SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, today announced the SanDisk X100 solid state drive (SSD) for client computing markets. The SanDisk X100 SSD is available in capacities up to 512 GB and utilizes multi-level cell (MLC) technology, a SATA 6 Gb/s high-performance interface, advanced multi-streaming features and tiered caching technology.

The drive offers up to 500/420 megabyte per second (MB/sec) sequential read/write speeds, and enables a user to copy a 4 GB high-definition movie in less than 10 seconds. In addition to the standard 2.5 inch form factor, the X100 SSD also comes in mSATA and customized thin form factors to address the emerging ultra-thin laptop market. SanDisk offers a wide variety of configuration options, including standalone and dual drive caching solutions.

Wondering what's going on with EVGA's SR-X motherboard? Well the board still isn't ready for release but EVGA has made progress on it, as is confirmed by a new image provided by the US-based company. This photo showcases the SR-X in a near final stage, equipped with an updated cooling solution made up of four heatsinks (covering VRM areas and chipsets).

As previously reported, the SR-X comes with two LGA 2011 sockets (it supports Sandy Bridge-E CPUs for single-processor setups and Sandy Bridge-EP CPUs for dual-chip configurations), 12 DDR3 memory slots (up to 96 GB of RAM are supported), two (one 8-pin and one 6-pin) power connectors per CPU, six SATA and four SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) ports, seven PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (SLI and CrossFireX support is included), PCIe disable switches, voltage read points, a debug LED, dual Gigabit Ethernet, two eSATA ports, 7.1 channel audio, Bluetooth, EVBot support, and six USB 3.0 connectors (four on the back plate, two via a header).

EVGA is promising more details about the SR-X (a price tag and an availability date maybe) 'soon'. CeBIT anyone?

Following many of its rivals, Taiwanese memory module maker Golden Emperor International Ltd. (aka GeIL) has decided to expand into the solid state drive market. The company is currently finishing up its very first (2.5-inch) SSDs which are known as Zenith S2 (SATA 3.0 Gbps) and Zenith S3 (SATA 6.0 Gbps) and are set to become available as soon as next month.

The Zenith S2 will deliver read/write speeds of up to 280/270 MB/s while the S3 models, which are powered by SandForce SF-2000 Series controllers, will be capable of 500+ MB/s transfer speeds.

The Zenith S2 family will include 60 GB and 120 GB models whereas the Zenith S3 line will feature 60 GB, 120 GB, 240 GB and 480 GB drives. More details about GeIL's SSDs are expected in the coming weeks.

ATP Electronics, a leading flash memory manufacturer known for its high quality, durable flash and DRAM memory modules, announced the launch of its industrial grade SLC (Single Level Cell) Solid State Drive (SSD). The ATP Velocity SI Pro 2.5" SATA III SSD is ideal for Industrial PC and high end computing devices in which extreme performance and reliability are required. With a stable performance read speed of up to 500 MB/s, a write speed of up to 500 MB/s, and 4K random read IOPS of up to 60, 000, the Velocity SSD SI pro is also the ideal solution for enterprise and industrial grade applications.

Verbatim Europe has now started delivering the SATA 6.0 Gbps solid state drives it announced last month. These SSDs have a 2.5-inch form factor, a SandForce SF-2281 controller, MLC (multi-level cell) NAND Flash memory chips, TRIM support, and deliver sequential read and write speeds of up to 550 MB/s and 510 MB/s, respectively.

Verbatim's 120 GB and 240 GB SATA 6.0 Gbps drives are backed by a two-year warranty and cost 199 Euro and 399 Euro, respectively.

Pioneer is working on a new Blu-ray disc writer, the BDR-S07, capable of writing 100 GB Blu-ray XL (BDXL) discs at speeds of up to 6X. The drive burns more conventional BD-R double-layer and single-layer discs at speeds up to 12X. BD-R LtH are written at 6X; single, double, and triple-layer BD-RE discs are written at 2X. The drive is built in the conventional tray-loading 5.25" form-factor, supporting the SATA interface. It comes in three variants that differ only with their bezels: BDR-S07-BK has a piano-black bezel, the BDR-S07-KR has a matte-black bezel, and the BDR-S07-W has a matte-white bezel. These drives will be priced at 25,000 JPY (US $328).

