Micron Technology, Inc. today unveiled a new portfolio of the industry's most advanced RealSSD solid-state drives (SSDs) for the fast growing flash-based notebook market. A new breed of notebooks are entering the market that have lightweight construction, snappier system responsiveness and a longer lasting battery-all made possible because of the innovations in flash-based storage products.

"SSDs are bringing excitement back into personal computing," said Dean Klein, vice president of memory system development at Micron. "Micron is accelerating this enthusiasm with our new RealSSD portfolio, providing even greater performance and higher capacities than our previous generation SSDs."

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) and memory modules for computing devices and systems, will be exhibiting at the 2011 Storage Visions Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada January 4-5 at the Riviera Convention Center.

"Storage Visions represents a great opportunity to meet face to face with customers and key partners within the fast evolving storage space," said Alex Mei, CMO of OCZ Technology. "At the conference we will be displaying an array of our customizable Deneva enterprise solid state drive products as well as next generation PCIe solutions, and we look forward to exploring the latest storage technology and trends with attendees at this highly targeted event."

Graphics card specialist Galaxy Tech is venturing into other kinds of gaming PC hardware. The company is ready with its first line of solid-state drives. The Galaxy SATA line of SSDs come in the 2.5" SATA 3 Gb/s form-factor, in capacities of 32 GB, 64 GB, 128 GB, and 256 GB. The SSD controller supports the TRIM garbage collection feature. Typically, these drives give read/write speeds of 240 MB/s (read) and 210 MB/s (write). The company did not give out any further information, but we hope to hear more at CES.

Intel Corporation announced today the Intel Solid-State Drive (Intel SSD) 310 Series, an ultra-small solid-state drive (SSD) that delivers Intel X25-class award-winning SSD performance, but in one-eighth the size. Measuring 51mm-by-30mm and only 5mm thick, the Intel SSD 310 is a fast, ultra-compact SSD that brings flexibility, ruggedness and scalability to innovative form factors and devices. It can enable highly responsive dual-drive notebooks, innovative single-drive tablets and low-power, rugged embedded industrial or military applications. When paired with a high-capacity hard disk drive (HDD) in a dual-drive system, the Intel SSD 310 can improve overall PC system performance by up to 60 percent.

A solid-state drive uses no moving parts, and thus is more durable and reliable than a mechanical HDD, while using less power and providing better system responsiveness. The Intel SSD 310 Series contains 34 nanometer (nm) Intel NAND flash memory and is available in an m-SATA form factor in 40 gigabyte (GB) and 80GB capacities.

Super Talent introduced its newest line of solid state drives (SSDs), under the UltraDrive MT series. The 2.5-inch form-factor SSDs make use of SATA 3 Gb/s interface, and are driven by an optimized Indilinx Barefoot controller. The drives make use of either SLC or MLC NAND flash chips. The read/write speeds on the UltraDrive MT is rated at 255 MB/s reads and 250 MB/s writes. The latest version of the Barefoot controller which is used in these drives support the TRIM garbage-collection feature that maintains write performance over time. UltraDrive MT should be available in typical capacities from 32 GB to 256 GB. The pricing, however, is not known.

Dell's iconic ultra-portable, the Adamo, got a much-needed specifications update, along with a welcome drop in price of the base model. The 13-inch 0.65" thick notebook now starts at US $899 (earlier $1100), and features faster hardware, including Intel Core 2 Duo SL9600 processor clocked at 2.10 GHz (compared to the much slower Core 2 Duo SU9300 1.20 GHz), Intel X4500 graphics, 4 GB of memory, a 128 GB SSD storage, and connectivity that includes WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1 EDR. It comes with Windows 7 Home Premium x64 pre-installed.

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today announced a SATA version of their new DuraDrive series SSDs.

Right on heels of our resent announcement of ZIF and PATA interfaces, the new DuraDrive AT2 now completes this family line by offering the same industrial grade durability, reliability and performance with the SATA II interface. The DuraDrive was designed for use in environments considered "too harsh" for a standard drive.

Transcend Information, Inc. (Transcend), a global leader in storage and multimedia products, today announced the addition of low-profile mSATA and half-slim solid state drives (SSD) to its industrial product line. The new small footprint SSDs are designed especially for applications where a small form factor is desired, such as thin and light notebooks, netbooks, tablets, GPS, and mobile internet devices (MID).

