Silicon Power (SP), the world's leading provider of memory storage solutions today unveiled Velox V60, a 2.5" consumer solid state disk that combines aesthetic and performance. V60 features a sleek metal body with SATA III interface delivering personal style, speed and quality, taking computing experience to a new level.

Unlike a traditional SSD that is rigid and bulky, SP V60 offers a stylish brushed aluminum enclosure in metallic gray. It features a hairline finished cover with a silver embossed diamond cut logo and a body with curved edges. Its minimalist design speaks quality and character; adding style to functionality so consumers will never need to compromise aesthetic for performance.

RunCore, leading supplier of high-performance solid-state drives, has just started giving a sneak preview of two soon to be globally available special-use SSDs, the RunCore InVincible with a physical self-destruction mechanism, and the RunCore XAPEAR, allowing for complete remote data elimination through your mobile phone.

The RunCore InVincible SSDs allow you to protect your data from third party access in two ways with a single click. One method is the intelligent elimination of all your data through overwriting the entire disk with. A less subtle method is the physical destruction of your SSD by applying an over-current to the NAND flash memory and thereby rendering these. The RunCore InVincible product series is catering to embedded computer systems requiring high-speed serial switched fabric interconnects for rugged design implementation and more flexible power ranges. Delivering optimized storage options particularly in mission-critical fields such aerospace, military and general industrial applications.

Today at the National Association of Broadcasters Convention (NAB), mLogic LLC announced that the company's mLink PCIe to Thunderbolt expansion chassis will be demonstrated at the following booths on the trade show floor:

G-Technology, Inc. - SL11105 | Editshare LLC - SL9012 | Intel Corporation - SL12810
Other World Computing - SL14110 | RED Digital Cinema - SL3324 | Skymicro, Inc. - SL 12715
Small Tree Communications - SL7425

mLink enables PCIe adapter cards (video capture cards, RAID controllers, host bus adapters, SSDs, etc.) to be attached to Thunderbolt-equipped computers. mLink brings the functionality of these add-in cards that formerly required a desktop system to all-in-one and portable computers like the iMac and MacBook Pro. Visit www.mlogic.com for a list of Thunderbolt-aware PCIe cards that are compatible with mLink.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced that its SAS-based Talos 2 SSDs have been selected by HyVE (Hybrid Virtualization Engine) Systems for implementation within three high-compute platforms targeted for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) academic and corporate end user compute solutions. Providing stellar read/write input/output operations per second (IOPS) performance, high reliability and availability of stored data and desktop applications, the ability to grow with the HyVE Systems platforms, and cost-effectiveness were the key attributes that aided in the selection of OCZ Talos 2 drives.

Combining proven virtualization solutions with state-of-the-art, best-of-breed hardware products that support next-generation cloud requirements, the HyVE System VDI platform provides a cost-effective, high-performance environment that scales to the needs of their customers while providing an extremely low cost per desktop without jeopardizing quality, reliability or performance. A typical HyVE System VDI solution has a fixed cost of approximately $200 per desktop which is significantly lower than traditional virtual solutions that typically start at $1,500 per desktop, and scale down cost to approximately $700 per desktop, depending on infrastructure costs.

Apacer is working on a hard drive cache-SSD of its own, which is similar in principle to OCZ's Revodrive Hybrid. Called PHFD, the cache-SSD is a full-height PCI-Express 2.0 x1 add-on card, which seats a Marvell 88SE9130 (or similar) 2-port SATA 6 Gb/s controller, with one port wired to an onboard 32 GB SSD subunit, and the other port given out as a standard SATA port (to which you plug your system HDD). Marvell 88SE9130 includes a feature called HyperDuo, which is similar to Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST), it handles the SSD-caching on PFHD. Apacer's solution could end up being a cost-effective solution to systems without Intel RST.

Fusion-io announced the first software development kit (SDK) to provide software developers with native access to the ioMemory flash platform. By integrating applications directly with this new persistent memory tier, developers will be able to optimize enterprise, web, and big data applications through direct programmatic access to the ioMemory computing layer for the first time.