Chinese storage and peripherals major Orico unveiled the X-Gear modular storage system, which consists of three products: the XG-2501p, which is a 2.5-inch SATA HDD/SSD enclosure; the XG-3502i, which is a slot-in docking-station for the XG-2501p that fits into an exposed 3.5-inch drive bay; and the XG-2516s, which is a combo-package of these two products (an enclosure of your choice, and the slot-in dock).

The XG-2501p enclosure sports a brushed-aluminum exterior, and is available in a variety of colors. The XG-3502i has a slot-in tray for the enclosure, with a mechanical eject button for any inserted XG-2501p, and an activity indicator. The XG-2501p is priced at 28 RMB (US $5), the XG-3502i at 49 RMB ($7.8), and XG-2516s at 69 RMB ($11).

RunCore, a leading manufacturer of high-performance and rugged solid state drives (SSDs) today announced the availability of its latest SATA 3 SSD.

"The new 2.5" SATA3, 6Gbs, drive is the nice addition to our existing portfolio of SSD products. The Pro-V MAX is based on the SF-2281 controller with the optimized firmware (the Golden FW). With Read and Write transfer rate at 560 MB/s and 520 MB/s, respectively, and the burst IOPS at 87K while sustained IOPS over 60K, has a super score of over 770 in AS SSD Benchmark, the drive is designed to deliver exceptional performance over the life of it with no performance degradation over time. The Pro-V MAX is ideal for use in gaming machines, HPC & datacenter servers," said Amy Wang, VP of Strategies and Business Product Development of RunCore.

Seagate started shipping its GoFlex Thunderbolt Adapter accessory. The gadget lets you connect a SATA drive (HDD or SSD) to a host machine over 10 Gbps Thunderbolt interface, completely eliminating any bottleneck (USB 3.0 bottlenecks SATA 6 Gb/s). It works by simply sliding and locking in a SATA device to its industry-standard SATA power+data interface, and plugging the adapter to the host using a Thunderbolt cable. The Seagate GoFlex Thunderbolt Adapter is priced at US $99.99.

At CES, we got to check out MSI's Z77A-GD65 motherboard in its baby-suit, with just basic heatsinks, as the production ones were getting finalized. At the IT Partners show, we got to see the production model of this board, complete with its final VRM and PCH heatsink design.

The Z77A-GD65 uses a 9-phase VRM to power the CPU. Expansion slots include two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (x16/NC or x8/x8, depending on the second slot being populated), one PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x4, wired to the PCH), and four PCIe x1. Storage connectivity include four SATA 6 Gb/s (two from the PCH, two from a third-party controller), and four SATA 3 Gb/s ports. Display connectivity includes D-Sub, DVI, and HDMI. Other features include a number of USB 3.0, USB 2.0 ports, 8-channel HD audio, and features for overclockers such as consolidated voltage measurement points, redundant UEFI BIOS, and OC Genie. It is slated for April.

Former hard drive maker (it sold the HDD business to Toshiba in 2009) Fujitsu has finally decided to give SSDs (solid state drives) a try and so it developed and released such a storage solution. Codenamed HLACC2031A-G1, Fujitsu's SSD has a 2.5-inch form factor, a SATA 6.0 Gbps interface, a SandForce SF-2281 controller, MLC (multi-level cell) NAND Flash memory, and is capable of read/write speeds of up to 550/500 MB/s, and of a random read/write performance of 55,000/40,000 IOPS.

The HLACC2031A-G1 is first being shipped to APAC (Asia-Pacific) markets in two capacities - 120 GB (~ US$202) and 240 GB (~ US$427). Both models will come with a three-year warranty.

Transcend Information, Inc. (Transcend), a worldwide leader in storage and multimedia products, today announced the launch of its new next generation SSD720 SATA III 6Gb/s solid state drive (SSD) that delivers significantly improved computer performance over standard rotating hard drives. Designed with multitasking power users in mind, the productivity-enhancing SSD720 is the ideal solution for demanding system applications, such as specialized multimedia computing and advanced gaming.

Xilence Technology has now introduced the SSD-/HDD-Dock, an all-black device that fits into a 5.25-inch bay and offers space for two 2.5-inch SATA drives as well as two USB 3.0 ports (ports which can be connected to the motherboard via a 19-pin plug). This internal dock features Hot Swap capabilities and is shipping in Europe bearing a recommended price tag of 27.90 Euro.