No bigger than a business card, Transcend's two new SSD modules offer greater design flexibility and cost savings compared to most SSDs which typically use the larger 2.5" form factor. Despite their compact size, the mSATA and half-slim SSDs feature a high-bandwidth SATA 3Gb/s interface that helps to bring the performance advantages of SSDs to notebooks, mobile devices and other embedded storage applications.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, a global leader in advanced semiconductor technology solutions, announced today that it has developed and started sampling 100, 200 and 400 gigabyte (GB) multi-level-cell (MLC) solid state drives (SSDs) for use as the primary storage in enterprise storage systems.

"As more and more server makers are adopting SSDs for use in eco-friendly platforms that consume less electrical power, the need for high-density SSDs in the server market is growing rapidly," said Byungse So, senior vice president, memory product planning & application engineering team, Samsung Electronics. "While Samsung is already well situated in the SSD market for enterprise servers with high-performance SSDs using single-level-cell (SLC) NAND flash memory, we are now expanding our line-up to include high-density SSDs using MLC NAND flash memory."

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today announced their new DuraDrive series SSDs. The new DuraDrive ET2/ZT2 represents the next generation of industrial data storage solutions by offering enhanced durability, reliability and performance. The DuraDrive was designed for use in environments considered "too harsh" for a standard drive.

The DuraDrive series utilized Solid State Disk technology, meaning it performs faster, use less power, offers greater reliability, generate less heat, and require less cooling than their HDD counterparts. By carefully selecting the finest components available, including an advanced industrial controller and premium NAND flash, we are able to further enhance shock, vibration and temperature specifications making the DuraDrive ideal for mission critical markets. The DuraDrive also has optional support for the Secure Erase features required for many Military and Industrial applications. With ECC/EDC support, bad bit management firmware and patented wear leveling technology, this drive offers extreme reliability and endurance; even in the most demanding of environments (-40°C to 85°C ).

Other World Computing (OWC), a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, announced today it has expanded its award-winning storage solution line with the new Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual mini bus powered portable hardware RAID storage solution. Featuring 14 pre-configured models with hardware RAID-1 "mirrored" redundancy for "live activity" data protection; or RAID-0 "stripe" for maximum data transfer speed, the Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual mini contains two 2.5" hard drives or OWC Mercury SSDs for up to 2.0TB of capacity, a "Quad Interface" of FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0, & eSATA connections for Plug and Play data transfer speeds up to 300 MB/s with Mac and PC computers.

Measuring the approximate size of a portable CD player - 5.6" (D) x 6.1" (W) x 1.1" (H) - the bus powered (no AC adapter needed) Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual mini's unique flat side by side two drive design enables it to fit into laptop, photography, and other gear carrying bags easily and without adding any bulk. With 14 models offering two 2.5" SATA hard drives with up to 2.0TB of capacity or two award-winning OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSDs with up to 800GB of capacity, the Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual mini delivers big storage performance in an under two pound, fanless solution.

JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, the global leader in the development of standards for the microelectronics industry, today announced that it is moving towards publication of the next-generation flash memory standard, Universal Flash Storage (UFS). Major progress achieved at recent JEDEC committee meetings provides visibility on the anticipated UFS interface, which has been designed to be the most advanced specification for flash memory-based storage in mobile devices such as smart phones and tablet computers. Developed to help address the ever-increasing demand for improved device performance, UFS has been designed to initially enable data throughput of 300 megabytes per second (MB/s), and support command queuing features to raise the random read/write speeds. The standard will be finalized for public use within the next three months.

An explosion of data-intensive applications for mobile devices is driving the need for versatile storage solutions, and currently available flash storage options might not have the span to match overall system performance planned for future generation platforms. UFS will provide a dramatic change in architecture to increase performance while maintaining the benefits of low power consumption offered by existing solutions such as e•MMC.

Other World Computing, a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, announced today the OWC Do-It-Yourself (DIY) SSD Storage Upgrade Kit priced starting at $109.99 MSRP. Available in fourteen configurations with capacities up to 480GB, the OWC DIY SSD Kits let you upgrade your Mac or Windows laptop to the industry's fastest solid state drives (SSDs) available on the market today.