"Our January demonstration of one billion IOPS running on Auto Commit Memory, and Atomic Writes demonstrated the potential power of running applications natively on ioMemory. With our SDK, we are now making these tools available to software developers," said David Flynn, Fusion-io CEO and Chairman. "The ioMemory SDK and APIs reduce application complexity and speed development while accelerating time to market with fewer engineering requirements. When you get rid of that complexity, the resulting application is much more reliable and can leverage the full potential of ioMemory to run much faster."

Integrated Device Technology, Inc. (IDT), the Analog and Digital Company delivering essential mixed-signal semiconductor solutions, today announced a new family of precision temperature sensors targeted at ultra-low-power solid state drive applications. This new family of devices minimizes power consumption and optimizes bill-of-materials (BOM) costs while maintaining compatibility with existing standards for high-volume memory modules.

The IDT TS3000GB0A0 is a low-power, high-accuracy temperature sensor for enterprise server and storage applications. It supports a 1.8 V power supply for reduced power consumption and compatibility with the existing supply voltage for SSD memory modules, eliminating the need for additional voltage regulators.

Other World Computing (OWC) www.macsales.com, a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, announced today it will showcase its new line of Jupiter mini-SAS shared storage solutions at NAB this week. Built upon the mini-SAS interface for blazing bandwidth up to 48 Gb/s, the Jupiter family of racks, towers, and workgroup switches combine the highest level of data sharing performance and scalable capacity of up to 3600 TB at a cost that is up to 6x less than fibre channel infrastructures.

The Jupiter mini-SAS solutions also offer straight-forward installation in Mac and Windows OS environments with the simplicity of direct attached storage (DAS) using a single cable connection. OWC will demonstrate the high performance and scalability of the Jupiter mini-SAS shared storage solution at its NAB booth #14110 in the lower level of the LVCC's South Hall.

Other World Computing (OWC) www.macsales.com, a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, today introduced the OWC Mercury Accelsior, the industry's first both Mac-bootable and PC-bootable, fully supported PCIe SSD card.

By utilizing the fastest data interface available in a Mac Pro or PC-the PCIe slot-the Mercury Accelsior offers nearly 3x the performance vs. an SSD in a SATA 2.0 3 Gb/s drive bay with well beyond even 6 Gb/s speeds of up to 780 MB/s. Now owners of PCs and Apple Mac Pros can stop waiting for I/O-intensive apps like Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, or Avid Pro Tools to render, capture or process; and can experience near instantaneous booting and application launches. The Mercury Accelsior will be highlighted along with other OWC storage solutions in booth #SL14110 during the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show being held this week in Las Vegas.

A 64 GB variant of Plextor's M3 SSD series surfaced in Japan, carrying the model number "PX-64M3". The series was originally designed to capture higher market price points. Built in the 2.5-inch form-factor with SATA 6 Gb/s interface, the PX-64M3 is driven by Marvell 88SS9174, packs 25 nm MLC NAND flash, and offers sequential speeds of up to 520 MB/s reads, and 175 MB/s writes, with up to 55,000 IOPS 4K random access and 40,000 IOPS 4K random writes. Slated for market release on April 21, the Plextor M3 64 GB is priced at 10,980 JPY (US $135).

Embedded computing OEMs are seeking ways to shorten their design cycles and save precious space inside their systems. Biwin, an industry leader in flash storage products, today announced an e-MMC SSD in a 169-ball BGA chip that addresses both those demands, enabling customers to design in a complete storage solution on a single chip with an industry standard interface.

Biwin's new e-MMC SSDs are offered in capacities from 2 GB to 64 GB. They integrate both flash and a full SSD controller into a single chip, featuring advanced SSD features such as ECC, wear leveling and bad block management. They also include two key new features for embedded memory applications: power-on boot and explicit sleep mode, which translate to significant benefits for the end-user.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash storage application products, announces the availability of the XPG SX900 Solid State Drive for the USA & Canada. With up to 512 GB of storage potential, the biggest model of this SSD line has a 7% capacity increase over common SSDs in the market that use a SandForce controller.

