ASUS chose the Milan Fashion Week as the perfect launch-pad for its Zenbook UX21 Rose Gold Ultrabook. Zenbook is ASUS' premium Ultrabook brand. The new UX21 Rose Gold variant sticks to the 11-inch, 2 cm-thick chassis, with a premium 2-tone alloy finish, with a brushed rose-gold lid. This finish also extends to the bezel around the display, and some other parts. Under the hood is an Intel Core i5-2467M processor, 4 GB DDR3 memory, and a 128 GB SSD. The ASUS ZenBook UX21E Rose Gold will be priced around 999€.A video presentation follows.

To anyone who's familiar with SSDs, "SandForce" is equally familiar, as it makes the brains of some of the fastest client SSDs in the business. Buyers have also come to know of SandForce-driven SSDs as being characterized by unique capacity amounts caused by allocating a certain amount of the physical NAND flash capacity for some special low-level tasks by the controller, resulting in capacities such as 60 GB, 120 GB, 240 GB, for drives with physical NAND flash capacities of 64, 128, and 256 GB, respectively. This allocation is called "over-provisioning". An impression was built that this ~7% loss in capacity is some sort of a trade-off for higher performance. It appears like that's not quite the case.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash storage application products, today announced the launch of a complete lineup of expanded capacity solid state drives. The new SSD range includes the XPG SX900, the Premier Pro SP900, and the Premier SP800, all of which use new optimized firmware to utilize greater storage capacity of the NAND Flash components. The XPG SX900 is a groundbreaking 512 GB capacity solid state drive utilizing the SandForce 2281 controller, making it a milestone in ADATA's history of NAND Flash based products. All of the drives being launched use superior NAND Flash for improved stability and performance.

RunCore, leading developer and brand manufacturer of high-end Solid State Drives (SSDs) and storage solutions, announces their participation in the Satellite2012 exhibition and conferences from 12~14 March 2012 at booth 189. Satelilite 2012 is focusing on the latest technology and products in the satellite community spanning from military, broadcast, enterprise, mobile, telcos all the way into commercial fields. With their expertise and products complying with the demanding MIL-STD-810-G requirements, RunCore will be showcasing most advanced SSD storage solutions that provide shock-resistance, while maintaining reliable operation in extreme environments. The implementation of these military-grade quality is even applied to RunCore's wide range of consumer SSD products.

With the rSSD series RunCore offers a highly sophisticated small form factor SATAII SSD solution for embedded systems. Dimensions of a mere 14 x 18 x 1.8mm 104-ball FBGA package shrink the size by half compared to conventional drives, while reducing power consumption to 3.3V and offering heat resistance from -40°C up to +85°C.

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.

SMART Storage Systems today announced the Optimus Ultra Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) solid-state drive (SSD). An industry-leading combination of performance, capacity, reliability and endurance, the Optimus Ultra is designed to meet enterprise storage application needs, facilitating broad SSD adoption in enterprise environments.

Designed for the enterprise environment, the Optimus Ultra SAS SSD delivers read/write performance of 100K/60K IOPS and a sustained transfer rate of 1 GB/s in wide port operation, while achieving 25 full random drive writes per day for a period of five years with consumer-grade multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash. This powerful combination of performance and endurance addresses the storage requirements of even the most demanding enterprise customers. The Optimus Ultra SSD is available in usable capacities ranging from 150 GB to 1.2 TB, meaning enterprise organizations and OEMs no longer need to sacrifice capacity to realize the performance gains of solid-state storage.

Eurocom Corporation announces support for Intel's new high performance 520 Series of Solid-State Drives inside their Mobile Workstations and Mobile Server solutions.

The addition of the Intel 520 series of SSDs to Eurocom's extensive list of storage drives gives customers an even greater choice when customizing their purpose built systems. Customers have a myriad of choices between Hard Disk Drives, Solid State Drives and Hybrid Drives.

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.

Later this year, Apple will refresh its MacBook Pro line with a new generation, and it is reported that these new products will look increasingly similar to the MacBook Air, as they will get a lot more slimmer. MacBook Pro is Apple's main line of portable Mac computers, and arguably its most popular Mac. Apple has mastered ultra-compact notebook design with the MacBook Air, which its PC rivals are struggling to get even close to. It is now going all out on the ultaslim form-factor by designing ever more powerful MacBook Pros based on it.

The ultra-slim form-factor will also see hardware such as optical drives and hard disk drives leave. Primary storage will be handled by SSDs, there will be an increasing relevance of iCloud for additional storage. "They're all going to look like MacBook Airs," a source familiar with the designs of the upcoming MacBook Pros told AppleInsider. We will get to see MacBook Pros that are as slim as the MacBook Air, but as big as 15-inch and 17-inch, while being backed by powerful hardware, even as PC makers struggle with big Ultrabooks since they're government by specifications laid down by Intel, a move that could limit their success in Europe, creating a great market opportunity for Apple. AppleInsider provided mock-ups of what the new MacBook Pros could look like.

