GIGABYTE today introduced a 2 TB variant of its AORUS Gen4 AIC SSD. This drive is essentially a PCI-Express 4.0 x16 to four M.2 PCIe Gen 4 x4 riser card that comes with four 500 GB AORUS Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSDs pre-installed. Using it requires a platform with PCIe lane segmentation (most modern platforms since 2016 do), and for the OS to support NVMe RAID.

The riser card component of the AORUS Gen4 AIC SSD has basic logic that controls a lateral blower based on drive temperature, and provides basic disk activity LEDs. Inside, a copper monoblock heatsink pulls heat from all four drives. Each of the four internal M.2 NVMe drives features 96-layer 3D TLC NAND flash memory, and Phison E16 controllers. With NVMe RAID striped, the card offers peak performance of up to 15,000 MB/s sequential reads, and up to 9,500 MB/s sequential writes. Random access performance is rated at up to 425,000 IPS 4K random reads, and up to 440,000 IOPS 4K random writes. GIGABYTE is backing the drive with a 5-year warranty. The company didn't reveal pricing.

TerraMaster, a professional brand that specializes in providing innovative storage products including network-attached storage (NAS) devices, launches the TerraMaster F2-422 2-Bay Network-Attached Storage (NAS) featuring 10 Gigabit Ethernet networking. The F2-422 is the brand's latest addition to its 10 GbE NAS Series.

Designed for professional users, the F2-422's 10 GbE LAN port provides speeds of up to 10 Gb/s of high-speed bandwidth. This allows users to access and transfer data faster. With two Seagate IronWolf 4 TB SSD drives in RAID0, the F2-422 can deliver speeds of up to 647 MB/s read and up to 651 MB/s write.
The TerraMaster F2-422 comes equipped with a powerful Intel quad-core processor and 4 GB of DDR3 memory, expandable up to 8 GB (4 GB + 4 GB) memory. The F2-422 is also packed with multiple layers of data security to keep your data safe and secure from attacks and risks of data loss.

GALAX have recently unveiled the Hall Of Fame (HOF) Extreme PCIe 4.0 SSD. This is a second-generation PCIe 4.0 SSD featuring the Phison PS5018-E18 controller which allows for speeds which near the limits of PCIe 4.0. The GALAX Hall Of Fame Extreme SSD promises sequential read and write speeds of 7000 MB/s and 6850 MB/s respectively. These claimed speeds are in line with other SSD's utilizing the PS5018-E18 controller such as the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus which also uses TLC NAND flash. The GALAX HOF Extreme will be offered in 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB versions, and all feature premium designs with mirrored heatsink, pricing and availability were not announced.

TechPowerUp and Team Group bring you a chance to win a Team T-Force Cardea Ceramic C440 1 TB M.2 PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD. Announced this June, the T-Force Cardea Ceramic C440 is an M.2 NVMe SSD that takes advantage of PCI-Express 4.0 x4 host interface - perfect for a cutting edge build based on 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen or upcoming Intel processors. This isn't just another Phison E16 + 3D TLC NAND based drive, Team Group innovated a patented new heatspreader which uses ceramic composite materials that more effectively pull heat from the drive's controller and NAND flash components. The 1 TB variant offers blistering speeds of up to 5,000 MB/s reads, with up to 4,400 MB/s writes. Open worldwide (wherever legal), the Giveaway accepts entries until September 17, 2020. To enter, all you have to do is fill us a short form that helps us get back to you if you've won. Good Luck!

For more information, and to participate, visit this page.

Phison Electronics , the industry's leader in NAND flash controllers and storage solutions, announces availability of the world's first 15.36 TB QLC customizable Enterprise SSD solution based on Phison's S12DC controller. Phison provides its customers with industry leading SSDs that are customized to their needs by leveraging Phison's firmware, controller, PCBA design, and manufacturing. The S12DC QLC SSD is an ideal storage solution by delivering higher performance, lower power consumption, and greater rack storage density for read intensive storage applications that currently source hard disk drives.

