Way back in 2008, we reported that Seagate was lowering warranties of its hard disk drives from 5 years to 3. This trend quickly spread throughout the HDD industry and unsurprisingly, wasn't something that customers were too happy about. Now, Western Digital is lowering the warranty on some of its HDD lines from 3 years to a mere 2, with the affected lines being the Caviar Blue, Caviar Green and Scorpio Blue. Lines not affected are the Caviar Black, Scorpio Black, A/V drives and externals. Also, as the stock feeds through the channel, there will be a transition period where the same model in a store will have either a 2 or 3 year warranty, depending on its serial number, which can be checked on WD's support site. It will be interesting to see if retailers will clearly differentiate to customers which drives have which warranty, as it might be rather convenient for them not to.

Channel partners have received a letter from SelectWD about this:

ADATA introduced a new value consumer SSD in its 300 Series, the S396 30 GB. Built in the conventional 2.5-inch form-factor, the drive makes use of the SATA 3 Gb/s interface. The drive offers sequential read speeds of up to 280 MB/s, up to 250 MB/s sequential write speeds, and up to 44,000 IOPS 4K random write performance. If those speeds hold up, the ADATA S396 30 GB should make for a decent entry-level SSD. Unfortunately, we don't have a price at hand.

Lenovo put its IdeaPad U300s ultrabook up for pre-order on its company online store. Soon enough, many buyers found themselves to have back-ordered it. The initial few waves of orders got December 19 as the expected shipment date, the rest will have to wait for at least another few weeks. Not only is the U300s back-ordered, but it's also that the winter break is falling in between that period. The only model available for orders is a 13.3-inch one powered by Intel Core i7 ULV processor, with up to 4 GB of memory and 256 GB of SSD storage. The fact that this $1999 model is being sold at a sweet web-price of $1499 could be driving the rush.

Now that the Octane models are out and about, the OCZ Technology Group is preparing the launch of a second line of solid state drives based on the Indilinx Everest platform, the more value-minded Petrol series. Like the Octane SSDs, the Petrol drives feature a 2.5-inch form factor, a SATA 6.0 Gbps interface, and make use of the NDurance technology technology which increases the life span of NAND flash memory by as much as 2 times.

The Petrol models also have 2xnm asynchronous MLC (multi-level cell) NAND Flash memory (the Octane line uses synchronous MLC NAND), a MTBF of 1.25 million hours, TRIM support, and are backed by a three-year warranty.

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of NAND Flash storage solutions, today announces their fastest 2.5" SSD to date, the SATA3 TeraNova. Targeted at the Pro/Enthusiast seeking extreme performance, the TeraNova is the fastest 2.5" SSD that SuperTalent has released to date. Featuring the SATA3 Interface and SandForce 2200 processor with optimized firmware, the SuperTalent TeraNova was built for speed.

By optimizing the transfer rate at various queue depths, the TeraNova delivers excellent performance in a variety of different conditions. Sure the TeraNova boots quickly and posts outstanding benchmark scores (over 500 MB/s for both read and write), but the TeraNova also excels in general responsiveness. Industry standard applications like Photoshop, Premier, Maya and 3DS Max, load, render and perform much faster when compared to countless other SSDs available on the market. The TeraNova also includes new features that enhance reliability as well. In the event of a sudden power loss, the TeraNova reacts, protecting valuable data from corruption before it powers off.

Racetrack memory, is a new type of magnetic memory that has magnetic domains "racing" along tiny nanometer sized wires, giving performance similar to conventional DRAM. Invented by IBM Fellow, Stuart Parkin, it has been in development since about 2004, with a working prototype having now been unveiled containing 256 "racetrack" cells, each containing a single wire. The technology works by sending very fast electric pulses down these wires, measured in nanoseconds, which transmit very fast moving magnetic domains which are then read by a magnetic head either as a one or a zero, depending on their direction. IBM said in a statement: "This breakthrough could lead to a new type of data-centric computing that allows massive amounts of stored information to be accessed in less than a billionth of a second."

Although Intel has its SSD 510 series to target the high-end client market segment, it's available in very few capacities, and is facing tough competition from "SandForce-Driven" SSDs (SSDs that use SandForce-made controllers). In 2012, Intel will give its SSD lineup a large-scale revamp, which includes the gradual replacement of SSD 510 series with new SSD 520 "Cherryville" series. Targeting the same high-end client segment, SSD 520 will be available in a wider variety of capacities that includes 60 GB, 120 GB, 180 GB, 240 GB, and 480 GB.

