When governments need a hardware upgrade, they will usually take the route of exploring options with security in mind. However, if you happen to have some engineering talent to employ on a new project, why wouldn't you just build a custom motherboard for your own purposes. Today, GS Group Holding and Philax, have announced that they are starting the manufacturing of Russia's first motherboard based on a B450 chipset from AMD. Looking at the motherboard, which you can see below, you might find it very similar to those of ASRock. And that is because Philax has a licensing agreement with ASRock to use the design of the B450M Pro4 motherboard, with the addition of a TPM module which is often used by government agencies, to produce this board.

Producing around 40,000 pieces, these motherboards are expected to handle anything from 4000 series to 5000 series of AMD processors. As far as the specifications go, the board is coming in a standard Micro-ATX form factor. It is equipped with four DDR4 memory slots that can take a memory with up to 3200 MHz speed. There are two PCIe 3.0 x16 slots and one PCIe 2.0 x1 slot, which are of course limited by CPU choice. The motherboard enables four SATA III and two M.2 ports for storage expansion. When it comes to I/O, the board features HDMI, D-Sub, DVI-D, four USB 3.1 Gen1, two USB 2.0, one USB Type-C, and one USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A port. GS Group Holding and Philax also have a partnership that goes beyond just motherboards. They also plan to produce about 50,000 custom monitors for government purposes as well.

Akasa has added two new aluminium enclosures for M.2 drives to the current range of products. These are compatible with both SATA and NVMe drives and features USB 3.1 Generation 2 connectivity and UASP support, meaning you'll be making the most out of the super-fast data transfer speeds from your M.2 drive of up to 10 Gb/s.

The body on both enclosures are machined out of high-quality aluminium, ensuring a tight, safe fit for the closing mechanism. A tool-free design allows the installation of an M.2 SSD to be quick and easy, whilst also functioning as a heatsink to draw away excess heat from the drive. The sleek and simple Akasa logo finishes off the design perfectly, making the enclosure stand out from the crowd.

Transcend, is proud to announce the new launch of the SSD250N, a 2.5" solid-state drive (SSD) tailor-made for Network Attached Storage (NAS) systems to support rising demand for remote offices, remote education, and remote recreation brought on by COVID-19. This drive was specifically designed for continually operating NAS systems. The built-in DRAM cache and 3D NAND flash deliver high IOPS, reducing latency and speeding up NAS systems. Packed with multiple advanced technologies, the SSD250N provides outstanding reliability and extends NAS lifespan, fully assisting small and medium-sized business operations, multimedia streaming at home, and speeding up multi-user access to shared data.

Transcend's SSD250N is ready for use with NAS systems on 24/7 as it offers up to 2,000 TBW. Its 3D NAND flash and the SATA III interface unleash random speeds of up to 82K IOPS, optimizing data transfer. The built-in DRAM cache boosts read and write speeds, offering stable performance for seamless backups, instant central management and real-time file synchronization. Whether your NAS is serving up your favorite shows on your home media center while archiving music, photos, and videos, or is used in 4K or 8K video editing, or even at a business constantly trading data with clients, the SSD250N is ready to do the heavy lifting.

SMART Modular Technologies, a subsidiary of SMART Global Holdings, Inc., (Nasdaq: SGH), has expanded its DuraFlash ME2 SATA SSD product family with the addition of M.2 2242 SATA, mSATA (MO-300A) and Slim SATA (MO-297A) that complement the current M.2 2280 and 2.5" SSD form factors in SMART's DuraFlash portfolio.

The new ME2 SATA SSD form factors are ideal for embedded computing, transportation, medical and industrial applications that require either smaller or legacy SSD form factors. Built with Triple-Level Cell (TLC) 3D NAND technology, they are available in both commercial (0 °C to 70 °C) and industrial (-40 °C to 85 °C) operating temperatures. The ME2 family SSDs provide enhanced reliability by incorporating advanced LDPC (Low Density Parity Check) error detection and correction, plus end-to-end data path protection ensuring extremely high data integrity and reliability.

Lexar, a leading global brand of flash memory solutions, today announced the new NQ100 2.5" SATA III (6Gb/s) SSD. The NQ100 solid-state drive is an easy upgrade for users looking to improve the performance of their laptop or desktop computers. Improve your system's performance and enjoy faster startups, data transfers, and load times for applications. Boasting read speeds of up to 550MB/s, the Lexar NQ100 SSD will refresh your laptop or PC for a faster experience. The NQ100 SSD is also shock and vibration resistant, making it more reliable and durable than a typical hard drive. It is also cooler, quieter, and more energy efficient than traditional HDD.

