Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today added two new series of SSD products in their MasterDrive family that deliver substantially faster performance than existing SSDs.

These new SSDs are based on a sophisticated new multi-channel SATA-II (3.0 Gbits per sec) controller. The MasterDrive OX uses MLC NAND Flash to transfer data at speeds up to 150 MB/sec (sequential read) and 100 MB/sec (sequential write). The MasterDrive OX is offered in capacities up to 128GB, and is backed with a 1-year warranty.

Intel Corporation announced today it has begun shipping Intel X18-M and X25-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drives (SSDs) based on multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash technology for laptop and desktop computers. The new high-performing data storage devices give computer buyers a new level of system responsiveness in a lightweight, rugged, low-power package that can replace traditional hard disk drives. Validated for Intel-based computers, the X18-M is a 1.8-inch drive and the X25-M a 2.5-inch drive, offering several advantages over hard drives including faster overall system response, boot and resume times. With no moving parts, SSDs run cooler and quieter and are a more reliable option than hard drives. In addition, SSDs remove input/output (I/O) performance bottlenecks associated with hard disk drives that help maximize the efficiency of Intel processors, such as the company's Core family of products. For example, lab tests show that the Intel X18-M and X25M increase storage system performance nine times over traditional hard disk drive performance.

Engineers and researchers at the IBM Hursley development lab in England and the Almaden Research Center in California have demonstrated groundbreaking performance results that outperform the world's fastest disk storage solution by over 250 percent. IBM has demonstrated, for the first time, the game-changing impact solid-state technologies can have on how businesses and individuals manage and access information.

Following Intel and its partners working extensively on solid-state storage technology, IBM's research staff at the IBM Hursley development lab in England and the Almaden Research Center in California, USA, have demonstrated performance results that outperform the world's fastest disk storage solution by more than 250%, according to the company.

Titled Project Quicksilver, an effort in which IBM coupled solid-state drives with its storage virtualization technology to achieve a sustained data transfer rate of more than 1 million input/output per second (IOPS), with a response time of less than one millisecond in a 4.1-terabyte rack of SSD storage. SSDs are being supplied by Fusion-IO.

"It's feasible that we could get it commercialized within 12 months," said Charlie Andrews, director of product marketing for IBM systems storage. "Right now we have a screaming (fast) system, but there's more work to be done in terms of long-term reliability and integration with systems applications. We don't want to get distracted with 'push the hardware.' We want to focus on the solution piece first," he added.

Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, announced today that it has begun sampling low-density, higher-performance solid state drives (SSDs) that are only 30 percent of the size of 2.5-inch SSDs and highly cost-efficient to manufacture. With the introduction of these smaller, low-capacity SSDs, Samsung now offers an attractive replacement for existing hard drives used in low-cost PCs. Available in densities of 8GB, 16GB and 32GB, the new multi-level-cell SSDs will be mass produced beginning next month.

We promised to bring you some more details on Intel's future SSD family when IDF kicks off, and now that time has come. In San Francisco Intel demoed X18-M, the 80GB SSD model we talked about on Saturday here. X18 is the mainstream SSD from Intel based on the second generation SATA 3GB/s interface. The heart of X18 is made out of ten 8GB NAND flash chips, five on each side of the PCB. Intel promises read and write speeds of up to 240MB/s and 70-170MB/s respectively for this drive. Again no details on the price and the release date were disclosed. Please note that on the second picture, the controller chip of X18 is actually removed to prevent the drive from making its way into competitors' hands.

Trying to keep up with the competition in the eyes of Micron and its recently introduced RealSSD drives, Intel declared readiness to debut new SSDs too during IDF next week. With the SSD market heating up, Intel's new storage agents will offer bumped read/write speeds and double the SSD storage capacity we're used to see. The drives will be available in 1.8" and 2.5" format factors and offer a bandwidth of 240 MB/s read and 70-170 MB/s write. Capacities will range from 32GB and 64GB to the rather unusual 80GB and 160GB. No pricing information is available, but big toys always come with a price so don't expect them to be cheap.