The XPG (Xtreme Performance Gear) family of products has been expanded to include solid state drives, and the SX900 is a perfect match for the performance requirements of this elite group. Built for enthusiasts, the SX900 utilizes a SATA III 6 Gbps connection and SandForce 2281 controller. Its maximum sequential read and write speeds are 550/530 MB per second, with maximum random 4k write speeds as high as 85,000 IOPS.

Intel Corporation announced today the Intel Solid-State Drive 330 Series (Intel SSD 330 Series), a SATA 6 gigabit-per-second (Gb/s) solid-state drive (SSD) that gives consumers a more affordable entry into the accelerated storage performance of SSDs.

Ideal for upgrading desktop or notebook PCs, the Intel SSD 330 Series offers the price-conscious PC enthusiast a brand-name SSD that blends performance, Intel quality and value. Offered in the most popular capacity points, 60 gigabytes (GB), 120 GB and 180 GB, the Intel SSD 330 Series boosts overall system performance and responsiveness for a broad range of applications.

In order to provide a pure 2.5" to 3.5" SAS conversion, Icy Dock is proud to introduce the new MB982IP-1S-1 2.5" SAS/SATA to 3.5" SAS SSD & HDD Converter. The MB982IP-1S-1 is an addition to the already popular MB982 enterprise series, with an emphasis on industrial level SAS storage applications. The dimensions, connection locations, and mounting hole positions are carefully placed to mimic a standard 3.5" SAS drive or SSD.

The MB982IP-1S-1 also utilizes a full metal design, thus creating the best environment to cool any 10K, 15K RPM mechanical or enterprise SAS solid state drive, meanwhile, the rock solid construction is ideal for industrial, enterprise, and military related applications. A completely standardized SAS connection is implemented to be fully compatible with various backplanes that may be used. The converter is designed specifically to be used for 2.5" SAS/SATA drives that are required in 3.5" SAS internal hard drive bays of tower and rack mount chassis, as well as with backplanes or hot swap modules.

Team Group Inc., one of the leading manufacturers in memory and storage products in the world, is having the eyes on the explosive potential of SSD market, as we are constantly looking for ways to improve ourselves in terms of R&D capability. Last year, the SSD S3 was a blast in the market, and this year, the blast is going to be even bigger when we launch the new generation of S3 PRO to satisfy the yearning of die-hard users. Compared to its predecessor, the S3 PRO features up to 60% more in random writing speed! Any other SSD products in the market can only bite the dusts!

Team Group SSD S3 PRO employs high standard SATA 6 Gb/s transmission interface, and is equipped with SandForce controller that all hard-core players can dream of. This serious piece of work features stability and safety that are consistent with the ultra-high standard of Team Group. The reading and writing speeds are improved to a perfect 550 MB/s. The powerful 520 MB/s write-in speed (240GB) and unprecedented random write-in speed of 90,000 IOPS (input/output per second) are integrated with the protection of S.M.A.R.T technology, RAISE and ECC correction to give pro players the turbo charger that pushes the speed to the limit. S3 PRO is now available with four volumes from 60 GB to 480 GB, allowing all levels of adrenaline seekers to experience the excellent performance of S3 PRO.

HighPoint Technologies, Inc., an industry leading Storage HBA and RAID solutions manufacturer, will unveil a new series of Thunderbolt based Storage Controller Boards at the NAB 2012 tradeshow. This ground-breaking new product series aggregates Intel's revolutionary I/O technology, with HighPoint's extensive SAS, SATA and USB 3.0 design and manufacturing expertise, delivering innovative, highly versatile development platforms for storage solution providers.

Thunderbolt's revolutionary connectivity technology, presents great opportunities for HighPoint and solution providers the world over. For 2012, we are expanding our comprehensive product portfolio to include a new series of Thunderbolt based Storage expansion and controller boards.

