ADATA launched the XPG SX950 line of performance segment SSDs, which it unveiled at the 2017 International CES expo. Available in 240 GB, 480 GB, and 960 GB capacities, these drives combine a Silicon Motion made controller with 3D MLC NAND flash memory, to belt out performance of up to 560 MB/s sequential reads, with up to 530 MB/s sequential writes; and up to 90,000 IOPS 4K read/write random access performance. The controller features SLC caching, with which the drives treats a small portion of the MLC NAND user area as SLC NAND, and juggles hot data in and out of this portion, for improved performance. Built in the 7 mm thick 2.5-inch form-factor, the drives take advantage of SATA 6 Gb/s interface. The company is backing these drives with an interesting 6-year product warranty.

Adding to their SSD lineup, Mushkin, which makes some really interesting, good price-performance ratio products has recently announced the upcoming availability of their Helix line of M.2 2280 SSDs. Based on Silicon Motion's SM2260 controller paired with 3D MLC NAND, Mushkin positions the Helix line as a premium, high-performance offering for desktops and laptops alike. Models will vary from a 250 GB entry-level offering thorugh a 2 TB high-end SKU, with the 2 TB version offering sequential read performance at up to 2.5 GB/s and write performance at up to 1.1 GB/s, when Silicon Motion's pseudo-SLC caching technology is used to its best effect.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of highperformance DRAM modules, NAND Flash products, and mobile accessories today launched the M.2 2280 version of the Ultimate SU800 3D NAND SSD. With higher density, faster performance, and longer lifespan than 2D NAND SSDs, the new SU800 fits on a compact card while still available in 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB and offered at very attractive price points. It supports a DRAM Buffer and SLC Caching mode to boost performance up to 560 MB/s read and 520 MB/s write, with LDPC error correction, Data Shaping, and a RAID Engine to bolster data integrity. For users that want a simple, cable-free, and low energy draw SSD upgrade, the SU800 M.2 2280 has much to offer.

The SU800 M.2 2280 fits on a compact PCB and slots directly into M.2 ports, which are increasingly common on desktop PCs and the standard on notebooks. It uses 3D NAND with an SMI controller and fits up to 1TB. Unlike 2.5" SSDs, it does not require cables and only needs very minimal power, supplied straight from the motherboard. The direct motherboard link also helps reduce latency and increase performance by roughly 10% compared to 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s drives. The SU800 M.2 2280 reaches 560 MB/s read and 520MB/s write. It also lasts longer than 2D NAND drives, with an MTBF (mean time between failures) of 2,000,000 hours versus 1,500,000.

Transcend Information, Inc. (Transcend ), a leading manufacturer of storage and multimedia products, is proud to announce the launch of a brand new SSD with built-in 3D NAND flash. With the growing needs for high-capacity and high-performance storage, Transcend has adopted 3D NAND flash technology for its 2.5" SSD230 solid state drives, boosting storage capacity, transfer rates, and reliability all at once.

To achieve higher densities, 2D planar NAND flash technology shrinks each memory cell onto a single layer of cells. However, this technology increases cell-to-cell interference and hence reduces reliability as it approaches its physical scaling limit. 3D NAND flash was developed to resolve this bottleneck, as it features multiple layers of memory cells stacked vertically. 3D NAND flash not only resolves the density limitations of 2D horizontal NAND, but also boosts read and write performance, as it does not require the invocation of algorithms to prevent data corruption. Free from cell-to-cell interference, state-of-the art 3D NAND flash technology also features higher endurance and lower power consumption.

Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC) has expanded its family of 24nm single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash memory solutions. The new 16 gigabit (Gb) BENAND is housed in an industry-standard 48-pin TSOP package, and offers a combination of high read/write performance, effective write endurance (using 8-bit BCH error correction code), and extended temperature operation. This makes it suitable for a wide variety of commercial and industrial applications.

The new addition rounds out Toshiba's broad SLC product lineup, allowing designers to take advantage of the price/performance of advanced 24nm NAND flash SLC technology at densities from 1Gb to 128Gb. Based on a 4x4Gb die, 16Gb BENAND operates from a power supply of 2.7V to 3.3V with a temperature range of -40°C to 85°C. Many industrial applications have a long life expectancy. Toshiba designed BENAND with this in mind. With the ability to replace older generations of discrete SLC NAND, BENAND extends the product life of everything from telecom applications and LCD TVs to robots and printers - while also potentially reducing BOM costs.

Micron Technology, Inc., today announced its newest embedded SLC NAND Flash optimized for the next generation of Internet of Things (IoT) and automotive applications. Available with differing interfaces to accommodate design, Micron's second generation Serial (SPI) NAND and fifth generation parallel SLC NAND, offers the industry's best-in-class reliability1 and read and program performance, ease of design and advanced security features.