Thermaltake, being the industry pioneer brand with expertise in PC power and thermal solutions, and continues to drive toward the corporate mission of "delivering the perfect user experience" in all segment of the market, began the Max series with a simple idea of creating a protective cover to magnify the ease of removing a HDD from Thermaltake chassis and evolved into a character that can maximize and utilize the function of HDD. Today, brings in the Max 5G 2.5" hard drive external enclosure and the Max Duo (SSD & HDD) rack with USB 3.0 ports to stretch the solutions provided by the Max series for users.

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.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced the immediate availability of the OCZ-SANRAD VXL enterprise storage accelerator, delivering flash caching and VMware acceleration for virtualized environments including VMware ESX and Citrix Xen.

OCZ-SANRAD VXL drastically alters the available options for storage in the enterprise datacenter by allowing any PCIe-based OCZ Z-Drive R4 model including the newly introduced Z-Drive R4 CloudServ, to be utilized as a accelerator for traditional iSCSI and FC storage. This eliminates the need for costly tier-1 SANs in a wide range of enterprise IT infrastructures from application virtualization to virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).

Mach Xtreme Technology Inc., a worldwide leader in top performance, high reliability and user-friendly designed PC components, today launched improved MX-STARTER PREMIUM Series 2.5" SSD for mainstream users demanding the latest technology at an affordable price point.

The new MX-STARTER PREMIUM Series of SSDs is the latest addition to the Mach Xtreme lineup of solid state drives. This series is offering users robust data protection with enhanced hardware BCH ECC engine, StaticDataRefresh technology support and data shaping for higher data reliability. Replacing OS hard disk drive with MX-STARTER PREMIUM will revolutionize user's computing experience. Games load quicker, computer starts faster, and multiple applications run smoother, all while running cool and silent.

Icy Dock is proud to introduce the MB082SP EZ-FIT PRO, the newest product in the incredibly popular SSD/HDD bracket & converter line. The EZ-FIT PRO is a full metal dual 2.5" to 3.5" bracket with a matte black finish, featuring a hassle free installation requiring no tools or screws required to install or change your HDD/SSD. The heavy duty solid metal construction and the simplicity of the drive installation make protecting and swapping your hard drives as easier than ever.

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, have concluded that solid state drives (SSDs) have a bleak future in the evolution of computing technology. They have discovered that fast flash based storage are facing come pretty glaring technology hurdles during their natural course of evolution, which they don't think it will overcome. To begin with, shrinking (miniaturizing) them, to increase capacity or decrease manufacturing costs, will severely degrade performance beyond a point, 6.5 nm silicon fab process.

The scientists studied 45 different flash chips in various sizes, which showed that scaling of latencies and error-rates are 'tolerable' enough as the technology miniaturizes only till 6.5 nm, or the year 2024, when this fab process will be common, beyond which they question the drives' viability. Beyond this point, the more capacity you squeeze into flash memory chips, the more performance degrade (latency and error-rate scale beyond tolerable scales).

Two models from Intel's Desktop Board Executive series of motherboards for office PCs got pictured and detailed by VR-Zone. These socket LGA1155 motherboards are mostly based on Intel 7-series Q77 and B75 chipsets, that provide some manageability, and data security features over the feature-set of H77. Intel has three Executive series models planned, the DQ77MK, the DQ77KB, and DB75EN. Of these, the DQ77MK and DB75EN are built in the micro-ATX form-factor, while the DQ77KB is mini-ITX.

The two micro-ATX parts use a similar PCB layout, with some features differing between the two. The DQ77MK is pictured below, it has all the features a small-business PC will ever need. Expansion slots include one each of PCI-Express x16, PCI-Express x4 (open-ended), PCI-Express x1, and legacy PCI. Storage connectivity includes six SATA (one of which is mSATA, for SSD caching). The PCH gives out four USB 3.0 ports, which are wired two each on the rear-panel and via a header to the front-panel. It uses a simple 5-phase VRM that should be enough to run LGA1155 processors. The socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting dual-channel memory. It has a variety of external connectivity.

HighPoint Technologies, Inc., the industry's price-leader for SATA and SAS HBA and storage solutions, launches the RocketCache 3240X8; a ground-breaking SSD caching solution that is set to revolutionize high-performance storage for desktop PC's and workstations.

Unlike conventional caching products which were designed for generic, every-day software applications or are tied to a particular SSD or motherboard, RocketCache allows you to create your own high-performance storage solution using off the shelf hard disks and SSDs.

During the 2012 CeBIT exhibition, RAIDON will be announcing the latest HyBrid Drive, Runner series, which is utilizing SSD as an accessing cache to efficiently accelerate HDDs performance.

