Other World Computing (OWC), a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, announced today the OWC Mercury Aura Pro as the industry's first high-performance Solid State Drive upgrade for 2012 MacBook Pro with Retina display (rMBP) computers. Available in 480 GB capacity, the 6G (6Gb/s) SandForce Driven Mercury Aura Pro offers rMBP owners 87.5 percent more capacity than the factory 256GB model. Additionally, customers buying the $579.99 MSRP Aura Pro direct from OWC until September 30, 2012, will later receive the OWC Envoy Pro USB 3.0 bus-powered portable enclosure (a $59.95 value) for re-tasking the rMBP's factory flash module as an external drive at no additional cost.

Toshiba's Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today announced the Canvio Desk Desktop External Hard Drive and the Solid State Drive (SSD) PC Upgrade Kit, both available now on Toshiba Direct starting at $119.99 MSRP and $109.99 MSRP, respectively.

"With personal storage becoming increasingly prevalent, the need for varying solutions grows and we're proud to introduce new devices that help round out our already robust line-up," said Maciek Brzeski, vice president of product marketing and development, Branded Storage Products, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Digital Products Division. "Our new desktop drive and SSD Upgrade Kit are providing our users with the high level of power and performance they've come to expect from Toshiba storage solutions."

Integrated Device Technology, Inc. (IDT), the Analog and Digital Company delivering essential mixed-signal semiconductor solutions, today announced that it will be presenting on the NVM Express (NVMe) specification as well as exhibiting its latest enterprise flash controller products in booth #707 at the Flash Memory Summit, held in Santa Clara, CA on August 21-23.

Peter Onufryk, director of engineering in the Enterprise Computing Division at IDT, will present "How the Streamlined Architecture of NVM Express Enables High Performance PCIe SSDs." The presentation will provide an overview of NVM Express along with a detailed outline of the specification's performance features.

Intel made it possible for SSDs to utilize the TRIM command feature when striped in RAID 0, provided a few meaty requirements are met. The TRIM command feature works to minimize write performance degradation on SSDs, but thus far it has been impossible to enable the feature on any other host controller mode than standalone AHCI, due to the manner in which the feature works at a physical level.

According to a report, TRIM over RAID 0 will be made possible with Windows 8 operating system, provided the system is running an Intel 7-series chipset (such as Z77 Express), has RAID BIOS (Option ROM) version 11.5 or higher, and Rapid Storage Technology (RST) device driver version 11.5 or higher. While obtaining the required Windows and driver versions is relatively easy, the RAID Option ROM version is in the hands of motherboard manufacturers, who have to release motherboard BIOS updates that include the required RAID Option ROM updates.

Samsung, in its latest company blog post, unveiled plans to refresh the specifications of its first gamer-centric notebook, the Series 7. The new specs sheets shows NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M replaced with AMD Radeon HD 7870M graphics processor, and a new 14.3-inch SuperBright 3D LED screen, with a maximum brightness of 400 nit. The notebook's two 2.5-inch SATA 6 Gb/s drive bays are occupied by a 128 GB SSD and 1 TB HDD. Slated for Tuesday (14th Aug), the new Series 7 Gamer notebook will be available in Korea for 2.99 million Won (US $2,643).

OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: OCZ) today reported that Arthur F. Knapp Jr., 63, Chief Financial Officer, announced his intent to retire from the Company. Mr. Knapp will remain as CFO until his successor is in place and then provide ongoing support to help ensure a seamless transition.

"Art has been a valuable member of our management team since 2005 and he has contributed to the success of transforming the organization from a small high-performance memory Company to a leader in the SSD market," said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology Group. "On behalf of the Company, I want to thank Art for his dedicated service and look forward to working with him through the search process for a new CFO."

Plextor, a leading developer of high-performance digital storage equipment, today announced the M5 Pro Series Solid State Drive, a high-performance professional-grade SSD engineered using the latest Marvell 88SS9187 Monet controller. The M5 Pro provides a unique enterprise-grade double-data protection featuring random read/write speeds of up to 94,000/86,000 IOPS and sequential read/write speeds of up to 540/450 MB/s.

The M5 Pro has the ability to consistently deliver high read and write speeds for all forms of data and use the multi-core controller to handle extreme high loads. This makes the M5 Pro suitable for use in a heavy workstation, server role, or Raid 0 configuration setting. The M5 Pro also makes use of True Speed Technology to prevent the drastic performance drop seen in some SSDs after intense or long-term usage.