"Lexar is dedicated to expanding our SSD portfolio and continue to offer high-quality solid-state drives for various computing needs. The new Lexar NQ100 SSD provides customers with an easy yet cost-effective way to boost PC performance, and with capacity options ranging from 240GB-960GB, users can easily expand storage for their content-driven lifestyles," said Joel Boquiren, General Manager of Lexar. NQ100 SSD is available this month for purchase online at an MSRP of $30.99 USD (240GB), $52.99 USD (480GB) with 960GB to be announced at a future date.

Phison Electronics Corp., a global leader in NAND Flash controller integrated circuits and storage solutions, announced today that it is now shipping secure SSD solutions with FIPS 140-2 Certification. In today's world, consumer and corporate data are vulnerable to attacks by hackers, viruses and even rogue governments staging cyber-attacks. Phison has recognized these security issues and addressed these threats by implementing FIPS 140-2 security technology in SATA and PCIe product lines.

Phison provided technical support for their customizable SSD solutions during the Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) process. Companies have to pass it in order to list themselves as the validated cryptographic module vendor. Because Phison has FIPS 140-2 certified solutions, our customers can now choose to leverage existing validated Phison modules so they can reduce the time and effort spent on FIPS validation of their own.

Samsung today has officially taken the lid off their latest consumer-oriented SATA SSDs, the 870 EVO. The 870 EVO series from Samsung don't push the maximum storage density ceiling on traditional SATA consumer drives, topping out at a maximum 4 TB, but they do achieve that ceiling whilst making use of Samsung's 128-layer TLC (Triple-Layer-Cell) NAND, which offers increased endurance (and higher theoretical performance than) more widespread QLC-based SSDs (of which Samsung launched the 870 QVO back in July 2020).

Samsung quotes SATA sequential read and write speeds of 560 MB/s and 530 MB/s respectively, with a "variable SLC" cache (which means it decreases in maximum size as the available free drive space decreases). The drives are also quoted at 98K IOPS Random Read, and 88K IOPS Write, and feature the company's Intelligent TurboWrite to maintain the interface's SATA 6 Gbps saturation as long as possible before sustained performance degradation appears. Samsung claims the 870 EVO also delivers a nearly 38% improvement in random read speeds over the previous 860 model, and quotes a (TBW) rating of 2,400 TB (or a 5-year limited warranty, whichever comes first) for its 4 TB model. The 870 EVO is available in either 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB, 2 TB, or 4 TB capacities, with the drives' RAM buffer scaling almost accordingly (512 MB DDR3 for the 256/512 Gb models, 1 GB for the 1 TB, 2 GB for the 2 TB drive, and 4 GB for the 4 TB one. Pricing starts at $49,99 for the 256 GB model; 500 GB for $79.99, 1 TB for $139.99; 2 TB for $269.99; and 4 TB for $529.99.

Apacer, a leading manufacturer of digital storage, recently launched its new generation of SSDs - the AS340X and AS350X. The "X" in the name stands for exploration, since the product is exploring previously unknown speed limits. The AS340X and AS350X use a cutting-edge SATA III transmission interface, giving the AS340X read/write speeds of up to 550/520 MB/s and the AS350X read/write speeds of up to 560/540 MB/s. The excellent performance brings users a lightning-fast boot-ups experience.

The AS340X and AS350X are Apacer's latest mid-to-high-end SSDs. They use a new generation of SATA III interface and provide 6 Gb/s transmission speeds, enabling the AS340X to reach read/write speeds of up to 550/520 MB/s and the AS350X read/write speeds of up to 560/540 MB/s. The blisteringly fast speed of AS340X and AS350X means that gamers and consumers demanding excellent price/performance ratios need look no further.

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading computing, networking and storage solution innovator, today announced the desktop smart edge PoE Switch - QGD-3014-16PT. With sixteen 30-watt Gigabit PoE ports, two 2.5GbE host management ports, Intel Celeron J4125 quad-core 2.0 GHz processor, and four 3.5-inch SATA drive bays, the QGD-3014-16PT supports QVR Pro, HBS 3 and QuWAN SD-WAN to integrate surveillance deployment, video storage computing, and multi-site remote management to offer SMBs innovative intelligent IP surveillance infrastructure and remote backup solutions.
"Expanding multi-site surveillance networks can be costly and involve large amounts of equipment with low transmission efficiency between multiple remote devices - not to mention the complexities involved in deployment and management. " said Daniel Hsieh, QNAP Product Manager, adding, "the QGD-3014-16PT desktop Smart Edge PoE Switch integrates PoE, surveillance capabilities, and data backup management to simplify these requirements and increase the transmission and backup efficiency of surveillance videos."