Gartner projects that the IoT endpoint hardware and services market will rise to a $3.5 trillion industry by 20202. As system designers seek embedded solutions to power the performance for the connected home, wearables and the connected car, the technical demands have raised the bar for the security and seamlessness for ingredient semiconductor suppliers. Micron's newest SLC NAND addresses these needs for high-performance storage technology to propel the market forward.

"Micron works closely with chipset partners and customers within the ecosystem to design tomorrow's products that meet the complex NAND requirements fueled by IoT and automotive," said Aravind Ramamoorthy, product line director of NAND flash for Micron's Embedded Business Unit. "The new SLC NAND Flash technology enable a new category of embedded applications that need reliable, high-performance, low pin count and secure4 memory for code and low density data storage."

A FAST '16 paper titled "Flash Reliability in Production: The Expected and the Unexpected," by Professor Bianca Schroeder of the University of Toronto, and Raghav Lagisetty and Arif Merchant of Google, studied the reliability data from millions of SSD drive-days over a period of 6 years, to come up with some very interesting conclusions on SSD reliability. One of the study's biggest findings is that high-end (read: enterprise) SSDs with single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash memory are no more reliable than cheaper multi-level cell (MLC) drives. Besides millions of drive-hours, the group also studied 10 different models of enterprise and consumer SSDs, from three different memory types - MLC NAND, SLC NAND, and eMLC NAND.

The study also shows that RBER (raw bit error rate) is a more dependable measure of reliability than UBER (uncorrectable bit error rate) mentioned in drive specs or datasheets. RBER increases slower than expected from wearout, and isn't correlated with UBER. However, the measured/real-world UBER is higher for SSDs than HDDs. This means that while SSDs are less likely to "fail" than HDDs, they're more likely to lose portions of their data. Keep your SSDs regularly imaged. Age, rather than usage, affects reliability of SSDs. A disturbing 30-80% of SSDs in the study developed at least one bad-block, and 2-7% of the SSDs developed at least one bad chip, within the first 4 years of deployment.

Plextor, a leading developer of high performance storage devices, will be adding the new third generation, four-lane PCI-Express NVMe M.2 M8Pe solid-state drive (SSD), and the M7V Series mainstream SATA SSD to its exemplary line of solid-state drive products at the upcoming 2016 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in the Plextor suite at the Aria.

The M8Pe is the first Plextor SSD with the revolutionary NVMe protocol that helps reduce access latency, allowing for faster speeds. It connects via PCIe, enabling 4KB random read performance up to 270,000 IOPS, and 4KB write performance up to 150,000 IOPS. M8Pe PCI express drives are designed to give gamers and other high intensity users complete synergy and maximum performance. M8Pe features M.2 form factor allowing better airflow and cooling, increases the speed and performance of the SSD. PlexTurbo latest version 3.0, an intelligent RAM caching solution uses the system memory to boost access storage performance compared to standard factory SSDs. Other features of M8Pe include PlexCompressor, a smart compression technology that gives the user more storage capacity without impacting user experience and system performance., and PlexVault, a useful feature allowing private data to be hidden securely for shared computers using Plextor SSDs.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of highperformance DRAM modules and NAND Flash products,today launched the industrial-grade ISSS332 2.5" SATA III (6Gb/s) solid state drive. Available in SLC and MLC NAND Flash types that withstand a wide temperature range, the ISSS332 provides excellent performance and durability for a broad spectrum of industrial equipment applications.

Utilizing fast SLC and MLC NAND Flash, the ISSS332 features outstanding performance and reliability with sequential read/write speeds up to 560MB/450MB per second and an MTBF (mean time before failure) rating of 2 million hours. Thanks to an industrial-grade operational temperature range of -40°C to 90°C, the ISSS332 enables long term deployment in harsh environments that experience extreme cold and heat.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of highperformance DRAM modules and NAND Flash products,today launched the ICFS332 industrial CFast card,which combines the form factor of a CF card with a high speed SATA interface to deliver reliability and secure operation for a wide range of industrial equipment applications.

Utilizing fast SLC NAND Flash, the ICFS332 provides outstanding performance and reliability with sequential read/write speeds up to 560MB/400MB per second and an MTBF (mean time before failure) rating of 2 million hours. Thanks to an industrial-grade operational temperature range of -40°C to 90°C, the ICFS332 enables long term deployment in harsh environments that experience extreme cold and heat.