Custodian of the Ultrabook specification, Intel pushed the storage industry to churn out slimmer devices to go with increasingly slimmer Ultrabooks sold by the various partner ODMs in the ecosystem. Even as HDD and SSD makers have only just come up with 7 mm-thick storage devices, Intel has a fresh list of changes it wishes to see with storage devices in the very near future, to be able to make it to the constantly-evolving Ultrabook specification. Intel wants near-future storage devices (SSDs and HDDs) to be no thicker than 5 mm.

Further, it wants to see the standard SATA host interface changed from "around" (out of) form, to "along" (inside) form host interface, which further slims down the drive compartment. These proposals were floated at IDF, Beijing. While coming up with slimmer SSDs was never really a tough task for SSD makers, as SSDs are essentially just millimeter-thick printed circuit boards with millimeter-thick components (controller logic, NAND flash memory, and ancillaries), it posed a huge technical challange to mechanical HDD designers, who have had to slim down key components that work to maintain inertial motion of spinning platters. This new proposal for 5 mm-thick HDDs could pose a newer, tougher desgin challenge.

Century Tech of Japan introduced a new SATA HDD/SSD cloning dock with a snap-on design (model: CRAS2U3CP). The dock allows you to quickly clone a SATA HDD/SSD without needing a host machine, as well as connect any two SATA drives to a host machine over USB 3.0 interface, as USB Mass Storage devices, with transfer rates of up to 200 MB/s. The top of the unit has a row of LEDs that displays the progress of disk cloning. When not connected to a host over USB, the device requires power drawn from an AC adapter. Measuring 70 x 16 x 65 mm (WxDxH), it weighs about 55 g, and can be carried around in a small pouch. Slated for next week, the CRAS2U3CP from Century is priced at 4,980 JPY (US $61).

Intel today finally announced its SSD 910 "Ramsdale" PCI-Express SSD family. This is Intel's first SSD in the PCI-Express add-on card form-factor. Like its 2.5" SSD 710 series, the SSD 910 utilizes HET-MLC NAND flash chips, arranged in four SSD subuits. SSD 910 design consists of three stacked PCBs, the one with the PCI-Express 2.0 x8 bus interface holds a PCI-Express to SAS bridge (essentially a RAID controller), and four SAS/NAND ASICs (SSD controllers). Each controller is wired out to its NAND flash memory chips, which are arranged in the other PCBs.

The PCIe-SAS bridge is made by LSI. The SSD 910 series comes in two variants based on capacity: 400 GB and 800 GB. The 400 GB variant has just two SSD subunits, and hence provides transfer rates (according to an older article) of 1 GB/s reads and 750 MB/s writes, with 90,000 IOPS reads, with 38,000 IOPS writes; while the 800 GB variant, with its four subunits, provides 2 GB/s reads with 1 GB/s writes, and 180,000 IOPS reads, with 75,000 IOPS writes. The launch price of the SSD 910 400 GB variant is US $1,929; while the 800 GB variant is priced at US $3859, at launch.

For those who thought with the Indilinx buyout and release of Everest and Kilimanjaro series NAND flash controllers, OCZ is on course of becoming a largely self-sufficient SSD industry player, here's a revelation. Its new Everest series silicon, used in recently-launched SSD families (such as Octane and Vertex 4), is essentially a re-badged Marvell controller (found on SSDs such as Crucial M4, Intel SSD 510), with custom firmware developed by OCZ. This discovery by Anandtech was confirmed by OCZ (Indilinx).

The Indilinx Everest (Octane and Petrol series) and Everest 2 (Vertex 4 series), are both re-badged Marvell chips with Indilinx firmware. Although it doesn't change anything, it perfectly explains how OCZ could come up with two "new" SSD controllers (Everest and Everest 2) almost instantly, after the Indilix acquisition. Everest 1 is essentially a higher-clocked Marvell 88SS9174, while Everest 2 could very well be a re-badged Marvell 88SS9187, according to the source.