Responding the demands of enthusiasts and high-performance mobile computing consumers, OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and computer components, today unveiled the newest addition to their industry-leading OCZ Core Series SATA II 2.5" Solid State Drives. The Core Series has established OCZ as a pioneer in the SSD market by offering consumers the benefits of solid drives technology at an affordable price. With the industry continuously shifting in this direction, OCZ strives to place its Core Series at the forefront.

Considered by many as the memory perfectionists, Micron Technology, that's working closely with Intel these days in the field of solid state storage, NAND flash technologies, etc., has devised a drive series it calls RealSSD, the series is branched into consumer and enterprise segments, the P200 series are the enterprise offerings which are manufactured in a way that allows high uptime and MTBF to for mission-critical storage environments. The P200 uses Single-Level Cell (SLC) NAND technology while RealSSD C200 series aimed at the consumer segment uses the much cheaper Multi-Level Cell (MLC) NAND technology.

What makes the RealSSD stand out is that the drives offer sequential read and write speed of a whopping 250MB/s, something that takes 4 ~ 6 member RAID 0 arrays using conventional drives to achieve. The C200 series are available in the 1.8" and 2.5" form-factors, the 1.8" drives come in capacities between 32GB and 128 GB while the larger drives offer capacities up to 256 GB. The drives use the 3 GB/s SATA II interface and the MLC-based C200 parts offer respectable write speeds of around 100 MB/s which is still high for its segment, with read speeds of around 250 MB/s. These drives are expected to arrive in Q4, 2008 under the Lexar brand.

Hynix Semiconductor and Numonyx B.V. today announced a five-year agreement to expand its joint development programs for the fast-growing NAND flash memory segment. The companies will broaden NAND product lines and bring future product and technology innovations designed to address challenges facing NAND technology over the next five years.

Micron Technology today introduced its next-generation RealSSD solid state drives (SSDs) for enterprise computing and notebook applications. The new drives-the enterprise-class RealSSD P200 and the client-focused RealSSD C200-provide a dramatic improvement in capacity, power and performance for the applications they serve.

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today announced that the company has dramatically improved the write speeds of its MasterDrive DX, MasterDrive KX and MasterDrive MX solid state drives (SSDs).

These three series of SSDs already boast exceptionally fast read speeds of up to 120 MB/sec. But, fast write speeds are important in applications such as video editing and encoding, image processing, compressing and extracting files, installing applications and copying files to the drive. These newly revised SSDs categorically outpace the fastest hard drives in the world.

Texas Memory Systems (TMS) devised a SSD storage called the RamSan-440 that the company claims to have broken speed and capacity records. This 4U rack-mount device has a sustained speed of 600,000 IO/s with available storage capacities of 256GB and 512GB. The SSD also uses proprietary technology from Texas Memory called IO² (Instant-On Input-Output) that improves availability by making data requested from users or applications available instantly when the system is on.

The system uses DDR2-SDRAM, data backup is done instantly by transferring data to the internal flash memory with minimal system overhead. The device can be attached through SAN or using eight 4 Gbps fibre-channel ports.

During a conference of the company's second quarter earnings, the CEO Eli Harari of Sandisk, a significant player in the solid state drive (SSD) industry said that Windows Vista would present a special challenge for solid state drive (SSD) makers. Says Harari: "As soon as you get into Vista applications in notebook and desktop, you start running into very demanding applications because Vista is not optimized for flash memory solid state disk,". He hints at the design of Vista as a cause for performance not being upto the mark, adding that Sandisk's next generation drive controllers should aim to "basically compensate for Vista shortfalls".