Transcend Information, Inc., a leading manufacturer of industrial-grade products, is proud to introduce a new solution of SSD570 in a 2.5" form factor with the top quality SLC NAND flash embedded to its industrial product line. Taking advantage of the next-generation SATA III 6Gb/s interface, Transcend SSD570 in 128GB capacity boosts its exceptional transfer speeds of up to 510 MB/s read and 450 MB/s write. Best suited for industrial and embedded applications, Transcend SSD570 is equipped with value-added technologies such as IPS function, Device Sleep mode and S.M.A.R.T. attribute to provide lower power consumption and enhance data protection mechanism.

Compliant with the third generation of the SATA specification utilizing the full potential of the 6Gb/s bus, Transcend SSD570 solid state drives deliver high speed sustained sequential read/write performance of up to 510 MB/s and 450 MB/s respectively. Built on advanced Transcend TS6500 controller and high-quality SLC NAND flash, which has higher stability in data retention and longer endurance than MLC, Transcend SSD570 guarantees faster transfer speed, longer read/write endurance and lower error rates. With shock and vibration resistance design, Transcend SSD570 is the perfect storage solution suitable for industrial applications that require intensive programming yet with excellent data integrity.

Toshiba today launched a new line-up of NAND flash memory products for embedded applications that are compatible with the widely used Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI). Wide ranging applications for the new "Serial Interface NAND" include such consumer applications as flat-screen TVs, printers and wearable devices, and industrial applications, including robots. Users can choose from a wide line-up of 12 products that offers three densities, 1Gbit, 2Gbit and 4Gbit; two packages, WSON[1] and SOP[2] and two power supply voltages. Samples shipment starts today and mass production is scheduled to begin with the 1Gbit products from December. Mass production of the remaining line-up will follow.

Compatibility with the widely used SPI, which can be controlled with just six pins, allows the new "Serial Interface NAND" to be used as SLC NAND flash memory, with a low pin count, small package and large capacity.

Innodisk, the service-driven flash provider, announces its latest series of SATADOM disk-on-module SSDs featuring a new cable-less power technology. This latest series of SATADOM and ServerDOM come in the same compact form factor but feature a new way of delivering power to the flash drive directly through the SATA connector itself for less clutter and superior reliability. The new patented Pin 8 technology powers a series of SATADOM drives which will come in a variety of compact form factors and flash flavors including SLC, MLC and iSLC, as well as DRAM-less versions for 100% data integrity in the face of power loss. Besides SATADOM with Pin 8 Technology, Innodisk is updating its full line of SATADOM SSDs including SATADOM powered by Pin 7 power and external power cables. The new SATADOM SSDs will feature higher capacities and DRAM-Less SSD technology.

Patented by Innodisk, SATA Pin 8 Vcc uses the SATA connector itself as a power supply to drive the device without external cables. Extra pins on each side of the drive's connector mate with pins in the motherboard's SATA interface to provide a power source that eliminates the need for cables. Already available on motherboards from top manufacturers, Innodisk's Pin 8 Vcc technology joins Innodisk's SATA Pin 7 Vcc technology to enable compact, cableless SATA storage solutions.

Toshiba's Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., announced today two new internal solid-state drive (SSD) storage devices with up to 960 GB of capacity. The new SSDs include the Toshiba Q300 Pro Series Internal SSD Hard Drive, built for gaming and creative applications with high-end demand for performance and reliability and the Toshiba Q300 Series Internal SSD, offering a balance of high performance and value, ideal for PC upgrades from traditional hard drives. With Adaptive Size SLC Write cache technology to enable SLC-like performance, both models offer high processing speed and low power consumption and are compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux.

"Toshiba's announcement of the new Q300 Pro and Q300 internal SSDs demonstrates that Toshiba is continuously striving to bring the best storage solutions to the market," said Maciek Brzeski, Vice President of Branded Storage Products, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Digital Products Division. "Today's announcement addresses increasing consumer demand for speed, performance, quality and reliability to improve their computing experience. As the inventor of flash memory, our new Q300 and Q300 Pro Internal SSD Series delivers leading-class performance and reliability to meet a wide variety of computing needs."

OCZ announced the Trion 100, a new lineup of cost-effective SSD for first-time users graduating from HDDs, and for those who want fast read-intensive drives to replace storage HDDs in their systems. Some extremely low price-per-gigabyte figures build their case. The drive features 19 nm TLC NAND flash chips made by Toshiba, driven by a controller also made by Toshiba. This controller features an SLC-caching tech that deals with a small portion of the TLC NAND flash as SLC (by storing just one bit per cell), which has the maximum sequential transfer performance. The controller juggles hot-data in and out of this portion from the rest of the TLC area. Other controller features include DEVSLEEP mode support. In this mode, the drive draws just 6 mW of power. Other essentials such as TRIM and NCQ are also featured.