Crucial is known for issuing firmware updates for its M4 series SSDs that bring significant improvements, be it the 0009 update that introduced performance improvements by as much as 20%, or the 0309 update that fixed a lot of BSOD instability issues. Introduced on Wednesday, the newest firmware update, "000F", introduces the following changes:

• Improved compatibility with certain SAS expanders and peripheral RAID cards.
• Improved throughput stability under extremely heavy workloads.
• Improved data protection in the event of unexpected, asynchronous power loss.

With higher performance, improved OS-level stability, and now with higher throughput stability and improved data protection in the event of power loss, Crucial M4 is closer to being the perfect consumer SSD.

DOWNLOAD: Crucial M4 000F Firmware Update Windows 7 Updater Utility, Manual Boot File, Instructions

Buffalo Inc. has today unveiled the SSD-PEU3 family of external solid state drives. Coming in two color versions - red and black, these SSDs measure 98 x 57 x 13 mm, they weight 70 grams, and feature a glossy finish, and a USB 3.0 interface enabling transfer speed of up to 266.7 MB/s.

The SSD-PEU3 drives are backed by a one-year warranty and are set to become available at the end of this month priced at $105 (64 GB model), $168 (128 GB) and $392 (256 GB).

Intel is on the brink of launching its new line of enterprise PCI-Express SSDs, codenamed "Ramsdale", carrying the market name "SSD 910 Series". The new SSD 910 series is coming to existence leapfrogging SSD 710 series, which was also codenamed "Ramsdale", but never made it to the market. The original Ramsdale SSD 720 was meant to be primarily based on SLC NAND flash memory with the probability of an MLC variant, Intel decided against launching it, probably because it was hedging its bets on 25 nm HET-MLC NAND flash, which provides endurance levels closer to SLC, while offering the capacity-advantage of MLC. The SSD 910 implements this new NAND flash standard that attempts to offer the best of both SLC and MLC.

The new SSD 910 will be available in two capacity options: 400 GB and 800 GB. Built as a PCI-Express expansion card, the SSD 910 consists of three stacked PCBs that hold SSD subunits and HET-MLC NAND flash chips, lots of them. Each of these subunits interfaces with the core logic over SAS. The core logic connects to the host over PCI-Express 2.0 x8 bus interface. The 400 GB variant provides sequential read speeds up to 1 GB/s, and up to 750 MB/s writes. The 800 GB variant provides up to 2 GB/s reads, with up to 1 GB/s writes.

Microsemi Corporation, a leading provider of semiconductor solutions differentiated by power, security, reliability and performance, today announced the availability of its ultra secure TRRUST-Stor solid state drive with a unique, ruggedized SATA connector designed to solve severe shock and vibration issues prevalent in defense and industrial applications. Designed in partnership with Hypertronics Corporation, a leading provider of high-performance interconnect systems, the new connectors are designed for operation in hostile environments where industry-standard SATA connectors are inadequate.

"The weakest link in many embedded applications is the connector, which can sabotage the operation of critical hardware," said BJ Heggli, vice president of Strategic Development and assistant general manager for Microsemi. "Our new connector family protects against the effects of severe shock and vibration, which safeguards the flow of data. As a result, we can now offer customers what is perhaps the most secure and rugged SSD available on the market."

Micron Technology, Inc., one of the world's leading providers of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced a new solid-state drive (SSD) that broadens Micron's client product portfolio to serve the rapidly emerging Ultrabook category. The newly announced drive is based on the proven architecture of Micron's popular RealSSD C400 drives, providing the same high performance and reliability.

The C400 mSATA drive is designed to work in ultrathin, high-performance SSD-based systems and can also act as a cache drive in dual-drive systems. SSD-caching systems have both a hard-disk drive and a low-capacity SSD. These systems use software to automatically identify the most frequently used files and programs and then access those files from the SSD, providing greater performance than a hard-disk drive, but at a lower price point than a stand-alone SSD.