Greenliant has secured major design wins with its EnduroSLC solid state drives (SSDs) in a wide range of demanding, extreme environment applications for customers that need best-in-class reliability and product longevity. Greenliant's proprietary EnduroSLC Technology substantially enhances data retention and extends the write endurance of 1-bit-per-cell SSDs with advanced hardware ECC capabilities and NAND flash management algorithms. EnduroSLC SSDs not only offer superior data retention capabilities under complex temperature conditions, but also support 50K, 100K and industry-leading, ultra high 250K+ program-erase (P/E) cycles, which are at least a 5x improvement over pseudo-SLC (pSLC) SSDs and a 50x improvement over MLC NAND-based products.

For systems that are in remote locations and costly to maintain-from satellite to subsea communications-customers recognize the value of EnduroSLC SSDs; they can reliably operate and retain data for long periods of time in harsh conditions. Long-life, write-intensive products, such as transportation black box recorders and industrial data loggers, have also benefitted from the enhanced features of EnduroSLC SSDs. EnduroSLC storage products are designed with Greenliant's advanced SATA, NVMe PCIe and eMMC controllers, operate at industrial temperatures (-40 to +85 degrees Celsius) and are backed by the company's Long-Term Availability program (http://bit.ly/SSD-LTA-program), providing an extra level of support.

Minisforum, the leading innovator of mini PC products, has just released their another new product: the EliteMini UM700 which comes with the AMD Ryzen 7 3750H CPU up to 4.0 GHz, 4 cores 8 threads, total cache 4 MB, equipped with Radeon RX Vega 10 10 cores Graphics with frequency up to 1400 MHz. A few months ago, MINISFORUM had launched DeskMini DMAF5 with an AMD Ryzen 5 3550H processor on INDIEGOGO, now DMAF has completed the shipment. UM700 is an upgraded version of DMAF5, with higher performance and more powerful.

With a one-click design you can easily make upgrades, EliteMini UM700 supports different types of storage expansions—2.5 inch SATA HDD Slot (SATA 3.0 6.0 Gb/s) and M.2 2280 NVMe SSD Slot (support up to 2 TB), you can mix and match between HDD and SSD to better meet your needs. With windows 10 pro pre-installed, intel Wi-Fi6, BT5.1 and triple output. which allows you to freely enjoy quick response speed.

The leading global motherboard, graphics card, and small form factor PC manufacturer, ASRock, today announced the brand new compact Mini PC - Mars 4000U Series, embedded the AMD Ryzen 4000 U-series processors to deliver exceptional performance. The Mars 4000U Series Mini PC support dual-channel DDR4-3200 MHz memory up to 64 GB as well as equip with Intel Wi-Fi 6 for high-speed connectivity. For Storage, the Mars 4000U Series Mini PC provide a PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD slot and a 2.5-inch SATA hard drive bay; all imply into 0.7-liter chassis with 26 mm height.

ASRock Mars 4000U Series Mini PC offers abundant USB devices connectivity, features a total of 7 USB ports, including one Type-C port; In addition, the native SD card reader and dual display outputs provide more convenience and productivity. All of these features make Mars 4000U Series Mini PC well suited for a wide range of uses, including business, gaming and home entertainment.

Toshiba announces the Toshiba MG08-D Series HDDs, designed for a wide variety of business-critical applications, such as email and CRM (Customer Resource Management), data analysis for business intelligence, small-medium business servers, and data-retention and compliance archiving.

Toshiba's 7th generation air mechanical design provides better power efficiency and a lower component count to deliver better total cost of ownership than its earlier generation models. The new series features 4 TB, 6 TB and 8 TB models, in both SATA and SAS interfaces. The new 4 TB1 models are available in 512e, 4Kn and 512n sector models, and the 6 TB and 8 TB models are available in 512e and 4Kn sector models, assuring plug-and-play interoperability for applications using prior 4 TB models.

TerraMaster, a professional brand that specializes in providing innovative storage products including network-attached storage (NAS) devices, launches the F4-210 1 GB version, the same 4-bay NAS for personal cloud storage at a more affordable price. The TerraMaster F4-210 is just a portion of the price of an Intel-based NAS device. The F4-210 supports up to 108 TB of storage and supports 3.5" SATA hard drives and 2.5" SATA hard drives and solid-state drives.

The TerraMaster F4-210 is perfect for users that are looking for a powerful personal cloud storage solution without a hefty investment. Costing just half the price of an equivalent Intel x86 quad-core processor-based NAS storage, the F4-210 can deliver modest read/write speeds of up to 124 MB/s with two WD Red 4 TB hard drives in RAID 0. The F4-210 supports various private cloud services including Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive.