Transcend Information, Inc. (Transcend), a worldwide leader in storage and multimedia products, today announced the arrival of its new 2.5" SATA III 6Gb/s SSD320 solid state drive (SSD) - a welcome addition to Transcend's successful and ever-growing line of SSDs. With impressive transfer rates and excellent long-term reliability, users upgrading their existing computer with an SSD320 are guaranteed to get the best performance results at an astonishingly affordable price.

Intel plans to standardize SSD specifications for its Ultrabook platform, which would steer it toward slimmer, faster Ultrabooks. The company plans to invite a large number of industry players, including NAND flash memory makers SanDisk, Micron, and Samsung, for discussions into what is known as Next Generation Form Factor (NGFF), a new SSD form-factor derived from mSATA (think Apple's SSD form-factor found in the MacBook Air).

Intel is in a bit of a hurry with its NGFF SSD plans because the current mSATA form-factor poses limitations, including limited PCB area, in which a limited number of ONFI channels can be wired out. NGFF most likely is mSATA with greater PCB area, allowing the same number of ONFI channels as 2.5-inch SSDs, with the latest generation of controllers and toggle-NAND flash memory. NGFF doesn't increase the thickness of the SSD compared to mSATA, but merely elongates it (again, similar in form to Apple's SSD specifications). Five length standards are being discussed between Intel and Ultrabook partners.

Every year, technology is able to become more and more advanced and is constantly improving. Also, with being physically the smallest, and performing the best is the end goal of any storage system. This is why SFF (Small Form Factor) storage systems are becoming more popular due to its low power consumption and space-saving benefits. With the advent of recent solid state technology, this allows 2.5" SSD's to easily achieve 500MB/sec in transfer rate, which overcomes the 3.5" SATA hard drives in every category except capacity. Therefore, maximize the capacity in a limited space becomes the most important task that many storage consulting firms are faced with often. For SFF systems, we introduce the Icy Dock MB992SK-B 2.5" SATA Mobile Rack solution for use in 3.5" device bays (Floppy bay).

MOSAID Technologies Inc. today introduced HLSSD (HyperLink Solid State Drive), a SSD that achieves Terabyte-class storage capacity using a single controller device. MOSAID engaged PaxDisk of Korea to develop the Terabyte-class HLSSD.

MOSAID's Terabyte-class HLSSDs are optimized for data centers and the enterprise. Based on HLNAND (HyperLink NAND) technology, MOSAID's HLSSDs deliver scalability, performance, reliability and cost advantages over SSDs that use conventionally designed NAND Flash devices.

Memory and storage specialist Integral has launched Crypto SSD, its first range of solid-state drives (SSDs) to feature military-level, AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) 256-bit hardware encryption. As well as the secure, convenient and low-cost protection of sensitive data, the new drives offer all the benefits of solid-state storage. This includes low-power operation, silent running, rapid boot time and, as there are no moving parts, higher reliability and enhanced resistance to shock and vibration.

Protecting sensitive data through encryption is becoming a mandatory requirement for a wide range of organisations as bodies such as the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) impose increasingly severe penalties for data protection breaches resulting from lost and stolen computers. Crypto SSD is a 'fit and forget' solution with a low total cost of ownership (TCO) that will allow banks, law firms, educational establishments, healthcare professionals, local government and a variety of other business and public sector organisations to meet their data protection obligations.

Crucial, a leading global brand of memory and storage upgrades, today introduced the Crucial v4 Solid State Drive (SSD), designed to deliver substantial yet affordable performance gains for mainstream SATA 2 (3 Gb/s) systems, the primary performance capability of computers purchased before 2011. Available in 32 GB, 64 GB, 128 GB, and 256 GB capacities with MSRPs of $49.99, $69.99, $99.99, and $189.99 respectively, the Crucial v4 SSD can be purchased now through select global channel partners, or direct through www.crucial.com.

The Crucial v4 SSD offers read speeds up to 230 MB/s and write speeds up to 190 MB/s, enabling faster startup times, faster application downloads, faster transfer data speeds, and increased reliability compared to traditional hard drives. The v4 SSD joins the m4 SSD and Adrenaline Solid State Cache Solution to round out the award-winning Crucial SSD portfolio.