OCZ Trion 100 comes in four capacities - 120 GB, 240 GB, 480 GB, and 960 GB, priced at US $56.99, $87.99, $184.99, and $369.99, respectively. All four variants offer sequential read speeds of up to 550 MB/s, while the maximum sequential-write speeds are rated at 450 MB/s, 520 MB/s, 530 MB/s, and 530 MB/s, respectively. The maximum 4K random-read performance for the 120 GB variant is rated at 79,000 IOPS; while the other three offer up to 90,000 IOPS. Random-write performance figures for the four variants are 25,000 IOPS, 43,000 IOPS, 54,000 IOPS, and 64,000 IOPS, respectively. The drives are built in the 7 mm-thick 2.5-inch form-factor, with SATA 6 Gb/s interface. The drives ship with OCZ's SSDGuru software that lets you monitor the drive's health, update its firmware, and wipe it. OCZ is offering a 3-year warranty with these drives.Read our review of the OCZ Trion 100 480GB.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash application products, today launches the IHSS312, a high-performance SATA III 6Gbps 22-pin half-slim SSD of MO-297 form factor, which is available in 8/16/32/64/128/256GB capacities to meet the varying needs of IPC embedded systems, healthcare, medical devices, kiosk/POS and factory automation.

Utilizing high-speed MLC NAND flash, ADATA's IHSS312 provides excellent performance and reliability with a sequential read/write speed up to 500/125MB per second and MTBF of up to 1 million hours. Thanks to its industrial-grade operable temperature range of -40°C to +85°C, the IHSSS312 is ideal for harsh environments requiring long-term operation.

SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash storage solutions, today introduced the iNAND 7132 storage solution, the most advanced embedded storage solution from SanDisk to date. Designed for use in flagship mobile devices, the iNAND 7132 storage solution features SanDisk's new iNAND Accelerator Architecture with SmartSLC technology, an innovative new storage architecture that quickly and intelligently responds on-demand to mobile users' needs and gives superior experiences to the most data-intensive applications. Available in capacities up to 64GB, iNAND 7132 storage solution enables original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to introduce a new generation of high-capacity smartphones, tablets and connected devices that offer exceptional user experiences.

"iNAND 7132 is the perfect high capacity storage solution for the next generation of smartphones, tablets and smart devices," said Drew Henry, senior vice president and general manager for Mobile and Connected Solutions at SanDisk. "Featuring our new iNAND Accelerator Architecture with SmartSLC, our best-in-class iNAND 7132 storage solution delivers amazing performance for faster burst photography and 4K Ultra HD video capture, supports the newest 802.11 standards with ease, and enables blazingly fast data side-loading."

SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash storage solutions, today announced the availability of the SanDisk X300 SSD. The SanDisk X300 SSD leverages the latest advancements in X3 technology to deliver a great user experience with high-performance, while utilizing robust error-correction to increase reliability and provide peace of mind for today's CIOs. SanDisk's new client SSD also includes an improved SSD Dashboard, which provides visibility into the drive's performance, security, and available firmware updates, in order to maintain peak performance at all times-an important feature for today's mobile workforce.

"The SanDisk X300 SSD is our first X-series drive to incorporate the use of our nCache 2.0 tiered caching architecture and X3, three bit-per-cell technology, to deliver a highly optimized and reliable solution for both CIOs and their employees," said Kevin Conley, senior vice president and general manager, client storage solutions at SanDisk. "This mainstream corporate drive not only provides the reliability and performance companies need today, but also helps CIOs reduce total cost of ownership and shorten the time to return on investment."

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash application products, today launches the industrial grade ISSS312 2.5" SATA III (6 Gb/s) Solid State Drive. It features low power consumption, industrial grade S.M.A.R.T. and power loss protection (PLP) for excellent performance and reliability. It also provides MLC, A+ SLC, SLC grades and wide temperature to meet the upgrade requirements of industrial equipment and enterprise devices.

MLC/A+ SLC/SLC solutions for various applications
Since storage applications are rapidly changing, the concepts of consumer digital lifestyles and the Internet of Things (I.O.T.) are developing, and web applications and technology are growing sharply, the industrial equipment and enterprise platforms need more powerful data computing capability, real-time transfer rate and high I/O throughput to cope with future trends.

Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) today announced that it will showcase its latest NAND flash and storage products at Flash Memory Summit, the world's largest flash memory conference, which will be held from August 5 to 7 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, California, USA. The exhibition part of Flash Memory Summit will be held in the latter two days, August 6 and 7, and Toshiba will be exhibiting at booth #504.