Plextor late last week unveiled the M8V Plus line of mainstream SATA SSDs in the 2.5-inch and M.2-2280 form-factors. The M8V Plus is an incremental update of the original M8V series from 2018. What's new is the implementation of KIOXIA-sourced 96-layer TLC NAND flash replacing 64-layer chips from Toshiba. The M8V Plus series comes in 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB variants, while the original M8V came in 128-thru-512 GB variants.

The Silicon Motion SM2258 controller under the hood of the M8V Plus, has been updated to its latest revision, and supports Plextor-innovated Plex Compress technology. This feature uses the controller's idle time to compress files that haven't been accessed for over 30 days. The Plex Turbo feature, which is essentially variable-size SLC cache, has also been improved to be larger in size. On-paper performance hasn't changed, with the company claiming up to 560 MB/s sequential reads, up to 520 MB/s sequential writes, up to 90,000 IOPS 4K random access for the 256 GB and 512 GB variants; and up to 88,000 IOPS random access for the 1 TB variant. The company rates write endurance for the 256 GB variant at 140 TBW, 512 GB variant at 280 TBW, and 560 TBW for the 1 TB variant. All three variants are backed by 3-year warranties. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL) today introduced the industry's first native NVMe RAID 1 accelerator, a state-of-the-art technology for virtualized, multi-tenant cloud and enterprise data center environments which demand optimized reliability, efficiency, and performance. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is the first of Marvell's partners to support the new accelerator in the HPE NS204i-p NVMe OS Boot Device offered on select HPE ProLiant servers and HPE Apollo systems.

As the industry transitions from legacy SAS and SATA to NVMe SSDs, Marvell's offering helps data centers fast-track the move to higher performance flash storage. The innovative accelerator lowers data center total cost of ownership (TCO) by offloading RAID 1 processing from costly and precious server CPU resources, maximizing application processing performance. IT organizations can now deploy a "plug-and-play," NVMe-based OS boot solution, like the HPE NS204i-p NVMe OS Boot Device, that protects the integrity of flash data storage while delivering an optimized, application-level user experience.

Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ: STX), a world leader in data storage and management solutions, today announced it is shipping 18 TB helium-based enterprise drives in volume as part of the Exos X18 family. The new drive delivers high performance and mass capacity for hyperscale data centers to efficiently and cost-effectively manage ever-increasing amounts of data. Additionally, Seagate's Enterprise Data Solutions launched the new Exos Application Platform (AP) 2U12 as well as a new controller for the company's AP 4U100 systems.

The need for hyperscale and cloud storage solutions continues to rise to unprecedented levels with the ever-increasing growth in data generation. According to a recent Seagate report, Rethink Data, enterprise data is expected to grow at an average rate of 42.2% over the next two years. The survey was conducted by IDC, which also forecast the global datasphere will reach a staggering 175ZB by 2025 in a previous IDC whitepaper sponsored by Seagate. The high-capacity Exos X18 supports this expanding need for data storage.

Phison Electronics , the industry's leader in NAND flash controllers and storage solutions, announces availability of the world's first 15.36 TB QLC customizable Enterprise SSD solution based on Phison's S12DC controller. Phison provides its customers with industry leading SSDs that are customized to their needs by leveraging Phison's firmware, controller, PCBA design, and manufacturing. The S12DC QLC SSD is an ideal storage solution by delivering higher performance, lower power consumption, and greater rack storage density for read intensive storage applications that currently source hard disk drives.

TEAMGROUP today launches QX, the industry's first and largest consumer-grade, 15.3 TB 2.5" SATA solid state drive, shaking the industry with its powerful debut. The QX uses the latest 3D QLC flash memory and has up to 2,560 TBW of write life. It is super durable compared to other products in the industry, lightweight and compact, yet offers a high 15.3 TB storage capacity. The QX will revolutionize the consumer-grade 2.5" SATA SSD market with its market dominating specification.

The QX uses the latest 3D QLC flash memory, which not only has the industry's first and largest 15.3 TB storage capacity but also has industry's first write life up to 2,560 TBW. The ultra-high durability provides consumers with stability and reliability. The powerful QX supports smart dual Cache, including SLC Caching technology and DRAM Cache Buffer, delivering 560/480 MB per second of ultra-fast read/write speed for smooth user experience. At the same time, it also excellent features such as low power consumption, shock resistance, noise-free, etc. With the huge terabyte storage capacity of a mechanical hard drive and the read/write performance not found in traditional mechanical hard drives, it can revolutionize and redefine the consumer-grade 2.5" SATA SSD with its massive 15.3 TB storage capacity.

