QNAP Systems, Inc. today announced that its latest business-class, 2U rackmount TS-x70 series Turbo NAS start shipping now. The new generation TS-x70 series, including the 12-bay TS-1270U-RP and the 8-bay TS-870U-RP, are aiming to offer the business users a superb high-performance yet budget-friendly NAS solution to smooth daily file operations with low total cost of ownership. The models fulfill various business applications including high speed backup, server virtualization, iSCSI IP-SAN, video storage and centralized shared storage, and outstand as an affordable 10GbE ready NAS.

Powered by a high performance Dual-core Intel 2.4GHz processor, the new TS-x70 series are equipped with 4GB DDR3 RAM, which can be upgraded to 16GB optionally. The dual USB 3.0 ports allow high-speed server data backup. Featuring 10GbE re ady, the TS-x70 series provide dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, which can be expanded up to six Gigabit Ethernet ports, or four 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports plus two Gigabit Ethernet ports, benefit in aggregating and boosting network performance. "The TS-x70 series are proficient to fulfill mission-critical storage needs of small and medium businesses with maximum system uptime," said David Tsao, product manager of QNAP. "The 10GbE network expansion options can satisfy high-speed data transmission required in the business environment," added Tsao.

NAXN series have been entry-level products of Enermax for several years. In the competitive global market, it wins all the battles and becomes unbeatable. Not only 80plus series for beginners, but also Bronze and Gold series for DIY enthusiasts, NAXN series can perfectly satisfy various demands from all groups. In 2013, in order to go further and reflect users' opinions, Enermax launches NAXN ADV certified by 80plus Bronze. Except for original premium NAXN DNA, Enermax adds in more mainstream features.

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of NAND Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, announces its updated mSATA 3 SSD drive. Super Talent's mSATA 3 boasts read speeds up to 550 MB/s and write speeds up to 500 MB/s. This mSATA SSD can be installed into tablets and netbooks using an mSATA form factor and the SATA III interface is backwards compatible with previous versions. This drive also has a mean time before failure (MTBF) of over 2 million hours, which is over 200 years of around the clock use.

Introducing the FlexCage MB974SP-2B, a 4-in-3 Tray-less SATA 6Gbps HDD Cage for 3.5" SATA hard drives. The FlexCage brings enthusiast preferred features such as: plug & play Tray-less design, replaceable 80mm cooling fan, 3 speed fan control with Smart Cooling Technology, integrated USB 3.0 hub, and full control of your drive with individual childproof power buttons. It is designed to be used in consumer and enthusiast systems such as, gaming / media computer cases, and home servers that hot swap frequently.

The MB974SP-2B is designed to maximize space use by allowing up to 4 x 3.5" SATA 6Gbps hard drives, while only consuming three 5.25" device bays. The FlexCage also only requires two 15-pin power ports to power up to four 3.5" hard drives. The FlexCage is equipped with our renowned tray-less technology - no screws or tools are necessary to insert or eject the drives, making hot swapping a completely hassle free experience.

Lian-Li's sole micro-ATX exhibit at CES is the PC-A02. The all-aluminum monolith is characterized by a thin line of perforation along its front panel. Measuring 188 x 460 x 386 mm (WxHxD), it features room for a 5.25-inch drive, three 3.5-inch drives, and a 2.5-inch one. There's just the one drive cage to hold internal drives, and hence room for add-on cards as long as 33 cm is created. Its lone cooling fan is a 120 mm front-intake. Its feature-rich front-panel (located on the top) features four USB 3.0 ports (standard header), an eSATA port, and HD audio jacks.

Mushkin's Scorpion line of PCI-Express SSDs, which made for good show at last year's CES, made a comeback with this year's, albeit with a design overhaul. To begin with, while last year's Scorpion featured a PCI-Express 2.0 x4 host interface, this year's Scorpion uses a newer controller, with double the host interface bandwidth, at PCI-Express 2.0 x8. Also, this year's Scorpion shows traces that are designed to hold capacitors that can keep the SSD running for a few seconds, just enough to "gracefully" shut it down in case of a power-failure, and safeguard data. The new Scorpion also appears to use an auxiliary SATA power input. Aside from these, the new Scorpion appears to use the same SandForce SF-2281 based SSD subunits as last year's drive (which is pictured at the far-right, below).

Mushkin, Inc., an industry‐leading designer and manufacturer of high‐performance and mission‐critical computer products, today announces at CES 2013, the world's largest consumer electronics show, the worldwide release of its new line of 1.8‐inch Chronos SATA III (6Gbps) solid‐state drives (SSDs), now shipping in 40GB, 60GB, 90GB, 120GB, 180GB, 240GB and 480GB capacities.

