Korean company Zalman added a new segment to its expanding lineup, that of USB 3.0 flash drives, with its new "SLC Series". As the name suggests these flash drives incorporate SLC (single-level cell) NAND flash memory. The drives are available in two capacity options, 16 GB (model: U3M16SLC) and 32 GB (model: U3M32SLC). Taking advantage of the USB 3.0 interface, the drives provide transfer rates of up to 155 MB/s reads, with up to 135 MB/s writes. Measuring 78 x 17 x 8.6 mm (WxDxH), the drives are built in conventional capped form-factor. Slated for an early-June release, the U3M16SLC is priced at 5,480 JPY (US $69), while the U3M32SLC goes for 8,980 JPY (US $113).

Green House Japan unveiled a new line of industrial SDHC cards that are designed to endure operating temperatures as high as 70°C, and as low as 0°C, which makes them fit to serve as removable storage media in IPCs and outdoor static cameras. The cards further pack ECC logic to prevent data corruption. The cards make use of SLC NAND flash, and come in capacities of 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB, and 8 GB. The 256 and 512 MB models provide transfer rates as high as 19 MB/s reads with 7 MB/s writes, while the other models provide speeds as high as 20 MB/s reads with 13 MB/s writes. Green House left pricing to the open markets.

Storage mogul TDK launched its Series 7 mSATA SSD line (model: SMG3B). The drives incorporate TDK's in-house GBDriver RS3 processor, and 1 to 64 GB of SLC NAND flash memory, which makes these drives ideal for Rapid Storage Technology SSD caching. The processor provides cutting-edge 44-bit ECC to weed out caching errors. Another application would be taking advantage of the drive's durable NAND flash memory, and deploying it in sensitive computing devices such as ATM computers, kiosks, payment terminals, ticketing machines, medical equipment, marine navigation equipment, avionics, etc. The drives only take advantage of SATA 3 Gb/s, providing sequential speeds of up to 170 MB/s reads and 70 MB/s writes. Modern SSD features including 128-bit AES data encryption, are provided. Prices vary by the numerous capacity options available.

With many years of experience in the industrial SSD sector, Apacer has been a customized product manufacturer trusted by industrial computer and server corporations in the U.S. and Japan for a long time. To provide customers with a more diverse product range, Apacer has revealed three models of the new-generation of modular SATA SSDs; the SDM4 MP (SATA Disk Module, Middle Profile), with 7-pin SATA connectors available in three orientations of 90°, 180° and 270°, along with a patented built-in power supply design. These are designed to meet user-specific needs for various form factors and industrial designs.

Compared to that of its predecessor, the reading speed of these next-generation SSDs has been boosted to 85MB/sec. In terms of the chip, in addition to SLC storage solutions, MLC chip product lines can also support operating at industry-level extended-temperatures (-40°C ~ 85°C), and are especially suitable for stable operation under rigorous industrial environments.

While SSDs with single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash are relegated to enterprise segment owing to their high-cost and write endurance (unless they are low-capacity cache SSDs), one company made efforts to bring them to the PC enthusiast market. SupperSSpeed took advantage of the fact that SandForce SF-2281 supports SLC NAND flash, backed it up with Intel-made 25 nm SLC NAND flash memory, and made it available in capacities common in the PC segment: 60 GB and 120 GB. The 120 GB variant packs cutting-edge 128 Gbit SLC NAND flash chips, while the 60 GB variant packs more mature 64 Gbit ones. Thanks to SandForce and its overprovisioning mojo, the drives lack external DRAM caches. Expreview put the two drives through its battery of tests, and concluded that these are the best SSDs in terms of transfer speed yield, and random-access performance, not to mention that by design, these drives have higher write endurance.More numbers follow.

Intel made its SSD 313 series official, its product page was activated, and ARK pages of its variants maintain the products are already launched. The SSD 313 series succeeds SSD 311 series, it consists of SSDs specifically designed for SSD-caching technologies such as Intel Smart Response Technology, and upcoming technologies that the upcoming "Ivy Bridge" platform brings with it, including "Rapid Start" and "Smart Connect". The SSD 313 Series is introduced in two variants, a 20 GB variant, and a 24 GB variant.

The 20 GB variant offers sequential performance up to 220 MB/s and 100 MB/s (read and write), while the 24 GB variant offers 160 MB/s and 115 MB/s, which might make one wonder about the need for a 24 GB variant, given that it's also slower at 4K random-seek performance 33,000 IOPS / 4,000 IOPS vs. 36,000 IOPS / 3,300 IOPS of the 20 GB. One reason behind the 24 GB variant's existence could be that a combination of different Intel technologies partition the SSD, taking away small amounts of capacity. The extra 4 GB of capacity might more than make up for the slightly lower performance. Both drives use SLC NAND flash chips, which are more durable than MLC NAND flash, and can take more rewrite cycles (something that factors in heavily for caching SSDs). Both drives are available in 2.5" SATA 3 Gb/s and mSATA 3 Gb/s form-factors. The 20 GB variant was earlier put to test.