Nimbus Data, a leading innovator in flash memory storage, today unveiled ExaDrive NL, the world's highest capacity QLC flash SSD and the industry's first QLC flash SAS SSD for enterprise workloads. With industry-leading capacity up to 64 TB in a single SSD, ExaDrive NL helps organizations eliminate server sprawl, reduce software licensing costs, improve efficiency, and reduce data center operating costs by up to 75%.

"Customers are always looking for more capacity and more efficient ways to access their data," said Jeff Janukowicz, Research Vice President, IDC. "High capacity QLC flash SSDs, like Nimbus Data's ExaDrive NL, help organizations migrate to enterprise-grade flash storage as cost-effectively as possible, while simplifying hybrid storage that blends HDDs and SSDs seamlessly to optimize cost and performance for their workloads."

TEAMGROUP today announced the T-FORCE VULCAN G Gaming Solid State Drive. With SATA interface and 3D NAND flash memory, the read and write speeds can reach up to 550 MB/s and 500 MB/s, which offers 4 times faster read/write speed than traditional hard drives. It also supports SLC caching and Windows TRIM optimization commands, making it the best choice for upgrading your gaming PC!

The T-FORCE VULCAN G Gaming Solid State Drive has a minimalist design. The T-FORCE logo is printed with a unique diamond cut pattern for a sophisticated and sleek look. It is also available in capacities of 512 GB and 1 TB, and uses SATA interface and 3D NAND flash memory chip, making it 4 times faster than traditional hard drives in read and write speeds. With up to 550 MB/s and 500 MB/s, gamers will experience a significant performance jump.

The TEAMGROUP EX Series 2.5" Solid State Drive is a must-have upgrade for top of the line PCs. The powerful sequential transfer speed of reading up to 550 MB/s and writing to 520 MB/s, even small and fragmented files can be operated with high efficiency. It also features the SLC Caching technology to avoid degradation of transfer performance effectively. Besides, the advanced Wear-Leveling technology and ECC function ensure the reliability of the EX Series, making it a must-have upgrade for the performance of your PC.

The TEAMGROUP EX2 SSD is available in 512 GB and 1 TB capacities which have a suggested MSRP of 56.99 USD and 99.99 USD respectively. The drives come with a 3-year warranty and are rated for 120 TBW on the 512 GB and 240 TBW on the 1 TB model.

The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO), the storage industry consortium dedicated to sustaining the quality, integrity and dissemination of the Serial ATA (SATA ) technology, today announced the publication of the SATA Revision 3.5 Specification. Specification 3.5 introduces features that enable increased performance benefits and promote greater integration of SATA devices and products with other industry I/O standards.

"SATA-IO has a long tradition of participating in the industry and supporting new innovative technology. These new features underscore the versatility of the SATA standard," said Jim Hatfield, SATA-IO president. "SATA remains one of the most stable, yet adaptable, interfaces in the industry. We are pleased to be able to enhance SATA's compatibility benefits for our members and the industry by adding features which allow SATA and other I/O standards to coexist in a variety of environments."

You may remember Nimbus Data's Exadrive, which was announced back in 2018 to claim the crown of world's densest SSD solution with a full 100 TB capacity crammed into the usual 3.5" form-factor and SATA connection as most (now) budget drives. At the time, pricing was available via a direct quote only. now, the company has changed that paradigm and is yelling straight at customers' wallets.

Cutting expectations short, and yet somehow supplanting them, Nimbus Data's Exadrives can be yours for the low, low price of $40,000 for a 100 TB version (a clean-looking $400 per TB). the 50 TB version is slightly saner when it comes to pricing: it only goes up to the $250 per TB barrier, costing a mundane $12,500. Of course, this is enterprise-grade MLC NAND providing read/write speeds rated at 500 & 460 MB/s, respectively, and up to 114,000/105,000 IOps reads/writes. Quick, fun napkin math right here: this 3.5" 100 TB density would be equivalent to no less than 69,444,444 3.5" floppy disks. Stack those floppies one on top of the other and you'd get a 229 km-high tower for your troubles. Oh how times have changed.

Transcend Information Inc, a leading manufacturer of embedded memory products, recently rolled out a new line of solid-state drives featuring the latest generation of 96-layer 3D NAND flash. The release features SSDs in the NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4, SATA III M.2, and mSATA form factors, and large capacity options from 64 GB to 2 TB. Besides sporting an endurance rating of 3K P/E cycles, these solutions boast appealing new features, such as default 30µ" PCB gold finger and Corner Bond technology - which shields key components against wear and external impact - an extended operating temperature range (-20°C ~ 75°C), and dynamic thermal throttling, allowing for greater durability.