The new line of 1.8‐inch Chronos SSDs feature a smaller, lighter footprint than the previous generation, and offer performance and reliability improvements for power users. Originally designed as an enterprise‐class drive, the new Chronos SSD has been adapted and re‐engineered to deliver the highest possible storage capacity in a drive that is optimized for high‐performance and ultimate reliability, even in the most demanding 24x7 environments.

Mushkin, Inc., an industry‐leading designer and manufacturer of high‐performance and mission‐critical computer products, today announced the worldwide launch of its new 960GB Chronos solid‐state drive (SSD), slated to start shipping this month.

The newest addition to the Chronos line of SSDs offers 960GB of space, almost double the storage capacity of typical 2.5‐inch form factor drives. The much higher storage capacity, combined with the performance and reliability benefits of an SSD, make the 960GB Chronos an ideal choice for disk intensive applications like workstations and servers.

STEC, Inc., a leading global provider of solid-state drive (SSD) technologies and products, today announced the small-form-factor s230 Series of Slim SATA solid-state drives providing an efficient storage design tailored for embedded systems.

Anchoring STEC's line of industrial-grade embedded solid-state-storage solutions that feature SATA and SATA-II SSDs and capacities of up to 50 GB, the s230 is a low-power, small-footprint Slim SATA drive in an industry standard JEDEC MO-297 format occupying less than half the space of a standard 2.5-inch drive. It features advanced PowerSafe Technology, making it one of the most reliable and cost-effective devices for space-constrained systems, in which protection against drive corruption (due to unexpected power loss) is essential. The s230 is available in a range of cost-effective capacities - from 8 GB to 32 GB.

Chinese peripherals maker Orico rolled out the DNSB-84172, a unique 2.5-inch SATA drive enclosure that is built out of solid metal, designed to resemble conventional 3.5-inch hard drives, so much so, that it even features curves and domes over parts that typically cover the platters, spindle and actuator. Its top metal lid can be unscrewed to reveal a 2.5-inch SATA 6 Gb/s drive bay, which is wired to both a properly-located SATA power+data interface (letting you insert the enclosure into NAS caddies), and a USB 3.0 connector, letting you carry the enclosure around, like a boss. Place an inherently shock-resilient SSD inside, and 'shock' coworkers with its speed and the acrobatics it lets you perform.

Intel's next-generation Atom processor platform, codenamed "Bay Trail" doesn't arrive before 2014, but that's not enough to stop the company from talking at great lengths about it. A new presentation intended for Intel's pals in the PC industry was leaked on German tech-forum 3DCenter.org, and reveals quite a bit more about the platform than the Bay Trail-T we already know about.

The first two slides (below) detail key scoring points of the platform over its predecessor, the "Cedar Trail." These include a true single-chip SoC (with complete integration of the chipset into the processor die), being built on the 22 nm Tri-gate transistor fab process, up to four x86-64 cores with out-of-order execution capabilities, 7th generation Intel graphics that features DirectX 11 and supports resolutions as high as 2560 x 1600 pixels, a native USB 3.0 controller, and support for DDR3L memory, that allows device makers to do away with DIMM/SO-DIMM modules to conserve board foot-print, using smaller, space-optimized DRAM chips on the main PCB.

Intel's next-generation SSD 530 series, which sees a single product line covering 2.5-inch and compact form-factors, arrives in the second quarter of 2013. The new series is being designed to offer high-performance even at smaller card form-factors, which is particularly important for the ultra-thin/Ultrabook ecosystem. The drive has been pictured in the newer NGFF (next generation form-factor), which is designed to be even smaller than mSATA.

While mSATA drives typically measure 51 x 30 mm, NGFF measures 42 x 22 mm. NGFF is a single interface featuring pins for both SATA and PCI-Express x2 or x4, and cards designed around its specification can either be SATA SSDs, or other bandwidth-heavy devices (such as 802.11ac WLAN controllers). Cards can even be designed to have an SATA SSD subunit on one side, and a PCI-Express device on the other, saving swathes of PCB real-estate in the process. The form-factor even supports double-sided SSDs such as this one from Lite-On, which features an independent SSD subunit on each side, which is striped in RAID 0. The NGFF Intel SSD 530 family will be introduced in Q2-2013, in two capacities - 80 GB and 180 GB.

GammaTech Computer Corp., a major international manufacturer and supplier of innovative notebook and tablet computers, announces the introduction of its semi-rugged ultra-mobile tablet PC (UMPC), Durabook model CA10. The unit features a 10.1" TFT LCD display with resistive multi-touch screen panel, meets Military Standard 810G and IP43 standard for drop, shock, dust and water resistance, has hot swappable dual-battery design that offers up to eight hours of power, and a quick menu support for easy operability.

