remote offices."

HighPoint, an industry leading Storage HBA and solutions manufacturer, has launched a new selection of cost-effective hardware RAID HBA's for PC and Mac Platforms - the RocketRAID 362x series. HighPoint's newest class of SATA RAID HBA's, the RocketRAID 362x series, represent the industry's most cost-effective 6Gb/s Hardware RAID Solution. RocketRAID 362x HBA's are ideal for large-scale configurations of 6Gb/s SATA hard drives, and were designed specifically for I/O intensive business and media applications that require a superior level of reliability, data redundancy, and consistent transfer rates.

RocketRAID 362x HBA's utilize a dedicated RAID-on-Chip processor and 512MB of DDR3 cache, which offload RAID-related processing from the host system, freeing up valuable resources and ensuring consistent, high-speed data transfer. A comprehensive management suite delivers a wide-selection of storage monitoring, maintenance and recovery features to help secure mission critical data from the risks of hardware failure. The dual Mini-SAS ports deliver true, uncompromised 6Gb/s transfer bandwidth for each of the 8 device channels. HighPoint's industry proven RAID architecture maintains reliable, high-speed transfers, even if the RAID configuration is degraded or in recovery mode.

Introducing the FlexCage MB975SP-B, a 5-in-3 Tray-less SATA 6Gbps HDD Cage for 3.5" SATA hard drives. The FlexCage focuses on maximizing storage density, while using the least amount of 5.25" device bays possible. To complement the device, the FlexCage uses features such as: Elegant plug & play Tray-less design, replaceable 80mm cooling fan, 3 speed fan control with Smart Cooling Technology, and full control of your drive with individual power buttons. With a large density of drive storage, it can be used in consumer, enthusiast, and system integrator systems that hot swap drives frequently. The FlexCage is compatible with most gaming / media / server computer cases, and it is perfect for file server application such as unRAID, Windows home server and others.

The MB975SP-B is designed to maximize space use by allowing up to 5 x 3.5" SATA III hard drives, while only consuming 3 x 5.25" device bays. The FlexCage also only requires three 15-pin power ports to power up to five 3.5" hard drives. Last but not least, the FlexCage is equipped with our proven tray-less technology - no screws or tools are necessary to insert or eject the drives, making hot swapping a completely hassle free experience.

WD, a Western Digital company and world leader for storage deployed in datacenters, today announced availability of its innovative WD Se line of hard drives, the first designed for scale-out datacenter deployments. Built on an enterprise-grade platform for reliable 24x7x365 datacenter operation, WD Se is tailored to deliver the right combination of performance, reliability and robustness for large-scale replicated environments, mid-sized network attached storage (NAS) deployment, and backup/archiving applications.

WD Se is a true enterprise-class drive with the right blend of affordability and capabilities to address the massive growth of semi-structured data, which is accelerating the scale-out of datacenters of all sizes. Now shipping in capacities up to 4 TB, the new WD Se hard drives enables customers to balance their data growth challenges in multi-drive enclosures without compromising enterprise-class features.

Other World Computing (OWC), a leading zero emissions Mac, and PC technology company, announced today that its OWC Mercury Elite Pro Qx2 Hardware RAID data storage/backup solution supports USB 3.0 'SuperSpeed' performance when paired with the Newer Technology eSATA to USB 3.0 Adapter. The adapter, which utilizes an available eSATA drive port, offers a Plug and Play connection to USB 3.0-equipped Macs or PCs for real-world sustained data transfer rates of more than 200MB/s from the Qx2 to meet the needs of demanding performance-intensive professional applications such as Audio/Video editing, HD-video, digital photography, professional music, graphics, redundant backup, and any use requiring data storage performance and reliability.

Synology America Corp. announces the release of the DS213j, the latest in their line of affordable, energy-efficient, dual bay NAS devices. Serving up advanced storage for the home user, the DS213j is the ideal companion for users who want complete control over their cloud-accessible content. Powered by a 1.2Ghz processor with an integrated FPU, the DS213j can generate multi-sized thumbnail images faster than its predecessor. The unit also includes 512MB of RAM; furthering overall performance when running multiple applications. The DS213j takes advantage of Synology's DiskStation Manager (DSM 4.2). With DSM, the DS213j makes features and accessibility easily available to users.

Advantech, a global embedded platform manufacturer, today unveiled the new ASMB-822I server-grade motherboard powered by Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 family technology. This new technology comprises 64-bit multi-core processors, PCI Express Gen3 high speed communications, and DDR3 memory with total capacity up to 96GB. ASMB-822I is perfect designed for high performance demands such as NVR, DVR and also target to video wall, video conferencing, surveillance and other mission-critical applications.

"Advantech is committed to providing a full spectrum of embedded systems with advanced and intelligent built-in technology, from fanless and ruggedized to high-performance solutions," said Linda Tsai,Director of Advantech Embedded Systems Group. The ASMB-822I is an ATX server board equipped with LGA 2011 Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 series and Intel C602J series chipset. It supports six DDR3 registered DIMM slots for a 96 GB total capacity and dual GbE LANs using Intel controllers.

Other World Computing (OWC), a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, today introduced the OWC Mercury Helios+E2 Thunderbolt SSD Solution. The bootable 'all-in-one' storage performance and expansion solution offers owners of Thunderbolt technology enabled Macs and PCs sustained read/write data throughput up to 617MB/s from up to 960GB of OWC Mercury SSD capacity; two Thunderbolt interfaces for connecting multiple Thunderbolt devices; and two eSATA 6Gb/s expansion ports for connecting up to an additional 32TB or more of external storage/backup capacity.