OWC ; a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company and one of the world's most respected providers of Memory, External Drives, SSDs, Mac & PC docking solutions, and performance upgrade kits introduces the new OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual with 3-Port Hub. Designed to handle diverse workflows, the Mercury Elite Pro Dual offers up to 32 TB of storage capacity plus a built-in high-powered USB hub for accessory connectivity and device charging, easily making it the centerpiece of your digital desktop. The compact Mercury Elite Pro Dual is equipped and ready to go to give you its best performance with any USB equipped Mac, PC, or tablet from nearly the last decade. You don't need to worry about what system you have, the Mercury Elite Pro Dual with 3-Port Hub is there to provide the performance, data capacity, and hub capability your digital needs.

The Mercury Elite Pro Dual with 3-Port Hub gives you nearly infinite options for your workspace. This modern designed solution is universally USB compatible and can handle diverse workflows. Available plug and play ready, the Mercury Elite Pro Dual is not only superfast, convenient, and versatile, it will quickly become the centerpiece of your digital lifestyle.

Micro-Star International (MSI), the technology and laptop giant debuted its brand new "Business & Productivity" lineup,: The Summit, Prestige, and Modern series. The company also revealed its new, minimalistic, and modern logo for the new lineup. This bold new direction is a major milestone for MSI.

The new line also includes one of the first laptops, Prestige 14 Evo certified on Intel's Evo platform, which indicates advanced efficiency and better mobility. The gaming series also unveiled the world's thinnest 15-inch gaming laptop, the Stealth 15M. All powered by the latest 11th Gen Intel processor, the new lineup provides unprecedented efficiency and performance in the face of the new remote working trend due to COVID-19.

Underscoring its mission to enable the world to solve its biggest data challenges by building a data infrastructure with next-gen security, Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC) today introduced the ArmorLock Security Platform. A data encryption platform that rethinks how data security should be done, the ArmorLock Security Platform was created to help with the diverse security demands of data-centric and content-critical storage use cases in industries as varied as finance, government, healthcare, IT enterprise, legal, and media and entertainment. As data security concerns continue to rise in visibility, Western Digital plans to apply the platform across a range of storage solutions.

The first product to leverage this advanced technology, the new G-Technology ArmorLock encrypted NVMe SSD, is designed to deliver an easy-to-use, high-performance, high-grade security storage solution for creators in the media and entertainment industry. Facing the threat of hijacked media files and leaked films, studios, agencies, and especially investors are demanding a better way to protect critical content. While much of the industry's focus has been on cloud security, data often remains vulnerable on the portable storage devices holding critical commercial content.

NVIDIA at its GeForce "Ampere" launch event announced the RTX IO technology. Storage is the weakest link in a modern computer, from a performance standpoint, and SSDs have had a transformational impact. With modern SSDs leveraging PCIe, consumer storage speeds are now bound to grow with each new PCIe generation doubling per-lane IO bandwidth. PCI-Express Gen 4 enables 64 Gbps bandwidth per direction on M.2 NVMe SSDs, AMD has already implemented it across its Ryzen desktop platform, Intel has it on its latest mobile platforms, and is expected to bring it to its desktop platform with "Rocket Lake." While more storage bandwidth is always welcome, the storage processing stack (the task of processing ones and zeroes to the physical layer), is still handled by the CPU. With rise in storage bandwidth, the IO load on the CPU rises proportionally, to a point where it can begin to impact performance. Microsoft sought to address this emerging challenge with the DirectStorage API, but NVIDIA wants to build on this.

According to tests by NVIDIA, reading uncompressed data from an SSD at 7 GB/s (typical max sequential read speeds of client-segment PCIe Gen 4 M.2 NVMe SSDs), requires the full utilization of two CPU cores. The OS typically spreads this workload across all available CPU cores/threads on a modern multi-core CPU. Things change dramatically when compressed data (such as game resources) are being read, in a gaming scenario, with a high number of IO requests. Modern AAA games have hundreds of thousands of individual resources crammed into compressed resource-pack files.

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading computing, networking and storage solution innovator, today launched the TS-932PX, a compact 9-bay NAS featuring two 10 GbE SFP+ and 2.5 GbE RJ45 ports with four 2.5-inch SATA 6 Gb/s bays for dedicated SSD caching. The TS-932PX supports multi-cloud backup, cloud storage gateways, remote access, AI photo management and additional features for SMB to build an efficient high-speed network environment.