"Unfortunately, (SSDs) performance in the Vista environment falls short of what the market really needs and that is why we need to develop the next generation, which we'll start sampling end of this year, early next year," said Harari. Ironically, he has also been quoted saying that such issues didn't affect the "very low-end, ultra low-cost PCs" (read ULPCs), where existing controller technologies could handle 8 ~ 32 GB drive capacities. Clever choice of words since that's the segment that has drive manufacturers, both SSD and HDD, eying at since it's an emerging segment.

Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) will be releasing the G10IL sub-notebook this September, says Henry Kwan, VP of sales, ECS to Laptop Magazine in a recent interview. What makes the G10IL special is that ECS has managed to squeeze in EDGE, HSUPA, and HSPDA mobile broadband support, but will not feature support for WiMAX. This 'netbook' comes in two screen sizes, 8.5" and 10". The version most likely to enter US markets in September is the 10" model. Prices start US $399. Most likely, the $399 variant could feature a 8 GB SSD with Linups Lite 9.4 Linux. A variant with an 80 GB HDD with Windows XP is also on the cards. ECS says that the G10IL is the first netbook designed specifically for the business user, than students.

The Korean semiconductor giant says that it will begin mass-producing 1.8" and 2.5" Solid-state drives (SSDs) for use by the mobile-computing industry. With the scale at which Samsung claim they're producing these parts, they hope to sell the parts at very competitive prices. This indicates a full-on reach of the SSD into consumer strata and of SSD becomming mainstream.

The Multi-Level Cell (MLC) drives slated for production feature 70 MB/s of write and 90 MB/s of read speeds, that's below what a single level cell (SLC) drive can offer, read speeds of 130 MB/s, an important specification to look out for when in the market for an SSD.

Samsung claims that the 128 GB SSD, which is built from 64 MLC NAND flash memory chips of 16 Gb (2 GB) each, is energy efficient at 0.2 W in standby mode and 0.5 W in active mode. Samsung claims the drive's expected life to be over 20 times that of conventional drives....80~100 years if a conventional drive lasts 5 years.

And you thought your solid-state hard-drive (SSD) increased your laptop's battery life? Think again. In a new article, Tom's Hardware investigated the possibility that SSDs in fact increase power consumption of the system, and the results were astonishing.

While a conventional hard-drive idles at 0.5W to 1.3W, it's only during heavy-duty as in lots of random-access, when the actuator moves the heads back and forth that the drive could peak at up to 4W. NAND Flash based SSDs only know two power states, 'idle' and 'active', SSDs from some vendors don't even feature these. While power consumption of conventional drives are proportional to their form-factor since it affects the weight of the platter(s) and effectively the load on the motor, with SSDs, form factor doesn't affect consumption, and a 1.8" SSD could have higher idle consumption than its conventional counterpart.

You can read the article here.

OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and computer components, today unveiled the OCZ Core Series SATA II 2.5" Solid State Drives (SSDs). OCZ has gained momentum in this pioneering technology, which uses NAND flash instead of rotating platters as the storage medium, and is a high-performance, highly reliable and energy-efficient alternative to conventional hard disc drives.

Sun Microsystems said today it is to remove hard drives from its servers and replace them with brand new SSDs later this year. "Flash SSD is the most exciting innovation to happen to system and storage design in over a decade. By mid-2009, it will be in the majority of servers and deliver more capacity than DRAM and far greater overall system performance and energy efficiency," said John Fowler, executive vice president, Systems Group, Sun Microsystems, Inc. "This technology will completely change how server and storage infrastructure is designed and deployed in enterprise data centers." Sun's SSDs will be optimized for MySQL database and other leading applications. The drives will work with Solaris OS ZFS file system. Sun is expected to deliver Flash-based products to market in the 2HCY08.