We are now getting to learn through a fresh report by TheSSDReview, the idea behind SSD 520: that Intel wants to use SandForce SSD processors. The new drives feature transfer rates of up to 550 MB/s reads, 520 MB/s writes, 70,000 IOPS 4K random write throughput, and overprovisioned capacities consistent with most SandForce-driven SATA 6 Gb/s SSDs in the market. SSD 520 should hence provide the best of both worlds: the trust Intel brand brings to the table with a possible secret-sauce firmware; and the high-performance of SandForce controllers. Intel's SSD 510 uses a Marvell-made controller, many of its previous generation SSDs have used its in-house SSD controllers. TheSSDReview reports that the launch of these drives is imminent.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, a global leader in advanced semiconductor technology solutions, announced volume production of SSDs (solid state drives) that support the Mini-Serial ATA (mSATA) interface. The drives are designed for use in ultra-slim notebooks such as Ultrabook PCs.

"Samsung's compact mSATA SSDs will provide performance of the highest quality in helping to deliver the advanced ultra-slim PCs that consumers have been wanting," said Myungho Kim, vice president of memory marketing, Device Solutions, Samsung Electronics. "Samsung plans to continue providing timely delivery of advanced SSD solutions, while preserving its leadership position in the SSD market for notebook PCs."

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, announces the Talos 2 Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) SSD Series, the follow-up to the high performance, high capacity Talos Series previously available only in a 3.5 inch form factor.

With capacities up to 1TB now available in a compact 2.5-inch form factor, Talos 2 offers increased I/O performance and scalability in enterprise storage environments. Talos 2 leverages OCZ Virtualized Controller Architecture 2.0 technology which implements an intelligent complex command queuing structure with unique queue balancing algorithms to provide exceptional performance. Talos 2 SSDs deliver superior random transactional performance at up to 70,000 4K IOPS and features improved mixed workload (75% read; 25% write) performance with up to 42,000 8K IOPS.

Seagate is now shipping the second generation of Momentus XT, its groundbreaking solid state hybrid drive for consumer and commercial laptops and the company's fastest drive ever for personal computers. With a simple drive upgrade, users can boost boot-up speed and overall performance to turbo-charge their laptop PC. Seven original equipment manufacturers are gearing up to ship laptops powered by the Momentus XT drive. The drive is now available at online retailers Amazon, Canada Computers, CDW, Memory Express, NCIX, Newegg, and TigerDirect.

Powering the Momentus XT drive are Seagate's Adaptive Memory and FAST Factor technologies. Adaptive Memory technology works by identifying data usage patterns, and then moving the most frequently retrieved information to solid state memory for faster access. Adaptive Memory effectively tailors hard drive performance to each user and the applications they use. FAST Factor technology blends the strengths of SSDs and hard disk drives for faster access to applications, quicker bootup and higher overall system speed.

In-Win Development Inc, a leading innovator in high-quality, contemporary PC hardware and multiple winner of the internationally renowned Red-Dot Design Award, has today launched its new performance PC chassis, the BUC 101.

Its strength of design is echoed across both its boldly shaped exterior, high quality SECC steel construction and a hard-wearing black interior. With a striking expression and fantastic feature-set that includes support for multiple 300mm (11.8") graphics cards, it will perfectly suit any gamer.

Lenovo, today announced the IdeaCentre Q180 - a consumer desktop PC no larger than a paperback book, yet powerful enough to turn a digital TV into a multimedia hub for enjoying music, videos, games, web browsing and more.

"With the IdeaCentre Q180, we upped our game in the compact PC category," said Nick Reynolds, executive director, Product Group Marketing, Lenovo. "Featuring the latest HD Graphics and Blu-ray 3D playback, the Q180 enables consumers to change the way they enjoy multimedia and the Web in their living room at an affordable price point."

Anandtech posted the first set of performance figures of OCZ Octane. The enthusiast community is looking at the outcome of OCZ Octane eagerly, because it is based on OCZ's own newest high-performance SATA 6 Gb/s SSD processor, the Indilink Everest, the first major Indilinx controller after OCZ's acquisition of the company. It adds to the options available to enthusiasts, between SandForce SF-228x based SSDs, and Marvell 88SS9174.

The [p]reviewer put the 512 GB 6 Gb/s variant of this drive though the site's "Heavy Workload 2011" test suite, in which it edged past Intel SSD 510 250 GB, but fell behind OCZ Vertex 3 MaxIOPS 240 GB and Kingston HyperX 240 GB, both driven by SandForce SF-2281 processors. So far the performance yield looks encouraging, considering that OCZ has managed such performance on a drive with relatively higher capacity. Apart from the Indilinx Everest, OCZ Octane features 512 MB of cache and Intel 25 nm Sync MLC NAND flash memory. OCZ will also introduce a value variant that uses the SATA 3 Gb/s interface and Async MLC NAND flash. Complete reviews of this drive will surface in the coming days.