"Access to a computer away from an office setting is very important in today's world," stated Jen Chen, GammaTech president. "The CA10 will benefit many different mobile-oriented service industries, including retail, logistics, healthcare and especially field service workers in the utilities, fleet management, and public safety sectors. Its durability, long battery life, various wireless connections, and dust and spray resistance capabilities make it especially suitable for these ultra-mobile individuals, who often find themselves in harsh environments."

The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO), the industry consortium dedicated to sustaining the quality, integrity and dissemination of Serial ATA (SATA) technology, today announced that SATA Express, a new specification that standardizes PCI Express (PCIe) as an interface for client storage, has started the ratification process. The specification has moved into the member review stage, the final step prior to the specification's release to SATA-IO members. SATA Express will be available to the general public in the next version of the specification, expected to be completed in 2013.

SATA Express enables an ecosystem for client storage in which SATA and PCIe solutions can coexist, providing a low-cost solution to fully utilize the performance of next generation solid state drives (SSDs) and hybrid drives. PCIe technology enables interface speeds of up to 1GB/s per lane in the client space, as compared to today's SATA technology at 0.6GB/s. Storage devices not requiring the speed of SATA Express will continue to be served by existing SATA technology. The specification will define new SATA Express device connectors and motherboard connectors that will support both new PCIe drives and existing SATA devices. See this page for more details.

TEAC introduced the BD-W512GSA, a cost-effective Blu-ray writer drive designed to make the standard accessible to more PC users. Sold in bulk/OEM packaging priced around €79, the drive can write Blu-ray BD-R discs at 12X speeds, BD-RWs at 8X, double-layer discs around 8X, DVDs at 16X, and CDs at 48X. While it can read triple- and quad-layer discs, it doesn't appear like the drive supports writing the two formats. It is built in the conventional 5.25-inch SATA form-factor, and comes with black and white bezel options.

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it will launch two-lane SPDT switches that support PCI Express 3.0 (8 Gbps). The new products, TC7PCI3412MT and TC7PCI3415MT, reduce switch terminal capacitance to achieve high bandwidth characteristics of 10GHz at -3dB, making high-speed transmission with lower signal degradation capable.

The new SPDT switches have optimal configurations for all arrangements of PCI Express slots, connectors, and switches on the motherboards of desktop PCs and notebook PCs. They can also be used for high-speed differential lines, such as USB3.0, DisplayPort1.2, and SATA3.0. Samples are available now with mass production scheduled for the end of January.

QNAP Systems, Inc. announced today a major expansion of the number of compatible peripherals available for its Turbo NAS products. The major additions include ten 3.5-inch internal SATA hard drives and a Kingston 2.5-inch internal SATA hard drive.
The newly compatible 3.5" internal SATA hard drives:

• Seagate - ST2000DM001 (2TB), ST2000NC000 (2TB), ST1000NC000 (1TB), ST3000NM0033 (Constellation ES.3) (3TB), ST2000NM0033 (Constellation ES.3) (2TB), ST1000NM0033 (Constellation ES.3) (1TB), ST500DM002 (500GB)
• Western Digital - WD4000FYYZ (4TB), WD3000FYYZ (3TB), WD2000FYYZ (2TB)
  The newly compatible 2.5" internal SATA hard drive:
• Kingston - SSDNow E100 (100GB)

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

Another MSI ingenious design, the Slidebook S20 not only offers all the audiovisual, 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 businesspeople 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 Slidebook S20 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.

In addition to the Stackable 3.5-inch SATA enclosures, Japanese company Logitec introduced the LBD-PMF6U3HBKW slim-line external Blu-ray writer drive. Taking advantage of USB 3.0 SuperSpeed, with a single cable for both power and host connectivity, the LBD-PMF6U3HBKW supports streamed digital broadcast recording, which writes Blu-ray discs much in the same was as VCRs would, given of course, if it's configured with the right kind of TVs or PCs with the required software (DiXiM BD Burner 2013).

The LBD-PMF6U3HBKW otherwise supports Blu-ray XL 4-layer and 3-layer writing at 4X, BD-RE XL at 2X, double- and single-layer BD-R discs at 6X, DVDs at up to 8X, and CDs at up to 24X. Measuring 136 x 142 x 19 mm (WxDxH), it weighs 300 g. TotalMediaRecord 2 and TotalMediaTheater 2 come bungled. It is priced around 9,800¥ (US $117).

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced that it has initiated a beta test program for its Linux Acceleration (LXL) Software development and invites its enterprise SSD customers to participate. The new OCZ LXL Software is a fast caching storage solution for OCZ's portfolio of enterprise SSDs and designed specifically for Linux-based physical and virtual environments.

