In order to satisfy the new generation's need for extreme speed, the world's leading memory storage product brand Team Group Inc. released the first generation 2.5 inch SATA III SSD to firmly display their ambition to grab market share. SSD S3 uses the high standard SATA3 6Gb/s interface, and is equipped the enthusiast level SandForce controller as the core helmsman; when compared to the previous generation SATA 2, not only does it maintain Team Group's consistent high standard product stability and security, it also comprehensively increases the reading and writing speed, leading SSD's super efficiency towards a new revolutionary realm.

Team Group Inc. officially announced the Xtreem SSD family's second SATA3 super high-speed solid state drive - Xtreem S2. In addition to the outstanding performance and energy-saving abilities, the Xtreem S2 SSD features customized product positioning and market strategy in accordance with the need of mainstream enthusiasts, allowing enthusiasts to enjoy the speedy pleasure of extreme performance at an economical price.

In consideration of the rapidly growing need for performance-oriented SSD on the mainstream market, Team Group roll out Team Xtreem S2, offering high quality at preferential price, based on on the mission of SSD promotion, and the core product concept of high cost-performance ratio. Team Xtreem S2 achieves max read speed of 550 MB/s and max write speed of 520 MB/s With high performance and a more competitive price which compared to other SSD products on the market, Team Group show their determination to introduce its high-speed SATA3 device to all power users.

While using a low-capacity SSD to cache a hard drive has shown in some cases to be the next best thing to owning a large SSD as the proper primary drive, SSD caching is limited by the availability of the right technology. On the one hand, you have Intel offering it with its Smart Response Technology, on the other you have special storage enclosures such as HDDBoost from SilverStone. Smart Response Tech for now is limited to socket LGA1155 platform, and in it, Z68 Express chipset-based motherboards. In Japan, a new add-on card design has surfaced, by a company called Kuroutoshikou, which lets you use an mSATA SSD to cache a SATA hard drive, and its installation is claimed to be fairly straightforward.

The PCI-Express 2.0 x1 add-on card pictured below, makes use of a new Marvell-made 2-port SATA 6 Gb/s controller. One of its two ports is wired to an mSATA, the other to a standard SATA port. The SATA controller in this card features Marvell's HyperDuo technology, which works similar to Intel's Smart Response Technology, and installation is almost plug-and-install-driver. The card uses a half-height PCB, and packs a low-profile expansion bracket cover, if your SFF case demands it. Pretty much any make of mSATA SSD and SATA hard drives can be used. This addon card is priced in Japan for 3,980 Yen, which is about US $50.3, a $20 premium over some of the cheapest 2-port SATA 6 Gb/s cards are around that price range. It's possible that peripheral specialists of the likes of Rosewill, Siig, Syba, etc., might market such cards Stateside in the future.

Data storage veteran TDK announced the GBDriver RS3 series solid state drives (SSDs) for use in embedded devices, tablets, and thin-clients. It includes low-capacity single-level cell (SLC) SSDs, available in 8 GB, 16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB sizes; and mainstream capacitity multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash SSDs in sizes of 16 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB, and 128 GB. The SLC models provide transfer rates of 160 MB/s read and 60 MB/s write; while the MLCs ones read/write at 160/25 MB/s. All drives use SATA 3 Gb/s interface. The GBDriver RS3 series features an in-house SSD controller made by TDK, that provides automatic 128-bit AES data encryption, Static Wear Leveling functions, and SMART. The drives offer 500,000 hours of MTBF, and make use of aluminum casings. TDK is expected to ship the drives in late September.

SMART Modular Technologies (WWH), Inc., a leading independent manufacturer of solid-state storage products and memory modules, today announced the Optimus solid-state drive (SSD) for enterprise storage applications. Featuring a native Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) 6Gb/s interface and up to 1.6 TB usable capacity, Optimus is the industry's highest capacity and fastest SAS multi-level cell (MLC) SSD. Delivering high performance, endurance, and reliability, the costeffective Optimus SSD satisfies the demands of I/O intensive, web-facing, and cloud-based applications in today's IT infrastructure.