With 3rd generation Core "Ivy Bridge" processors, and 7-series "Panther Point" chipset, Intel will also release a new line of cache-SSDs to complement its Smart Response Technology (SRT) feature, which provides a decent performance middle-ground between HDDs, and expensive SSDs. The SSD 313 "Hawley Creek" family will replace SSD 310 "Larson Creek" family. It consists of drives that make use of relatively low amounts of SLC NAND flash memory (which have much higher endurance than MLC NAND flash, making them ideal for caching). Built in the 2.5" SATA and mSATA form-factors, the drives will be available in two variants; the 20 GB variant offers 220/100 MB/s (reads/writes), with 36,000 4K random read IOPS, while the 24 GB variant offers 160/115 MB/s (reads/writes), with 33,000 4K random read IOPS.

HWBOX.gr got to test the SSD 313 20 GB variant on a current generation Z68 motherboard (ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z), and post its findings. The Greek tech-site tested its performance in what it's meant to do: SSD caching using Intel SRT. Findings show a healthy boost in performance, with synthetic benchmarks, including synthetic read/write performance, random-access (IOPS), PCMark, and real-world tests such as Windows 7 boot-time, and startup of content-creation applications, but the performance-difference between SRT and plain-HDD narrowed as tests with data-loads grew, which is expected. SSD caching merely places "hot-data" (frequently-accessed data of the HDD on the SSD, for quicker access), and shunts data in and out of the SSD, as "heat" of data on the HDD changes competitively. Find a ton of more test results at the source link.

Spansion Inc. and SK Hynix today announced an alliance to deliver Spansion SLC NAND products at the 4x, 3x, and 2x nodes to the embedded market. The first Spansion SLC NAND products resulting from this alliance will be available beginning in the second quarter of 2012. As part of the relationship, the companies will enter into a patent cross-licensing agreement.

Spansion's NAND products complement its NOR offering and complete its product line, which is targeted at embedded applications such as automotive, industrial and telecommunications. Spansion's high performance and high reliability SLC NAND product portfolio will come with Spansion's recognized customer support and commitment for longevity of supply, which is highly valued in the embedded market, where Spansion has established relationships. Spansion will apply its stringent process for qualification, testing, extended temperature support and packaging to its NAND products. The company plans to introduce a family of NAND products over the next few quarters.

LSI Corporation today introduced the Nytro portfolio, a comprehensive family of solutions that combines PCIe flash technology with intelligent caching and management software to achieve accelerated application performance in datacenters and cloud environments.

The amount of data being stored and accessed worldwide is growing at an exponential rate, outpacing the ability of traditional storage architectures to keep up. This creates bottlenecks, throttling application performance and making it harder for companies to extract the full value from data. Nytro solutions allow datacenters to contend with massive data growth and speed the ability of databases and other applications to access data and provide real-time analytics and reporting.

Data storage expert TDK corporation unveiled the eSSD, a single-package embedded SSD chip. The chip combines a SATA 3 Gb/s SSD controller, and NAND flash in capacities ranging between 1 GB to 4 GB. The SSD controller logic is based on TDK's new GBDriver R3 controller design, and the NAND flash is of single-layer cell (SLC) type. The eSSD provides sequential transfer rates of 55 MB/s read, and 30 MB/s write, it packs an automatic garbage disposal and wear-leveling logic, along with native 128-bit AES data encryption. The package measures 17 x 17 mm, with a ball-count of 208. The chip can be part of anything, from large logic boards of embedded computing appliances, to tiny half-height mSATA SSDs. TDK is giving the chip in its mSATA board forms as evaluation samples.

InnoDisk Corporation, a leader in industrial DRAM and Flash storage solutions, announces that its SATADOM storage device has been qualified by Intel for the new Romley Server Boards. InnoDisk SATADOM has been selected as the preferred boot device on the SATA port.