LSI Corporation today announced enhanced features for its SandForce SF-2200/2100 Client Flash Storage Processors (FSPs) specifically designed to satisfy the stringent power consumption requirements of Ultrabooks while also providing the superior performance benefits of flash-based technology.

LSI Flash Storage Processors are the intelligence that manages flash memory in solid state drives (SSDs) and delivers the performance and power efficiency benefits needed for the fast-growing Ultrabook market segment. The new LSI SandForce power management optimizations enable SSD manufacturers to develop drives that extend battery life and reduce system resume times, critical requirements in today's growing class of thin-and-light Ultrabook platforms. Fueling increased adoption of SSDs, the Ultrabook market is forecasted to grow at a compounded rate of 92 percent through 2017.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: OCZ) today announced that its enterprise Z-Drive R4 PCI Express (PCIe) SSD series has achieved VMware Ready status. This designation indicates that after a detailed validation process Z-Drive R4 PCIe SSDs have achieved VMware's highest level of endorsement, and can be found on the VMware Solution Exchange (VSX) here.

"By using Z-Drive R4 PCIe SSD drives with VMware vSphere 5.0, enterprises can accelerate virtualized applications while delivering fast and reliable access to data without burdening host CPU and memory resources. When combined with OCZ's VXL flash virtualization software, Z-Drive R4 delivers a comprehensive and compelling virtual performance system that efficiently distributes flash resources across VMs to provide an even greater performance of key applications in virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), e-mail and database servers," said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology Group.

Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ: STX) today announced that Gary Gentry has rejoined Seagate to lead its solid state drive (SSD) business as senior vice president, SSD. Mr. Gentry will have responsibility for driving Seagate leadership in the SSD space, with time-to-market, competitive product offerings. He will be located in Longmont, Colorado and will report directly to Rocky Pimentel, chief sales and marketing officer.

Mr. Gentry has over 25 years of experience in the storage industry, including most recently as the general manager of the Enterprise SSD Division of Micron Corporation. Prior to rejoining Seagate, he held leadership positions focusing on solid-state technologies at Spansion Corporation and Storage Genetics. He also served as chief marketing officer for Maxtor, and provided strategic consulting to Hitachi Global Storage Systems. While at Seagate he held various management positions including vice president, strategic marketing and planning.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced that the company's new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Taipei, Taiwan has achieved ISO 9001: 2008 certification from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). This independent certification from ISO demonstrates OCZ's commitment to quality and reinforces that the company's newly consolidated manufacturing facility has met ISO's stringent qualifications.

The ISO 9001: 2008 standard was established by the ISO governing board and has become the most comprehensive standard on quality management and practices worldwide. It is designed to enable companies with a set of principles that ensure a consistent and systematic approach to manufacturing while providing high product quality and reliability, which in turn, translates to customer satisfaction.

RunCore, leading supplier of high-performance solid-state drives, announces the latest move in their aggressive growth strategy. The Hunan-based solid state drives (SSDs) developer and manufacturer Runcore recently began construction of a brand new state-of-the-art SSD production facility in Changsha's Jinzhou New District in Hunan province. The investment is estimated at RMB 200 million.

The new production facility will comprise of more the 360,000 square meters. According to schedule the first construction phase will be completed by the end of 2012 and then offer room for the first four new Solid State Drive production lines. In this first phase RunCore will gain production capacity increase of 400,000 units a year, woth RMB 320 million.

Biwin, an industry leader in flash storage products, today announced a new slim-profile 7 mm casing option for their entire range of 2.5-inch client and enterprise class SATA III SSDs. The new slim-profile SSDs are 26% slimmer than most standard SATA SSDs which measure 9.5 mm thick, allowing for much higher density SSD deployments.

This 7 mm enclosure is available immediately on the company's Elite, Pro and Smart Series 2.5-inch SATA II and SATA III SSDs, as well as the company's new NuvoDrive NX and NuvoDrive PX 2.5-inch SATA III SSDs in capacities up to 480 GB. The new casing, like Biwin's existing 9.5 mm case, is constructed of black anodized aluminum to provide rugged protection of components in a featherweight design.