Optimus was developed using SMART's extensive experience in flash technology, SAS firmware, and enterprise storage. SMART's world-class manufacturing and accomplished enterprise organization ensures that the Optimus SSD, as well as SMART's business and support processes, will meet the needs of the most demanding enterprise storage customers.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced the release of Z-Drive Revision 4 (R4) PCI Express (PCIe) storage solutions designed to dramatically accelerate enterprise applications and significantly reduce total cost of ownership in the data center. The Z-Drive R4 product line features OCZ's second generation proprietary Virtualized Controller Architecture (VCA) 2.0, providing the utmost in performance, flexibility, durability and enhanced reliability features, allowing data centers, for the first time, to rely on a PCIe-based SSD as their primary tier one storage solution.

"Objective Analysis forecasts that the PCIe interface will become dominant in the enterprise SSD market in 2012, with unit shipments greater than the combined shipments of its SAS and Fibre Channel counterparts," said SSD analyst Jim Handy of Objective Analysis. "This is because the PCIe interface puts less drag on the NAND-to-processor communication channel than do standard HDD interfaces. By 2015, Objective Analysis expects well over two million PCIe SSDs to ship, a number larger than all of the SATA SSDs that shipped in 2010."

Once a PC enthusiast-centric company, OCZ is taking the solid state drive business seriously, across all market segments, consumer-thru-enterprise. The company now has SSDs in nearly all form-factors, making use of nearly all industry standard interfaces, it even has its own high-bandwidth interface modelled. Some of its highest performance SSDs are in the PCI-Express addon card form-factor, that include SSDs with transfer rates well within the gigabyte per second range.

OCZ CEO Ryan Petersen will be holding a conference call with the press later today, in which he will be talking about the company's enterprise SSD business, and unveil a new PCI-Express SSD, called Z-Drive R4. Z-Drive is OCZ's enterprise PCI-E SSD targeted at systems in which throughput is everything. The Z-Drive R4 was spotted at this year's Computex event, it is essentially a PCI-Express 2.0 x8 addon card that has an 8-port SATA 6 Gb/s controller, driving eight, yes, eight SSD subunits in RAID 0. Each subunit consists of a SandForce SF-2281 controller with its own NAND flash memory. As with all compound SSDs, the RAID 0 volume is completely abstract to the host machine.

Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced it is shipping the HyperX SSD, its first SATA Rev. 3.0 6Gb/s solid-state drive. The Kingston HyperX SSD features the latest SandForce controller and is designed for enthusiasts, gamers and performance users.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today released a refresh of the Talos Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) 6Gb/s SSDs with OCZ's proprietary Virtualized Controller Architecture (VCA) 2.0. Designed for enterprise applications with mixed workloads, the Talos Series with VCA 2.0 delivers even greater performance for SAS-based storage infrastructures.

OCZ's Talos with VCA 2.0 technology provides customers with a robust enterprise feature-set while substantially increasing mixed workload performance. Talos now utilizes VCA 2.0's unique command queuing and queue balance algorithms to address the demands of today's I/O intensive enterprise applications, which require high levels of sustained IOPS and bandwidth, across file sizes and read/write ratios. While traditional SAS SSDs can only perform one read or write at a time, OCZ Talos drives with VCA 2.0, can read and write simultaneously, substantially increasing performance.

Leading memory storage brand, SP/Silicon Power today announces the launch of its first SATA III Solid State Drive (SSD), the Velox Series V30. Continuing the efficiency and stability of the V20, the V30 employs the highest spec SATA 6 Gbps interface on the market, while remaining backwards compatible with the SATA II Gbps interface. Running at over double the efficiency of the SATA 3 Gbps interface, the V30 is a top level product that can meet the needs of computer gamers and professional computer users alike.

The SP/Silicon Power V30 SSD uses a SandForce controller chip, enabling it to reach a top read speed of 550 MB/s, and top write speed of 500 MB/s. It also supports TRIM command and Garbage Collection technology, resolving the issue of decreased efficiency in SSDs used for long periods of time.

SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, today introduced the SanDisk Ultra solid state drive (SSD) for the retail market. The new SSD can extend the life of desktop and notebook PCs, and offers greater performance, durability and power efficiency than a hard disk drive.

The SanDisk Ultra SSD is a convenient drop-in solution for technology enthusiasts looking to upgrade their own PCs for an enhanced user experience. The new SSD features: Fast Performance, Power Efficiency, and Long-term Reliability.

Panasonic today launched the Toughbook CF-H2, its second generation, fully rugged tablet PC designed specifically for health workers. Setting new standards in ease of use, connectivity and productivity, the CF-H2 is a lightweight, water-resistant, shock and drop-tolerant and easily disinfected tablet device that meets the highest demands for mobility and networking within clinical environments. It allows doctors and nursing staff to benefit from instant access to medical records at the point of care, accurate documentation on patient conditions and medication, and enables greater efficiency of clinical processes.

With the latest Intel Core i5-2557M (1.7GHz) Ultra Low Voltage processor with vPro and the Intel HD 3000 graphics for enhanced multimedia capabilities, the Toughbook CF-H2 performance has been improved more than 400% over its CF-H1 predecessor. The CF-H2 is ideal for power hungry healthcare applications such as Electronic Patient Records (EPR) and Patient Administration Systems (PAS). RAM has also been raised to 2 gigabyte as standard, with up to 6 gigabyte optional, and it comes with a 160 gigabyte hard disk drive as standard with 128 gigabyte SSD as an option.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) and power supplies for computing devices and systems, announces the ZS Power Supply Series that offer consumers superior value for home desktops and gaming systems. Providing high efficiency, cool operation, and a compact case design, the ZS Series offers an excellent price point for system builders looking for a quality upgrade in a variety of power options.

"The new ZS line of power supplies provides customers with the ideal blend of quality, performance, and efficiency for power hungry desktops," said Steve Lee, Senior Vice President of Power Management at OCZ Technology Group. "The ZS power supplies are available in a range of wattages and are engineered for consumers seeking both solid performance and reliability at a very cost-effective price point."

Japanese cooling expert Scythe is hereby announcing a new Docking Station for Hard Drives. Scythe Kama Dock is available as of today and aims for users who are making backups frequently and wish to connect Hard Drives to their Computer without hassle.

Scythe Kama Dock supports common aftermarket Hard Disks in 3.5 inch (8.89 cm) as well as 2.5 inch (6.35 cm) form factor. Furthermore it is possible to connect 2.5 inch (6.35 cm) Solid State Drives (SSD). Connection between compatible drives and Kama Dock is achieved by using the popular SATA-Interface. In order to assure high data transfer rates between Kama Dock and the PC new USB 3.0 Interface was implemented which offers downward compatibility to USB 2.0 and 1.1 Interfaces. Users are able to mount their HDDs or SSDs in normal horizontal direction or raise it to three further uplifted positions.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today unveiled the Indilinx Everest SATA 3.0 SSD platform. The Everest platform features support of 6Gbps interface speeds, high transactional performance that is optimized for compressed files, and maximum capacities up to 1TB.

"The new Indilinx Everest platform is a complete customizable solution that delivers superior storage performance, features, and capabilities designed to exceed the needs of the most demanding SSD applications," said Bumsoo Kim, President of Indilinx. "Combining a 6Gbps SATA Revision 3.0 host interface, a dual-core CPU, and support for the latest, most advanced NAND Flash memory technology available, Everest offers SSD manufacturers unparallel flexibility in optimizing their designs for both performance and cost."