With a quad-core 1.70 GHz processor, 4 GB DDR4 RAM (expandable to 16 GB), two 10 GbE SFP+ ports, and two 2.5 GbE ports, the TS-932PX provides the performance and connectivity to make next-generation networking a reality for businesses and organizations. The TS-932PX marks QNAP's continued commitment to high-speed networking alongside other solutions like QNAP's 10 GbE/2.5 GbE managed/unmanaged switches and network adapters.

TEAMGROUP today launches QX, the industry's first and largest consumer-grade, 15.3 TB 2.5" SATA solid state drive, shaking the industry with its powerful debut. The QX uses the latest 3D QLC flash memory and has up to 2,560 TBW of write life. It is super durable compared to other products in the industry, lightweight and compact, yet offers a high 15.3 TB storage capacity. The QX will revolutionize the consumer-grade 2.5" SATA SSD market with its market dominating specification.

The QX uses the latest 3D QLC flash memory, which not only has the industry's first and largest 15.3 TB storage capacity but also has industry's first write life up to 2,560 TBW. The ultra-high durability provides consumers with stability and reliability. The powerful QX supports smart dual Cache, including SLC Caching technology and DRAM Cache Buffer, delivering 560/480 MB per second of ultra-fast read/write speed for smooth user experience. At the same time, it also excellent features such as low power consumption, shock resistance, noise-free, etc. With the huge terabyte storage capacity of a mechanical hard drive and the read/write performance not found in traditional mechanical hard drives, it can revolutionize and redefine the consumer-grade 2.5" SATA SSD with its massive 15.3 TB storage capacity.

Seagate Technology, a world leader in data storage and management solutions, today announced the results of a global survey of 3,000 small and medium sized business (SMB) decision-makers. The survey, commissioned by Seagate, reveals that despite economic headwinds, existing SMB IT infrastructure for many SMBs has shown resilience, and a majority of SMBs believe business data will play an important role in their long-term recovery plans. The company also announced an update to its IronWolf and IronWolf Pro Network Attached Storage (NAS) drive lines, aimed at home and small office environments, with new 18 TB capacity HDD and new SATA SSD models. These new drives deliver unrivaled speed, capacity, and stamina to bring reliable, scalable, and consistent performance to NAS solutions.

Despite the rapid and unexpected shift to remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic, existing SMB IT infrastructure proved resilient, according to Seagate research. More than half (54%) of SMB decision-makers reported no difficulty in accessing files or company data remotely, and 61% reported similar productivity levels to when their employees are in the office. 45% of SMB decision-makers reported their company's existing data infrastructure was more resilient than expected during the pandemic. All SMBs included in the study have fewer than 250 employees, and the majority have fewer than 50.

PC game minimum system requirements have until now prescribed minimum storage space. Blizzard's upcoming "World of Warcraft: Shadowlands" changes this, with the game specifically calling for at least 100 GB of SSD storage. Windows already has a way of telling an HDD from an SSD, and game developers can in theory enforce the requirement. With "Shadowlands," though, there doesn't appear to be any enforcement, with numerous VIPs on the Blizzard forums reporting that the game should launch from HDDs, albeit game load times could hurt. With next-generation game consoles implementing SSD for their higher transfer rates - but more importantly - for their significantly lower access times compared to HDDs, SSD as a system requirement on the PC platform was bound to happen. The gaming industry is designing its next-generation gaming experiencing around the low access times of SSD, and an HDD would fall short. The game's other system requirements are listed below.

Sabrent have recently announced the Rocket 4 Plus NVMe SSD which they claim is the fastest available. The Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus utilizes the next-generation Phison PS5018-E18 SSD controller which enables significantly faster performance with 7,000 MB/s sequential read and 6850 MB/s sequential write speeds. These speeds are just above the recently announced Samsung 980 PRO and beat virtually all other PCIe 4.0 SSD's using the Phison PS5016-E16 controller which maxes out at sequential read speeds of ~5,000 MB/s.

The Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus is available in 500 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB variants which is double the max available capacity offered by Samsung on the 980 PRO. These speeds from Samsung and Sabrent are now approaching the bandwidth limits of PCIe 4.0 x4 slots, however the practical applications of such speeds are minimal for most users. Pricing and availability was not announced.