The TRIM command feature has become an industry standard for internal garbage collection on SSDs. Unlike with magnetic storage devices such as hard drives, in NAND flash storage devices, new data can't simply be overwritten on existing deleted data (like overwriting on cassette tapes), instead NAND flash cells are first put through erase cycles, and then fresh data is written on them. This leads to degradation of performance in SSDs, as all deleted data will be put through erase cycles. The TRIM command allows the drive to tag freshly deleted data for disposal, and then erase flash memory occupied by that data when idling, and dynamically allocating erased cells for fresh data. This dramatically reduces write performance degradation of SSDs. Unfortunately, issuing TRIM commands to SSDs that are part of a RAID volume is so far not possible, because the RAID volume acts as a sort of an abstraction layer between the OS and physical disks. Some low-level data about member disks can still be read by diagnostic tools, but that's about it.

If the Release Notes document of Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST) driver 11.5.0.1109 Alpha (read here) is to be believed, Intel plans to bring TRIM support to RAID 0 volumes with a future version of RST. Snooping through the document, one can find the following line:

2. This release will not enable the TRIM on RAID0 feature, but it will be added in the next RST 11.5 release. Contact your RST AE representative with questions.

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today announced the USB 3.0 Express ST4, a USB 3.0 flash drive with 4 channels of flash and impressive performance.

Super Talent is known for providing the fastest USB 3.0 flash drives available today. Many of our record holding designs are based on SSD controllers which offer extreme performance but at a substantial cost. Unlike SSD based flash drives that must be converted to USB using an additional bridge chip, native USB 3.0 drives use a single controller enabling designs to be smaller and less expensive.

Over the weekend, OCZ's newest consumer SSD line, Octane, quietly crept up shelves. It was released in late October. Octane is a significant product for OCZ despite having successful SandForce-driven lines such as Vertex 3 and Agility 3, because it's the first fruition of its acquisition of Indilinx, a company behind SSD controllers. Octane is available in a wider range of capacities than the other SATA 6 Gb/s 2.5" SSDs in OCZ's stable: 128, 256, 512 GB and 1 TB. It does away with targeting the sub $150 market using 80 GB or 64 GB variants, and starts right with 128 GB, priced at $199.99 (an increasingly popular price-point for those building $1500-ish gaming PCs), the 256 GB model goes for $369.99 (a decent price compared to 240 GB SandForce and Marvell based SSDs), 512 GB for $879.99, and we're yet to get pricing on the 1 TB model, it will be released to the market a little later.

Indilinx' latest SSD controller, with the most up-to-date feature-set, the Indilinx Everest, is at the heart of these drives. This is what makes the OCZ Octane a litmus test for OCZ's move to acquire Indilinx at a time when there's no dearth for high-performance SSD controllers such as the SF-228x. Indilinx Everest features a dual-core ARM ASIC, with up to 512 MB of cache (notice there's no overprovisioning by default), advertised speeds of up to 560 MB/s (read), up to 400 MB/s (writes), lowest latencies in the industry, 8 NAND flash channels with 16-way interleaving, and proprietary NDurance Technology that increases NAND life up to 2X of the rated P/E cycles, apart from industry standards such as SMART, NCQ, and TRIM.

Corsair, a worldwide designer and supplier of high-performance components to the PC gaming hardware market, today announced the Performance Pro Series SSDs.

The Performance Pro Series, designed with the Marvell SATA 6 Gb/s SSD controller, delivers an impressive ATTO Max performance of up to 515MB/s Sequential Read and 440 MB/s Sequential Write, and can sustain very similar performance when reading and writing compressed and non-compressible data, such as audio, images, and video files. Additionally, the Performance Pro Series has built-in advanced background garbage collection to allow for consistently strong performance even with operating systems that do not support the TRIM command. This integral performance optimization makes Performance Pro SSDs an ideal solution for RAID configurations, which typically do not support TRIM.

Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced the next generation of its entry-level, budget SSDNow V Series. The SSDNow V200 helps consumers revive their current PC and extend the life of their investment. The SSDNow V200 brings value and performance to consumers who are looking for an inexpensive upgrade option to boost their computer's performance.

The SATA Rev 3.0 (6Gb/s) SSDNow V200 is nearly twice as fast as the previous V100 SSD* (figure 1). It is also up to 20 percent less in price than its predecessor SSDNow V100 drive making it one of the best price/performance SSD solutions in the marketplace1. With better performance and a lower cost, the value-driven SSDNow V200 is perfect for cost-conscious consumers who are looking to upgrade to Flash-based, hard-drive solutions for the first time.

Patriot Memory, a global pioneer in high-performance memory, NAND flash, storage, and enthusiast computer products, today announces their new Mac Series XT SSDs and SODIMM lines. Optimized for the latest and popular Mac products, these premium offerings are geared for power users demanding the latest storage and memory technology to increase productivity and performance.