Buffalo Japan introduced a new generation LinkTheater product, the LT-V200. The device is basically a multi-format media player, which is nothing new, but then it also features an internal SATA port to hold a hard drive, apart from its USB connectivity, which lets it act as a DLNA-compliant NAS server. It also features a Remote Play function, that lets it stream media wirelessly to iOS and Android devices. Apart from the internal SATA port, the LT-V200 features two USB 2.0 ports (one each, front and back), it connects to the network over 10/100 Ethernet. It features a SD card slot.

As a media player, the LT-V200 supports nearly every popular video format, including MPEG-1/2, MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, WMV9, DivX, DivX HD, Real Video, and FLV. Audio formats supported include AAC, MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, FLAC, Real Audio, Dolby Digital and DTS. Outputs include HDMI, SPDIF TOSLINK and Coaxial, and Component. Slated for launch in early February, the Buffalo LT-V200 will cost 14,000 JPY (US $182.4).

Plextor unveiled the PX-B950SA internal Blu-ray disc writer drive. Built in the 5.25-inch form-factor, the drive supports SATA interface. It is capable of burning single-layer BD-R at 12X, double-layer BD-R at 8X, single/double-layer BD-RE at 2X, DVD±R at 16X, DVD+RW at 6X, DVD-RW at 12X, and CD-R at 48X. Blu-ray discs are read at 8X, DVDs at 16X, and CDs at 48X. The drive is backed by an 8 MB cache. CyberLink BD Suite and PowerDVD come bundled. It is priced at 11,980 JPY (US $154).

Lite-On unveiled the new iHBS112-04 internal Blu-ray disc writer drive. The drive is built in the standard 5.25-inch form-factor, supporting SATA interface. It is capable of writing BD-R single-layer at 12X, BD-R double-layer at 8X, BD-RE single and double-layer at 2X, and DVD±R at 16X. The drive features Lite-On's ABS (auto-balanced spindle) feature, which works to reduce noise and vibrations caused by the drive when revved up and spinning at high speeds. The drive features 8 MB of write cache. In Japan, it is priced at 6,980 JPY (US $90). It will be sold under its own label and those of various other companies, as Lite-On is a major upstream ODM of optical disc drives.

TYAN offers numerous products for the cloud computing marketplace, including high-density computing, high-density storage, and virtualization environments. TYAN's diverse portfolio provides customers robust options for reducing capital construction and operation costs while offering higher scalability with enhanced performance and energy efficiency.

pureSilicon Inc., innovator of high-performance storage technology for the industry's most demanding applications, has launched a new line of enterprise-focused storage devices that give IT administrators high-performance options for power users.

The new Kage Series comprises the Kage K1 USB Flash Drive - an "impossibly thin" (4.5 mm) USB 3.0-based SSD drive that redefines portable performance and capacity for mobile enterprise and prosumer users; and the Kage K1 SATA SSD that leverages the advanced technology pioneered in pureSilicon's recently announced Renegade and Nitro devices, making it available at a lower price point aimed at power users in the financial services, science, and engineering sectors, as well as creative professionals who need fast, high-capacity storage for digital media.

Intel's X79 chipset for Sandy Bridge-E platform was originally designed to have four SAS (serial-attached SCSI) channels apart from its usual loadout of SATA ports. Early prototypes of socket LGA2011 motherboards displayed at last year's Computex event (June), carried a large number of chipset-driven ports. However, Intel found the chipset-integrated SAS RAID controller (independent device from the SATA RAID controller) to have "unreliable performance", and hence changed its specification at the last moment. So the production specification of X79 ended up having the same SATA port loadout as P67 (two SATA 6 Gb/s + four SATA 3 Gb/s).

This specifications change did not result in a design change of the X79 PCH package, its die remained the same, so did its package and pin-map, which motherboard vendors had for nearly an year. So ECS decided to implement the SAS ports despite being out of specifications. LegitReviews discovered that its X79R-AX sample very much did have SAS ports wired to the PCH. With firmware of the SAS RAID controller and drivers, it could enable and use those ports. Although the SAS ports are physically present on the board, users have to enable them via the UEFI firmware setup program (BIOS).