Texas Memory Systems, Inc. (TMS), provider of The World's Fastest Storage, today announced that TMS RamSan PCIe storage systems, including RamSan-70 products, are now bootable storage devices. This functionality is provided through a new firmware feature that allows most common servers to load operating systems directly from RamSan PCIe Flash storage systems, without requiring the presence of legacy hard drives or RAID controllers.

Launched in 2011, TMS RamSan-70 products have already been adopted by a broad variety of customers in healthcare, banking, e-commerce, and many other industries. Industry-leading bootability further minimizes complexity in such business-critical systems. Newly bootable RamSan-70 products are available with up to 900 GB of SLC Flash storage capacity and capable of 1.5 million I/Os per second (IOPS), 2.5 GB/s of bandwidth, and 30-60 microsecond latency. Bootability is available with the purchase of all new RamSan-70 PCIe storage systems, or as a firmware update with no hardware replacement necessary for existing RamSan-70 PCIe storage customers.

Add SSD performance to an existing hard drive at an economical price with the new Mushkin Catalyst Cache SSD. This simple upgrade combines the capacity of an existing hard drive with the speed of a Solid State Drive. The addition of a Mushkin Catalyst Cache SSD will accelerate boot times, application launches, and general system performance

Dataplex Cache software makes the innovative combination of a hard drive and an SSD possible. Frequently accessed data and applications are cached to the SSD automatically. Less frequently used data stays on the hard drive. Further boosting performance - Mushkin's caching policy includes both reads and writes. Supercharged performance is the result.

Since the last couple of weeks, we've known of MSI's plans to enter the client SSD market, thanks to a leak by LSI-SandForce. Today we're getting the first pictures of what MSI has been secretly working on. Called the Reflex series, MSI's first SSDs are built on the most widely used performance SSD platform, a combination of LSI-SandForce SF2281 controller and 25 nm synchronous NAND flash.

MSI's Reflex series will be launched in three variants, the RX-60 (60 GB), the RX-120 (120 GB), and the RX-240 (240 GB), respectively. Performance numbers differ with model. The RX-60 offers up to 525 MB/s reads with 495 MB/s writes, and 85,000 IOPS 4K random write performance. The RX-120 ups that to 550 MB/s reads with 515 MB/s writes, and 90,000 IOPS 4K random writes. Leading the pack is the RX-240, with 560 MB/s reads, 525 MB/s writes, and 90,000 IOPS 4K random writes. The three are built in the 2.5-inch form-factor, with SATA 6 Gb/s interface. Pricing and availability information is awaited.Update (23/07): MSI Europe informed us that while the product is real, it will not be available for purchase in Europe, and that there are no plans to sell the drives in the old continent, in the near future. MSI Europe's statement follows

Thermaltake, being the industry pioneer brand with expertise in PC chassis, power supply and thermal solution, introduces the Muse 5G series, the next-generation external hard drive enclosure for authors, scientists and artists in the 21st century to unite their power and soul by collecting and protecting all precious inspiration.

Thermaltake Muse is named after the 9 goddesses of Greek mythology, poetry and literature. The goddesses are considered the source of knowledge that became the representatives of poetry, the arts and science, and sources of inspiration. Thermaltake, carring the corporate mission of "delivering the perfect user experience",has insight into the importance and the power of knowledge, thus specially developed the Muse 5G series in a high quality aluminum housing to provide a better heat dissipation as well as an elegant look like the goddesses we all have imagined.

SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK), a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, announced today results for the second quarter ended July 1, 2012. Total second quarter revenue of $1.03 billion declined 25% on a year-over-year basis and declined 14% on a sequential basis.

On a GAAP(1) basis, second quarter net income was $13 million, or $0.05 per diluted share, compared to net income of $248 million, or $1.02 per diluted share, in the second quarter of fiscal 2011 and $114 million, or $0.46 per diluted share, in the first quarter of fiscal 2012.

Super Talent Technology, a leader of NAND Flash storage solutions, today announces their enduring, and most reliable SSD to date, the SATA3 SuperNova.

Whether you're a large corporation or a small company the Supernova provides the advantages to reduce TCO. The SuperNova features thermal conductive silicon padding which prevents overheating and requires less cooling. Increase the speed and lifetime of data along with the most secure encryption on the planet, and the proprietary RAISE technology that virtually eliminates unrecoverable read errors makes the SuperNova the ideal choice.