Patriot Memory announced its latest high-performance solid state drive for the client platform, the Patriot Pyro. The new SSD comes in the 2.5-inch SATA form-factor, uses SATA 6 Gbps interface, and is driven by SandForce SF-2281 controller. It will be availabile in capacities of 60 GB, 120 GB, and 240 GB. The 120 and 240 GB variants will offer transfer-rates of up to 550 MB/s read, 520 MB/s write; while the 60 GB variant gives 515 MB/s read, 490 MB/s write. Similarly, the 120 and 240 GB variants offer 85,000 IOPS 4K random write performance, while the 60 GB one offers 80,000 IOPS. Backed by three-year warranties, all three variants will release in markets soon. Pricing is not known.

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today announced their new MasterDrive KX3, a 1.8" SSD for the emerging notebook and tablet markets.

As laptops get thinner and lighter, the demand for smaller, thinner components follows suit. The fact that this product is also silent, more rugged, has better performance and better battery life only adds to the allure of the mobile SSDs.

Seagate today began distribution channel shipments of the Pulsar XT.2 solid state drive (SSD) that combines outstanding and consistent performance with the data integrity and drive endurance needed for the most demanding enterprise environments, and is on track to commence channel shipments of the Pulsar.2 SSD, the first Multi-Level Cell (MLC) Flash-enabled SSD from an enterprise hard drive maker, on July 29.

The Pulsar XT.2 SSD combines Single-Level Cell (SLC) flash with a native 6Gb/s Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) interface to make it the fastest drive in the Seagate portfolio. The 2.5-inch SSD with up to 400GB of capacity is optimized for complex, mixed workloads typical of enterprise environments such as online transaction processing (OLTP), database or web indexing, and email.

Apacer, the global leader in memory module, is making aggressive moves into the sector of value-added products by debuting today a new industrial SD card designed for embedded systems in harsh storage environments. Features include high reliability, high storage and resistance to extended temperatures. These advantages enable the new card to be widely applied to industrial, military, communication, surveillance, medical devices and car navigation, thereby satisfying the storage need of demanding industrial enterprises.

Compliant with Ver. 2.0 standard and SDHC Class 10 high-speed transmission standard as defined by the SD Association, the new SD card from Apacer also supports SD and SPI modes. By using the superbly reliable SLC chip, it not only delivers the features of anti-shock, anti-vibration and low power consumption, but also boasts resistance to extended temperatures (-40ºC to 85ºC). Available in capacities from 256 MB to 8 GB, the new SD card can substantially accelerate data transfer, due to its sequential read/write speed reaching up to 20/13 MB per second. It is also worth noting that the card's automatic standby and sleep modes help save power more effectively.

Intel's 320 Series SSD is the silicon giant's big push of SSD technology into homes and offices. The SATA 3 Gb/s compatible 2.5" SSDs offer generally good price per gigabyte by SSD standards, and is even backed by a 5 year warranty after some customers were skeptical about the low NAND flash rewrite cycle capacity of the new 25 nm MLC NAND flash chips. Off late, several customers have been noting a bug in its firmware that drops capacity down to 8 MB, making data occupied on the rest of the capacity inaccessible. This bug came to be popularly known as the "8 MB bug".

Intel's Support Community boards have been piling up with complaints about this bug by users of 320 series. Then earlier this week, Intel's Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) Solutions Group acknowledged this bug. It asked customers to contactIntel representatives or Intel customer support, and said that it will provide an update when it has more information. In all likelihood, this is yet another case of buggy firmware by Intel, which haunted it through the 34 nm X25-M and some older SSDs.

Mach Xtreme Technology Inc., a worldwide leader in top performance, high reliability and user friendly designed PC components, today announced the 2.5" SATAIII MX-DS FUSION Series SSD for budget conscious enthusiasts. MX Technology releases the DS FUSION series adding up to its SATAIII line-up after the DS TURBO series. This series comes at a price point that is friendly to budget-conscious users.

Advanced high speed SATAIII interface has been implemented in newer systems to remove previous performance bottleneck. The MX-DS FUSION Series is perfect to take advantage of that higher speed interface offering unparalleled level of performance. This series delivers performance that maximizes the throughput of a SATA III 6Gb/s interface with balanced read/write speeds. It supports DuraClass and DuraWrite technologies. DuraClass technology provides best-in-class endurance, performance and low power consumption. DuraWrite technology optimizes writes to the flash memory over conventional controllers increasing the overall endurance and reliability of the complete SSD. Highly intelligent block management and wear leveling also extends the overall endurance. It maintains backwards compatibility with existing SATA II 3.0 Gb/s and SATA I 1.5 Gb/s interfaces.