Over last weekend, Crucial released a new firmware update for its M4 series SSDs, which aims to fix several blue screen of death (BSOD) issues that users are facing. Crucial's investigation into the BSOD complaints revealed that a bug in the older firmware caused the drives to become unstable after 5,184 hours of operation. After that, every hour the previously-rock-stable drives cause BSODs. The firmware update only applies to drives connected to SATA hosts, and not SAS expanders. Crucial is still working on a firmware update for drives connected via SAS expanders.DOWNLOAD: 0309 Firmware Update for Crucial M4

KINGMAX, a world renowned leading brand of DRAM and flash memory, has launched the latest 2.5" SATA III 6Gb/s based SSD series targeting high performance users. The KINGMAX SMP32 Client and SMU32 Client Pro SSD feature the new generation SandForce controller that support SATA 6GB/s for the best performances and deliver read speed up to 550 MB/sec and write speed at 520MB/sec, thus it only takes a few seconds to boot in your operation system.

KINGMAX SSD SATA III Client series equipped with highly reliable SandForce controller supporting SATA III 6Gb/s interface to extend the lifetime of NAND Flash chips and the durability of SSD. Supporting RAISE fault-tolerant technology and ECC error correction technology to prevent errors caused by the volume of data loss, strengthen the data security inside it, and upgrade the computing performance. Moreover the data read and write times will be significantly reduced to extend the durability and lifetime of SSD.

Ideum has announced the release of its new MT65 Presenter multitouch wall display. The MT65 Presenter is a huge 65" interactive display with a 3D LCD, robust multitouch sensor, ultra‐clear tempered glass, a powerful integrated computer, built‐in audio, and webcam housed inside a hardened aluminum case.

The MT65 Presenter features a 65" 3D LCD display with full 1920x1080 HD resolution and flicker‐free FPR 3D imaging that uses an LED backlight rated for 50,000 hours. The integrated touch sensor supports up to 32 simultaneous touch points. The 4" thin Presenter is protected by hardened 3mm tempered glass and a vandal‐proof metal housing.

Japanese company Orange Systems announced a new modular PCI Express SSD, the "Wings" series, which is a collection of products: the PCIe SSD card, its SSD subunits that have to be purchased separately, and those subunits in hard cases that turn them into 2.5-inch simple SSDs. To begin with, Angelbird has three PCIe SSD main card variants: "Lite", 16 GB, and 32 GB. These cards are basically PCI Express x4 SATA 3 Gb/s RAID cards that have SATA power+data interfaces on the card. The 16 GB and 32 GB cards have a localized SSD subunit on the board, while the "lite" variant has no localized subunit, and relies entirely on attached subunits.

These subunits are basically 2.5-inch SSD PCBs stripped of their cases, which Orange Systems refers to as Wings Expansion Cartridges, which are basically SandForce SF-1220 driven SSDs with MLC NAND flash, available in capacities of 60 GB, 115 GB, and 240 GB. When attached in pairs to the Wings PCIe SSD card, the card's main controller runs them in a RAID 0 configuration that is abstract to the host, delivering increased performance. Lastly, these "Expansion Cartridges" are available with their outer shells, branded as "Crest SSDs".

Scythe launched two new lines of power supply units in its home country, Japan, the Solid Power Bronze and Solid Power Gold. As the names might suggest, models of these lines are 80 Plus Bronze and 80 Plus Gold certified, respectively. These PSUs are designed to have high cost-performance ratios, and offer power capacities typically needed by today's gaming PCs. The Solid Power Bronze series includes 550W and 650W models, while the Solid Power Gold series includes 500W and 600W models.

Both lines use identical-looking bodies, measuring W150 x D140 x H86 mm, with fixed cabling, and cooled by 120 mm silent fans. Apart from 24-pin ATX and 4+4-pin EPS, the Solid Power Bronze 550W includes two 6+2-pin PCIe, one FDD power, three Molex, and six SATA power; the 650W variant has six Molex connectors, and eight SATA power connectors, instead. The Solid Power Gold 500W and 600W, apart from 24-pin ATX and 4+4-pin EPS, offer two PCIe 6+2-pin, six Molex, and six SATA power connectors.

RunCore showed off its engineering potential in four "single-chip" solid-state drives (SSDs). If we're playing semantics here, almost every USB flash drive in the market these days is a "single chip SSD", but in context of these drives, "single chip" refers to a component that combines MLC NAND flash and a SATA interface controller into a single package. The number of NAND flash channels internally is not known, but RunCore thinks these chips should offer good performance in the value segment.

The blue PCBs in the first picture depict single-chip SSDs in three main client form-factors: 2.5-inch SATA, 1.8-inch SATA, and mSATA. As you can see, there's just one main chip, no controller, no cache DRAM, nothing else, except power-conditioning components and firmware ROM chips on the back side of the PCB.