With the OWC DIY SSD Storage Upgrade Kit, MacBook, MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and PC laptop users can make their computers faster than new with incredible SSD performance by upgrading their computer's internal hard drive with the industry's fastest SSDs from OWC. They can then continue to use their 'old' drive by installing it into the provided OWC enclosure for a 'new' pocket-sized portable external drive, saving money and the environment by re-using their 'old' hard drive instead of throwing a perfectly good drive into a landfill or just letting the drive sit idle and unused. By purchasing the OWC DIY SSD Kit, customers will also save up to 40% versus buying all the included components separately.

Extending its position in the enterprise storage market, Toshiba Storage Device Division announces its new family of enterprise-class solid state drives (SSDs). Developed to meet the market's demand for higher performance and lower power consumption, the new MKx001GRZB series combines Toshiba hard disk drive (HDD) expertise and its leadership as the inventor of NAND flash technology. The 2.5-inch small form factor drives use the latest 32 nanometer (nm) enterprise grade single-level cell (eSLC) NAND flash memory from Toshiba and 6 Gb/sec Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) interface. Samples will be available for customer qualification in the first quarter of 2011 and volume production will begin in the first half of 2011.

"Toshiba offers the industry's most comprehensive range of storage technologies and the resulting synergies distinguish us as a world-class total storage provider," said Joel Hagberg, vice president of enterprise marketing at Toshiba Storage Device Division. "Toshiba stands alone in the market as the only SSD supplier that is vertically integrated for NAND flash and has deep enterprise HDD expertise. We possess one of the world's largest and most advanced NAND flash fabs, our own controller and firmware design teams, critical interface technologies, and established relationships with every major enterprise server and storage OEM. As a result, Toshiba is uniquely positioned to engineer solid state drives that deliver the performance, endurance, and reliability required for business critical applications."

SilverStone Technology, one of the premier companies in computer chassis design, announces the immediate availability of its latest HTPC (home theater personal computer) chassis in the Milo ML03. The product also introduces the first application of USB 3.0 internal connector in a retail computer chassis.

The slim Milo ML03 is an affordable and versatile chassis with a profile of 105mm height and 340mm depth for easy integration into any living room furniture. It can accommodate up to three 3.5" hard drives or five 2.5" HDD/SSD on its smartly designed drive cages that mounts either size without use of adapters. For cooling, the ML03 has slots for up to four 80mm fans for users to build a quiet system with low power components or a powerful HTPC with 140W CPU. There are also small touches to improve integration including pre-cut hole for VGA (D-SUB) connector, Kensington lock support, and an additional full size expansion slot for installing extra motherboard I/O, fan controller, or other accessories.

Flash storage specialist RunCore is readying a new 3.5" SATA solid state drive (SSD) that provides 1 TB of storage. The drive uses two SandForce SF-1200 controllers in internal RAID 0, the internal RAID controller makes use of SATA 6 Gb/s interface with the host, giving the drive transfer speeds of up to 500 MB/s. The two SSD units inside the drive are set to run in RAID 0, which is abstract to the host. The company is yet to finalize a release date or price.

Corsair, a worldwide designer and supplier of high-performance components to the PC gaming hardware market, today announced two additions to its award-winning Force Series SSD family. The new models include the F90 and F180 Force Series SSDs, with densities of 90GB and 180GB respectively.

These latest additions to the Corsair Force Series are built using the Sandforce SF-1200 SSD Processor, which provides exceptional performance, including read speeds of up to 285 MB/sec and write speeds of up to 275 MB/sec, with a 4K random write throughput of up to 50,000 IOPs. This is the same level of performance as that of enterprise-level SSDs, and results in unmatched system responsiveness.

Leading flash memory manufacturer, Silicon Power today unleashes their new 2.5" SATA solid state drive (SSD) ~ E20, a new prospect in computer storage! The new E20 challenges SSD limitations with uniquely developed technology to boost read speeds up to 250MB/s and write speeds up to 230MB/s, both data transfer rates surpass the major SSD on the market today. In addition, E20 also supports TRIM Command. It is specifically for Windows 7 users, allowing for swift tens of seconds OS startup time and instant application and software use. For users using other OS, E20 provides Garbage Collection Technology. It enhances SSD's already strong performances and prevents poor computer responses from long hours of continuous use. It is the ingredient to achieving twice the result with half the effort.

Kingston unveiled the first line of HyperX branded solid state drives (SSDs), starting with the HyperX MAX 3.0 external SSDs with USB 3.0 interface. HyperX is Kingston's brand of high-performance products, such as memory modules. The HyperX MAX 3.0 comes in three capacities: 64 GB, 128 GB, and 256 GB; and sports a sleek blue aluminum chassis in the distinct shade of blue found on HyperX memory module heatspreaders. Internally, it's a SATA 3 Gb/s SSD connected to a SATA to USB 3.0 bridge card.