"Patriot Memory's Mac Series XT SSDs will provide users with a great alternative to traditional mechanical hard drives", says William Lai, Patriot Memory's Product Manager. "Offering an easy solid state and memory upgrade, Mac users will be able to maximize their computing experience almost instantly."

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today launched the RevoDrive 3 Max IOPS and RevoDrive 3 X2 Max IOPS solid state drives. Designed to deliver maximum throughput in multithreaded applications, the new Max IOPS edition is an extension of the company's industry-leading RevoDrive 3 product line, supporting workstation users that require greater transactional throughput and bandwidth.

The RevoDrive 3 X2 Max IOPS series combines a proven cutting-edge PCI Express architecture and OCZ proprietary Virtualized Controller Architecture (VCA) 2.0 flash virtualization layer with premium NAND flash components to deliver exceptional 4KB random write performance of up to 245,000 IOPS, along with increased transfer rates at 1900 MB/s reads and 1725 MBs/ writes.

StarTech.com, a leading manufacturer of hard-to-find connectivity parts has announced the release of the (SKU: SATDOCK4U3RE) USB 3.0/eSATA to SATA Standalone 1:3 Hard Drive Duplicator Dock, which enables users to perform 1:3 sector-by-sector duplication from a single SATA hard drive onto three others simultaneously, without having to connect the dock to a host computer. The Duplicator Dock also includes a SATA to IDE adapter, which provides the option of connecting an IDE hard drive in one of the SATA slots.

"IT professionals are always looking for ways to make their jobs more efficient and this new multi-drive duplicator allows them to accomplish just that," commented StarTech.com Senior Product Manager, Carey Cline. "The ability to perform a sector by sector duplication on up to three drives simultaneously, frees up the user's time to perform other functions while the back-ups are created in the background. The fact it acts as a standalone unit also means it doesn't use up resources on their computer system."

Stealth.com Inc. (Stealth Computer), a leading ISO 9001 manufacturer of industrial rugged computers and peripherals has released the new model LPC-125LPFM, a rugged, small footprint, fanless computer for industrial, Mobile/In-Vehicle and Embedded applications.

The LPC-125LPFM is a breakthrough in small form factor computing. The rugged, diminutive size, noise free computer operates in wide temperature ranges and drawing less than 20 Watts of operational power. This energy efficient & versatile PC measures out at only, 4.6" x 6.1" x 2.0" (117mm x 155mm x 52mm) or slightly larger than a deck of playing cards. The Stealth Mini PC weighs in at a mere 1.2lbs or 0.54kg. The PC operates from 10-26V of DC power making it ideal for DC powered applications typically found in vehicle and mobile applications.

Intel released the Solid-State Drive Toolbox 3.0 system software, which it recommends for use with its SSDs. SSDs have a limited number of times they can rewrite data onto their NAND flash cells. The most common 20-nanometer class MLC NAND flash offers around 5,000 rewrite cycles. This software monitors your Intel SSD for performance degradation, and provides a measure of how many rewrite cycles are left, so you can plan beforehand about backing up your data and replacing it. The software also provides a suite of diagnostics for your Intel SSD. Lastly, the software can update your drive's firmware without the need for a DOS bootable disk.DOWNLOAD: Intel SSD Toolbox 3.0

LSI Corporation today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire SandForce, Inc., the leading provider of flash storage processors for enterprise and client flash solutions and solid state drives (SSDs). Under the agreement, LSI will pay approximately $322 million in cash, net of cash assumed, and assume approximately $48 million of unvested stock options and restricted shares held by SandForce employees.

SandForce's award-winning products include flash storage processors at the heart of PCIe flash adapters and SSDs. Flash storage processors provide the intelligence required to deliver the performance and low-latency benefits of flash storage in enterprise and client applications. With market-proven, differentiated DuraClass technology, SandForce flash storage processors improve the reliability, endurance and power efficiency of flash-based storage solutions.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced certification of the Talos 6Gbps SAS SSD products with Nexenta System's NexentaStor unified storage solution software, and will be showcased together at the upcoming OpenStorage Summit, October 26-27 in San Jose, California.

"We are pleased that our enterprise class OCZ Talos SAS solid state drives have been tested and certified by Nexenta Systems for use with their leading edge NexentaStor software, and together we are able to deliver a seamless cloud-ready virtualized storage solution to the datacenter," said Alex Mei, CMO at OCZ Technology Group. "This total solution will be showcased with Nexenta Systems at the 2011 OpenStorage Summit which brings together storage experts to address key technologies including utilizing SSDs to address challenges relating to virtualization, high-availability, and cloud computing."