SATADOM has five times the performance of normal USB drive (135 MB/sec and 116 MB/sec Read/Write versus 25 MB/sec and 20 MB/sec for USB). SATADOM's low profile form-factor makes it ideal for 1U and blade server applications. InnoDisk SATADOM, designed with SLC NAND Flash, delivers the highest endurance for performance demanding and mission critical applications.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST), a leading supplier of enterprise-class solid state and hard disk drives, today announced that EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) has qualified and is now shipping Hitachi Ultrastar SSD400S SLC-based (single level cell), 2.5-inch, SAS solid state drives (SSD) in its "all Flash" VNX Unified Storage systems for mission-critical Microsoft and Oracle environments. The Ultrastar SSD400S family is the world's first jointly develop SAS and FC enterprise-class SSDs, combining Hitachi GST's proven enterprise HDD strength with Intel's extensive capabilities developing high-endurance SLC NAND flash memory and advanced SSD technology. All of this powers Hitachi GST's leading line SSDs with high endurance, reliability and sustained performance for Tier 0, mission-critical server and storage workloads.

Greenliant Systems, a leader in energy-efficient, highly secure and reliable solid state storage products, has started mass production of its industrial grade SATA interface NANDrive solid state drives (SSDs). Operating at temperatures between -40 and +85 degrees Celsius, I-grade SATA NANDrive devices keep customer data safe while withstanding extreme environments.

The industrial grade SATA NANDrive is currently available in 2 GByte, 4 GByte and 8 GByte, with higher capacities planned. These products combine Greenliant's internally developed NAND controller with single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash die for a fully integrated SSD in a multi-chip package. For applications requiring the endurance and speed of solid state storage in very small form factors, SATA NANDrive is one of the smallest SSDs at 14mm x 24mm x 1.95mm. Offered in a 145 ball grid array (BGA), 1mm ball pitch package for easy and firm mounting to a system motherboard, NANDrive is resistant to shock and vibration.

Transcend Information, Inc. (Transcend), a worldwide leader in storage and multimedia products, will exhibit at Embedded World 2012 in Nuremberg, Germany on February 28 - March 1, 2012. Throughout the exhibition, Transcend will display a wide range of industrial-grade products from SSDs to memory modules, specifically designed for diverse industrial applications. Transcend's booth will be located in Hall 1, booth no. 216.

Participating at Embedded World again this year, Transcend is proud to display a more comprehensive and advanced industrial grade product portfolio, including SATA III 6Gb/s SSD, SLC SSD, mSATA and half-slim SSDs, flash modules, flash cards, and memory modules. Transcend will also set up professional on-site demonstrations, such as SSD lifespan monitoring and sudden power-off test, to highlight the ultimate stability and guaranteed reliable data transfer of Transcend SSDs.

Announced last month, the SSD500 solid state drives from Transcend have now started selling in Europe. The SSD500 drives make use of SLC (single-level cell) NAND Flash memory (providing up to 100,000 erase/write cycles), and feature a 2.5-inch form factor, a SATA 3.0 Gbps interface, TRIM support, and read/write speeds of up to 260/230 MB/s.

The 16 GB , 32 GB and 64 GB SSD500 models are backed by a three-year warranty and cost 164.01 Euro, 314.07 Euro and 596.89 Euro, respectively.

According to a fresh report, April will not 'only' see the launch of the Ivy Bridge processor family, as Intel is also preparing the arrival of some new solid state drives specifically designed to be used in SSD/HDD storage setups (made possible by the Smart Response Technology).

The incoming SSD Caching drives are known as the 313 Series (they will replace the 311 Series aka Larson Creek), they come in 2.5-inch (7 mm thick) and mSATA form factors, and make use of 25 nm SLC (single-level cell) NAND Flash memory chips (the 311 models pack 34 nm NAND). The 313 Series SSDs have a SATA 3.0 Gbps interface and will be available in 20 GB ($99) and 24 GB ($119) capacities.

Japan-based Green House Co. has now introduced a fresh family of flashy storage solutions, the GH-UFI-XSA series industrial-grade flash drives. Backed by a three-year warranty, these new drives measure 47.3 x 17.6 x 8.4 mm, they weight 10 grams, and feature a tough metal body, an USB 2.0 interface, SLC (single-level cell) NAND Flash memory chips, ECC, transfer speeds (read and write) of up to 20 MB/s, and an operating temperature range going from - 40 to + 85 degrees Celsius.

The GH-UFI-XSA flash drives come in 128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB and 8 GB capacities.

Macronix International Co., Ltd., a world leading supplier in NOR Flash memory, today formally launches the first generation Single-Level Cell (SLC) NAND Flash family, the MX30LF family. An extension of Macronix's existing Serial and Parallel NOR Flash product portfolio, the new MX30LF SLC NAND family will facilitate Macronix serving embedded code and data storage markets as a total Flash memory provider.

As a leader in embedded non-volatile memories, Macronix fulfills the memory requirements of these applications ranging from consumer electronic applications like set-top box (STB), TV, digital cameras, Customer-premises equipment(CPE) and high end networking, through to industrial PC and automotive applications. Macronix has begun sampling SLC NAND products and will start trial production in 2012 Q1.