Computex 2008, Super Talent has announced a new line of 1.8-inch Micro-SATA solid state drives. At merely 5mm thick, these Micro-SATA SSDs are slimmer than most 1.8-inch hard drives, and hold up to 120GB of data. "In terms of performance, power consumption, and shock and vibration resistance the MasterDrive KX is substantially better than hard drives. The MasterDrive KX is an excellent upgrade for laptop users looking for greater reliability or to accelerate bootup and load times", Super Talent Marketing Director, Joe James explained. Built with MLC NAND Flash, the MasterDrive KX SSDs are offered in 30GB, 60GB and 120GB capacities. Specs also mention about 0.1ms access time and 120MB/sec and 40MB/sec max sequential read and write speeds. Prices of these drives are as follows: $299 for the FUM30GK18H 30GB model, $449 for the FUM60GK18H 60GB model and $679 for the FUM20GK18H model.

Seagate CEO Bill Watkins, outlined yesterday that his company won't release any solid state drives until next year. "SSDs are not price-competitive yet," Watkins said. First Seagate SSDs will start to appear as late as next year, and target only enterprise market. Seagate has no plans to release SSD drives for consumers because of the high prices and other problems that still part solid state drives from conventional hard disks. "If the cost per gigabyte comes down to 10 cents, maybe," Seagate will focus on SSD storage for consumers, Watkins said. But "It will take three to four years for SSDs to come to parity with hard drives," he thinks. In related news, Bill Watkins also announced plans to introduce 2TB conventional hard drive next year. The exact release date and price information for the 2TB hard drive is still distant though.

Samsung late on Sunday announced definite plans to launch a breathtakingly fast flash memory-based solid-state disk that's also world's first to boast a 256GB capacity. Samsung's multi-level cell (MLC) based SSD, which was unveiled in prototype form during the company's fifth annual Mobile Solution Forum event in Taipei, has a 2.5-inch form factor and SATA 3.0 Gbps interface. It is only 9.5 mm thick, and measures 100.3x69.85 mm. Sequential read/write speeds for this drive are also something that's worth noting: 200MB/s read and 160MB/s write, or roughly 2.4 times faster than a typical HDD. In addition, the drive offers a sophisticated data encryption process that prevents data stored on the SSD from being accessed in an unauthorized manner, even after the SSD is removed from the PC. Samples of the drive will be available to customers from September with mass production due by the end of the year. A smaller 1.8-inch version of the 256GB SSD is also expected to be available in the fourth quarter of this year.

According to a report written by the Taiwanese Digitimes website, Intel is planning to promote new SSD drives with its upcoming Centrino 2 platform (Montevina). Dubbed Intel High Perofmance SSD, Intel will place these SSDs mainly in enterprise, mid-range and high-end notebook offerings. First Intel will release two models - 2.5-inch Client X25-M and 1.8-inch Client X18-M. Both drives will boast 80GB capacity and SATA interface. The report goes on to say that Intel plans to increase storage capacities up to 160GB by the end of the fourth quarter, and up to 250GB and above in 2009.

Mtron, a manufacturer of Solid State Drive (SSD) products in South Korea, announced today that they have completed the development of new PRO 7500 SSDs for industrial purpose, and will be launching them in June. Mtron's new PRO 7500 series will come in both 2.5 and 3.5-inch form factors and support the SATA 3.0 Gbps interface. Read and write speeds for these drives are 130MB/s and 120MB/s respectively, making them the fastest solid state drives currently on the market. Finally, Mtron will offer the 7500 series in capacities from 32GB to 128GB. In addition, Mtron informed it will be exhibiting their new drives at DS Expo/10th Data Storage Expo in Tokyo (May 14-16, 2008) and CeBIT Australia 2008 in Australia (May 20-22, 2008).

As Solid State Drives (SSDs) are gaining speed quickly, memory manufacturer G.Skill today decided to join in with two SSD drives (model: FS-25S2-32GB). Available in 32GB and 64GB capacity, the G.Skill 2.5-inch SATAII drives are robust substitutes for normal hard drives (HDDs). G.Skill's SSDs are more reliable, plus they deliver 100MB/s read and 80MB/s write speeds for most 2.5-inch SATAII capable devices. Please visit G.Skill's official site for more information.