Combining the advantages of both HDD (capacity) and SSD (speed), the latest innovation of Runner series uses the cache of SSD to improve HDD and access performances. Runner series may accelerate each inserted HDD and operate in various O.S. without a specific hardware environment or software installation/configuration. In addition, RAIDON Runner series are only required one SSD to accelerate multiple HDDs, which means HDD could be replaced for delivering an optimal performance.

Leading memory storage brand, SP/Silicon Power today announces to launch the newest SSD Extreme E25. It fits 2.5" SATA interface with excellent transmission rate of 278 MB/s maximum reading speed. It supports TRIM Command allowing Windows 7 users to power on their computers within tens of seconds.

Aiming on the prosperous SSD market, SP/ Silicon Power will seize SSD market-share territory with its strong ambition. A concrete SSD products line, including the newest E25, E20 of the same series, and V30 matching the highest transmission standard SATA III can satisfy all the requirements of consumers!

HighPoint Technologies, Inc., the industry's price-leader for SATA and SAS HBA and storage solutions, has launched a new, low-cost, SAS 6 Gb/s HBA product line, the Rocket 2700 HBA series.

Rocket 2700 HBA's utilize a PCI-Express 2.0 host interface, and are available with either two internal or external mini-SAS ports. HighPoint's Rocket 2700 Series is set to become the most affordable, professional storage SAS/SATA 6 Gb/s controllers on the marketplace, and are ideal for cost-effective, entry-level SMB applications.

Announced last month at CES, the IdeaPad U300e 13.3-inch ultrabook has now become available through Lenovo's online shop. The U300e is just 0.7" thin, it runs Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit), and has a one-piece aluminum shell, a breathable keyboard (using Intel's Advanced Cooling Technology), an LED-backlit (1366 x 768) display, a glass touchpad, and BIOS-embedded anti-theft protection.

The model put up for order by Lenovo (269224U) packs a 1.6 GHz Core i5-2467M CPU, Intel HD 3000 graphics, 4 GB of RAM, a 500 GB HDD and a 32 GB SSD, a 1.3 MP webcam, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, WiDi support, one USB 3.0 ports, a HDMI output, and a 4-cell battery providing up to 7 hours of operation. This configuration costs $959.20 (thanks to a web promotion and an eCoupon) and is available here.

Tensilica, Inc. today announced that VIA has selected Tensilica's Xtensa dataplane processors (DPUs) for a system-on-chip (SOC) design for solid state drives (SSDs). After conducting a technical evaluation, VIA determined that Tensilica's DPUs provide over four times the performance of competing processors on key algorithms used to benchmark competitive alternatives.

SSDs require faster and more efficient data management and manipulation to increase their throughput (measured in Input/Output Operations per Second, or IOPS). With conventional processors, increasing the clock speed is the common way to increase performance. However, this increases energy consumption and die size, especially as speeds increase so much that designers are forced to move to more complex multi-core solutions.

CyberpowerPC Inc., a manufacturer of custom gaming machines, today announced its Zeus series - a powerful new line of desktop computers that offer the power of thunder with Intel's new i7-3820 CPU; the speed of AMD's lightning fast FX CPUs; the refined design of NZXT's Switch 810 chassis, and legendary Advanced Hydro Liquid Cooling.

The initial Zeus rollout includes six models. The Zeus Thunder 1000, 2000, 300 and MAX will all feature Intel's latest CPUs, including the new 2nd Gen. Core i7-3820 Sandy Bridge-E quad-core CPU operating at 3.6 GHz, a 10 MB L3 cache and HyperThreading support. The Zeus Lightning series consists of the 1000 and 2000 models with the AMD FX series native 8-core desktop processor, which allows you to immerse yourself in the most advanced 3D games and achieve extreme mega-tasking with ease.

SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, today extended its enterprise solid state disk drive (SSD) solutions portfolio with the acquisition of FlashSoft, a provider of innovative caching software products. SanDisk intends to sell FlashSoft's products as standalone software, as well as offer these software products in combination with SanDisk's growing portfolio of SAS, PCIe and SATA enterprise solutions.

FlashSoft's software is targeted for Windows, Linux and VMWare platforms, and will form the basis of a growing ecosystem of SSD-optimized software solutions from SanDisk and third party partners, enabling the configuration of complete solutions optimized for the specialized needs of enterprise and cloud customers.

SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, today announced it has entered into a worldwide, exclusive agreement with Diskeeper Corp. to license its industry leading caching software solutions for solid state disk drives (SSDs).

Under the terms of the agreement, SanDisk will provide these solutions both as standalone software products as well as bundled with SanDisk's SSD products for client computing applications. The resulting hardware/software bundled solution from SanDisk will help its consumer OEM customers build optimized computing devices, such as Ultrabooks and other ultra-thin form factor products, that provide greater responsiveness, higher performance and an overall better user experience to consumers worldwide.