The SSD is driven by Toshiba T6UG1XBG controller, which is connected to Toshiba-made MLC NAND flash chips, making use of some external DRAM cache. The SSD PCB is connected to the USB 3.0 bridge PCB, which is driven by Genesys Logic GL3310 USB 3.0 SATA bridge controller. The HyperX MAX 3.0 is rated by its makers to offer transfer speeds of 195 MB/s read and 160 MB/s write. The 64GB, 128GB and 256GB variants are priced at £125, £220, and £440, respectively. A review can be found at the source.

Kingston announced a new line of solid state drives (SSDs) under the SSDNow S100 series, which are meant for non-PC industry uses, such as industrial embedded computer nodes, industrial automation machinery, etc. The drives are available in the 2.5" SATA form-factor, supporting SATA 3 Gb/s interface. Available in capacities of 8 GB and 16 GB, the S100 SSDs offer transfer speeds of 90 MB/s read and 30 MB/s write (8 GB model); 230 MB/s read and 75 MB/s write (16 GB model). An MTBF of 1 million hours is rated. The 8 GB drive is priced at €41, and the 16 GB model at €57.

Thermaltake, leading DIY chassis brand, is launching their newest top-mounted HDD single bay docking station PC chassis, the all-black DOKKER. With the DOKKER mid-tower chassis Thermaltake is expanding their successful series of docking station chassis into the mainstream segment. The convenient dual-use single HDD docking station right on the front top of the case can accommodate one 3.5" or 2.5" SATA drive as needed. This hot-swap mechanism allows for fastest on-the-go data transfers without the need to install any software or hardware. As is custom with Thermltake cases, the DOKKER also provides for excellent airflow with the option to install up to 7 fans. A whooping 10 drives can be installed, while the HDD drive bays offer an anti-vibration design, guaranteeing a silent computing experience.

Today LaCie announces the smallest SSD USB 3.0 drive, delivering speeds up to 260MB/s - LaCie FastKey. Small enough to hide in the palm of your hand, LaCie's FastKey can transfer 1000 mp3 or five DIVX files in less than 60 seconds.

While the FastKey can perform up to 10 times faster than USB 2.0, its peak performance goes far beyond that. Combining the performance of SSD, USB 3.0 and DRAM cache technology, the FastKey can write small files up to 100 times faster than your average USB 2.0 hard drive.

Super Talent expanded its high performance solid state drive (SSD) lineup by releasing to market a 480 GB variant of its UltraDrive MX series. The UltraDrive MX 480 GB is a 2.5-inch SATA 3 Gb/s SSD, driven by JMicron JMF616 controller, making use of MLC NAND flash memory chips. The drive can also serve as an external SSD using USB 2.0 interface. The drive provides transfer rates of 250 MB/s read and 180 MB/s write. The JMF616 controller makes use of a 64 MB cache, and supports the TRIM garbage-collection feature that helps sustain write performance over time. It is priced at around US $1,160.

LSI announced a new high-end enterprise solid state drive (SSD) best suited for heavy-duty database operations. The WarpDrive SLP-300 from LSI is a PCI-Express x8 addon card that is driven by LSI's SAS2008 controller. A number of SandForce-driven SSD modules bearing single-level cell 30 nm-class NAND flash chips provide storage of 300 GB, latency of under 50 μs, capability of 240,000 IOPS for 4K reads, and 200,000 IOPS for 4K writes, and data-rates of 1,400 MB/s read and 1,200 MB/s write. The drive has a MTBF of 2 million hours. Backed by a 3-year warranty, the LSI WarpDrive SLP-300 will be priced at US $11,500 when it releases to market on 29th November.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) and memory modules for computing devices and systems, announces an exciting refresh of the renowned first generation Vertex and Colossus SSD Series. Called the Vertex Plus and Colossus Plus, the new SATA II solutions continue to implement the proven Indilinx technology while delivering significantly improved performance at their distinctively affordable price points.

OCZ continues to work diligently with the latest technology providers in flash storage with the goal of maintaining affordability for consumers that demand a faster, more responsive PC experience. Pricing and availability of the Vertex Plus and Colossus Plus series will be announced in the coming weeks.