OCZ's unique LXL Software provides a new integrated approach for making application-optimized data cache selections while minimizing I/O access times to SSD flash. It achieves this type of dynamic cache selection optimization by splitting the caching policy engine between the core mechanism running in the Linux kernel and an advanced statistical out-of-band analysis module that optimally determines which data needs to be placed in the cache and stores the data locally in OCZ enterprise-SSDs. The LXL software supports a wide range of OCZ enterprise solid state solutions across multiple interfaces (i.e. Z-Drive R4 PCIe Series, the Talos 2 SAS Series and the Deneva 2 SATA Series).

Kingfast rolled out the K25 Ultra cache-SSD. Featuring 32 GB of MLC NAND flash, the drive comes bundled with a license to use NVELO DataPlex SSD caching software, with which you can accelerate your existing HDD-based machine, without re-installing anything. The K25 Ultra is built into the 2.5-inch 7 mm-thick SATA 3 Gb/s form-factor, which makes it ultra-thin friendly. While an accelerated HDD's performance will depend on various other factors, the drive itself can dole out 270 MB/s sequential reads, and 190 MB/s sequential writes. It is priced at $58.

Introducing the FlexCage MB973SP-1B, a 3-in-2 Tray-less SATA Backplane Cage for 3.5" SATA hard drives. This is a commercially designed product in the FlexCage series for use in server environments, such as towers or rackmounts. This FlexCage incorporates the best technologies to meet those demands, with second to none fit, function, and reliability.

The MB973SP-1B has been designed to maximize space use by allowing up to 3 x 3.5" SATA III hard drives, while only consuming two 5.25" device bays. The FlexCage also only requires two 4-pin power ports (or two 15-pin power ports with included 4 pin to 15 pin adapter cables), to power up to three 3.5" hard drives. In order to further the convenience of the FlexCage, our renowned tray-less technology is integrated into the cage -- no screws or tools are required to insert or eject the drives, making hot swapping a completely hassle free experience. However, because of the tray-less technology used, maintenance becomes dramatically reduced to simply ejecting a failed drive, and then reinserting the replacement.

Toshiba Corporation today announced that samples of two new large capacity nearline hard disk drives (HDDs) are available now. The 3.5-inch 7,200 rpm MG Series includes both SATA and SAS versions, "MG03ACA400" and "MG03SCA400" respectively, that deliver 4TB[1] of storage, the largest capacity yet offered by Toshiba. Samples of lower capacity models in each series are also available.

As business works to keep up with the explosion of unstructured data, large capacity HDDs are crucial tools in IT systems designed to organize and access fast growing reservoirs of valuable information. The massive capacities of the MG Series drives are suited to RAID storage and arrays, tiered virtual infrastructures for public and private cloud deployments, archives and disk-based backup.

I-O Data of Japan announced the HDUs-UT line of colorful 2.5-inch SATA HDD/SSD enclosures, which support USB 3.0, and could in the future, support Thunderbolt with the help of an accessory. The HDUs-UT isn't much more than an enclosure with its active component being built into an adapter that plugs into the SATA drive on one end, and USB 3.0 power/data on the other. I-O Data could sell Thunderbolt variants of this adapter in the future. Measuring 81 x 120 x 15 mm (WxDxH), the enclosure weighs about 170 g with a typical HDD. It is available in silver, black, red, and blue brushed aluminum body options.

Solid state drive (SSD) is gradually making its way to become the mainstream in 3C product market. Team Group Inc., one of the leading memory manufacturers in the world, is making improvement in SSD product development by launching the ultra-thin Team Ultra L1 SSD. As thin as 7mm, the Team Ultra L1 SSD is the most lightweight and compact model which can be installed directly onto new generation of Ultrabooks for faster booting and read/write speed. Combined with the inherent advantage of shock resistance and stability of SSD, it signifies significant improvement of computer performance and durability.

Team Ultra L1 SSD is provided with SATA III 6Gb/s high-speed interface. The compact profile and special titanium color finishing highlight the product's high quality and the sense of modern technology. The continuous read and write speeds go as high as 550MB/s and 520MB/s, respectively. The random write-in speed for small files of 4K reaches up to 80,000 IOPS, not only fast but stable. In addition, the integration of Dura Write and RAISE (Redundant Array of Independent Silicon Elements) provides support for S.M.A.R.T. and full compatibility with Win7 Trim commands. It gives the hard drive a boost of burst random writing and effective improvement of computer's ability to respond and multiplexing performance, making the hard drive a storage solution of extreme speed for consumers.