ATP, the leading manufacturer of embedded Flash, ruggedized SSD and DRAM modules, upgraded its product lines of the Horizontal and Vertical SATA DOM product series with a few refined features targeting networking, industrial automation/equipment, gaming, POS and digital signage markets. Due to diminishing supplies in the market for small NAND Flash form factors, the renewal of this product series has come at a good time. The ATP SLC based Horizontal and Vertical SATA DOM product series are available in densities ranging from 2G to 16GB and are available for sampling immediately.

The new ATP SATA DOM product series come with the latest development of the hardware based PowerProtector, which provides more coverage of data protection in the event of a sudden power outage. The latest generation of PowerProtector provides more power for the controller to flush the data once a power outage is detected, temporarily storing in the SRAM and DRAM along the data path in a NAND Flash product, and into the flash ICs. This means the PowerProtector offers more protection for the data integrity in the case of a sudden loss of power. Moreover, the SLC based products have more than twenty times program/erase life cycles over other MLC Flash based NAND Flash products on the market, demonstrating extended product usage life and robustness to meet the industrial challenges.

Unigen Corporation has announced SLC or MLC NAND Flash based M.2 SATA III SSDs in densities ranging from 16 GB - 256 GB. Measuring 22 mm 'W' x 80 mm 'H' these small form factor flash modules are used for high reliability storage of critical code and data, in space-constrained embedded, industrial, gaming and networking applications. This New Generation Form Factor (NGFF) SSD allows for scalability with 110 mm 'H' modules, consistent with emerging trends.

To meet the needs of Unigen's diverse customer base and applications, these flash modules are offered in densities up to 256 GB in both commercial (0ºC - 85ºC) and industrial (-40ºC - 85ºC) temperature ranges. They feature Sustained Sequential Read/Write performance of 540/490 MB/s, and support S.M.A.R.T features, power loss protection, advanced wear leveling and ECC.

Virtium, the embedded industry's trusted supplier of highly reliable infrastructure SSDs and industrial memory modules, today announced the availability of its StorFly M.2 SATA 6G (SATA III) solid state drives (SSDs). Delivering an optimal storage solution for embedded infrastructure-based applications that require high performance in a small form factor, Virtium developed two M.2 modules.

Standard StorFly M.2 modules are available in 42 mm (2242) and 80 mm (2280) lengths, with 60 mm and 110 mm modules offered as customer needs dictate. Engineered to provide superior endurance and extended product lifecycles, the new StorFly M.2 SSDs are optimized for a broad variety of embedded applications including networking base stations, industrial automation equipment, casino gaming and data logging systems.

Virtium, the embedded industry's trusted supplier of highly reliable infrastructure SSDs and industrial memory modules, today introduced its second generation StorFly SATA 6G (SATA III) solid state drive product family. Virtium's Gen2 StorFly SSDs family is available in 2.5 and 1.8-inch SATA, M.2, mSATA, Slim SATA, and CFast form factors. Designed to meet the diverse storage requirements of mission-critical embedded applications, Virtium's second generation StorFly SSD products provide superior endurance and are engineered for extended product lifecycles. The new StorFly products are optimized for the data types and workloads of a wide range of infrastructure applications including networking, communications, industrial, remote monitoring, transportation, digital signage and gaming systems.

Greatly minimizing the need for costly product requalifications, Virtium's StorFly PE Class SLC-based SSDs will maintain stable configurations for at least three or more years enabling OEMs to realize a considerable total cost-of-ownership (TCO) advantage. The new StorFly SATA SSDs deliver four times the read performance, along with improved error-checking and correction (ECC) and wear-leveling capabilities, providing greater levels of reliability and endurance compared to the first generation StorFly SSDs. The new StorFly designs also support SMART commands and feature Virtium's vtGUARD power fail protection technology to protect against potential data corruption as a result of an unexpected power loss.

TDK Corporation announced today the successful development of the SNG4A series of serial ATA II compatible industrial solid state drives. The new NAND flash memory modules enable storage capacities of up to 64 GB with SLC type NAND flash memory. Measuring only approx. 22 x 42 mm, the modules support use in M.2 slots and will be available from August 2014.

The new M.2 form factor is currently garnering a lot of attention and is expected to become the dominant standard for consumer applications. Furthermore, the adoption of M.2 for industrial applications will most likely also be promoted heavily. Motherboards for industrial use not only have to achieve good transfer speeds, but there is also a growing tendency to place more emphasis on reliability, since products often have to be operable for periods of ten years or more.