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today announced their new SATA III SSD, the TeraDrive CT3. Right on the heals of the TeraDrive PT3, SuperTalent now unveils their TeraDrive CT3. Designed to fill the gap between their TeraDrive PT3 and CT2 offerings, the CT3 emerges as a price/performance leader. By combining the new SATA III interface with standard 25nm NAND flash, the TeraDrive CT3 enables traditional NAND flash to offer some very untraditional performance.

As with the PT3, the CT3 features the new SandForce SF-2200 SSD processor and the SATA III interface. You can think of the new TeraDrive CT3 as the PT3 with asynchronous Flash or the as the CT2 with a SATA III interface; either way the CT3 is a perfect combination for price and performance.

Here are the first pictures of the Cooler Master Cosmos II, the next major version of the iconic PC case that solidified its maker's brand in the premium casing segment. The Cosmos II retains its trademark rail-suspended box shape of the original, and combines it with a wealth of features that became industry standards towards the end of the last decade. The Cosmos II is mostly black in color, and is curvier than the original. It's about the same size as Cosmos 1000. From the pictures, we can see that the case is airier, with gill-shaped intakes on the side panels.

The front features a feature-rich utility panel on the top, that includes USB 3.0 ports with standard headers, eSATA, and feather-touch buttons and LEDs. A sliding visor covers the external drive bays, once slided down, three 5.25" and two 3.5" bays are exposed, the bays have tool-free covers. Don't let the fact that there are just five exposed bays for a full-ATX case disappoint you, inside the case you will find no less than 11 internal drive bays arraged along two groups. Each of the bays take 3.5" drives, the tool-free drive trays can accommodate 2.5" drives such as SSDs, too. The lower group of bays is compartmentalized with a lid that can hold two 120 mm fans, while the upper group relies on the front-intake fans.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today launched the RevoDrive 3 and RevoDrive 3 X2 lineup of SSDs. Designed to deliver maximum throughput in multithreaded applications, the new RevoDrive 3 incorporates an advanced data management feature-set based on OCZ's proprietary Virtualized Controller Architecture (VCA) technology, providing both the performance and features required by the intensive workloads common in high performance computing and workstation environments.

The RevoDrive 3 provides unique benefits to users by incorporating features from the VCA 2.0 flash virtualization software that allow certain direct memory access (DMA) and data management functions. Included in this feature-set are OCZ's exclusive command queuing and queue balancing algorithms, which can be handled by the onboard processing core for higher performance and reduced burden on the host resources. VCA 2.0 is also the only virtualization layer in the industry with TRIM and SCSI unmap support to enhance sustained performance and provide greater endurance by significantly reducing the overhead associated with garbage collection. Furthermore, VCA also offers consolidated SMART support and provides system administrators with advanced features for monitoring, analyzing, and reporting device attributes.

Japanese manufacturer Green House unveiled its latest portable solid state drive (SSD), the GH-SSDE-U3A. Measuring 79 (W) x 137.5 (D) x 12.5 (H) mm, and weighing 141 g, the drive is inherently more tolerant to mechanical shocks than portable hard drives. It uses the USB 3.0 SuperSpeed interface, with a single cable drawing power from the host, and providing 5 Gb/s interconnect bandwidth.

The Green House GH-SSDE-U3A provides respectable transfer rates of 220 MB/s reads, and 180 MB/s writes, and comes in capacities of 64 GB, 128 GB, and 256 GB. It uses MLC NAND flash memory chips, while its controller isn't known. The drive's body is completely made of metal, powder-coated matte-black. Backed by a one-year warranty, the Green House GH-SSDE-U3A will reach stores by the end of this month. Its price, however, is still under the wraps.