Running the ZFS-based QuTS hero operating system, the GM-1000 focuses on data integrity and features powerful block-level inline data deduplication and compression. Near-limitless snapshots, real-time SnapSync, and many more business-oriented features are also included to achieve reliable service-level agreement performance and Big Data storage.

"The GM-1000 features a unique dual-NAS architecture that delivers cost-efficient and space-saving advantages, ideal for offloading services between the two NAS nodes or running cross backup," said David Tsao, Product Manager of QNAP, adding "Its ZFS storage and performance makes it perfect for massive file storage, virtualization, and post-production with outstanding reliability and cost-effectiveness."

Samsung's hotly anticipated 980 PRO M.2 NVMe flagship client-segment SSD is the company's first "PRO" branded SSD to feature TLC NAND flash memory, breaking from a unique tradition of using MLC (2 bits per cell) NAND flash. Product pages of the drive went live, and its specifications clearly state the use of "Samsung V-NAND 3-bit MLC," which is another way of saying TLC. "MLC" generally referred to as NAND flash memory that stores 2 bits per cell, even through the term "Multi-level" is amorphous.

The product page lists other juicy specs of Samsung's first M.2 NVMe client SSD that takes advantage of PCI-Express gen 4. The drive uses Samsung's in-house design "Elpis" controller, which uses NVMe 1.3 protocol over PCI-Express 4.0 x4, and an LPDDR4 DRAM cache. The 980 PRO comes in capacities of up to 1 TB, with up to 1 GB of DRAM cache. Samsung rates the 1 TB version as capable of up to 7000 MB/s sequential reads, up to 5000 MB/s sequential writes, and up to 1 million IOPS 4K random reads/writes at QD32. The use of TLC impacts endurance adversely in comparison to that of the drive's immediate predecessor, the 970 PRO, with the 1 TB 980 PRO warranty covering only up to 600 TBW, in comparison to 1200 TBW of the 970 PRO 1 TB, and the 500 GB 980 PRO offering just 300 TBW warranty coverage in comparison to 600 TBW of the 970 PRO 512 GB.

The NAND Flash industry benefitted from strong demand for PCs and servers in 2Q20 as the COVID-19 pandemic caused a demand surge for cloud services and technologies that are related to working from home, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. This, in turn, kept demand high for SSDs. However, the smartphone and consumer electronics markets had not recovered from the impact of the pandemic. The demand for these products therefore declined compared to the previous quarter. In 2Q20, total NAND Flash bit shipment and ASP both experienced a minor increase of about 3% QoQ, while NAND Flash revenue reached US$14.5 billion, a 6.5% increase QoQ.

Nimbus Data, a leading innovator in flash memory storage, today unveiled ExaDrive NL, the world's highest capacity QLC flash SSD and the industry's first QLC flash SAS SSD for enterprise workloads. With industry-leading capacity up to 64 TB in a single SSD, ExaDrive NL helps organizations eliminate server sprawl, reduce software licensing costs, improve efficiency, and reduce data center operating costs by up to 75%.

"Customers are always looking for more capacity and more efficient ways to access their data," said Jeff Janukowicz, Research Vice President, IDC. "High capacity QLC flash SSDs, like Nimbus Data's ExaDrive NL, help organizations migrate to enterprise-grade flash storage as cost-effectively as possible, while simplifying hybrid storage that blends HDDs and SSDs seamlessly to optimize cost and performance for their workloads."

To meet users' different upgrade capacity requirements, TEAMGROUP today launched the highly compatible M.2 2280 specification, PCIe Gen 3 x4 interface MP33 PRO M.2 PCIe Solid State Drive, and CX1 and CX2 Series 2.5" Solid State Drives with advanced SLC caching technology. Both solid state drives provide a full range of storage capacities, offering stable performance and a new option for expanding storage capacity.

MP33 PRO M.2 PCIe Solid State Drive adopts PCIe Gen 3 x4 high-speed interface and highly compatible M.2 2280 specification. The maximum read/write speed can reach 2,100/1,700 MB/s, and the random read/write capacity of 4K IOPS 220,000 can greatly increase the efficiency of data processing. A large capacity of up to 2 TB is released for professional users, which can meet the needs of creators and gamers who need large amounts of storage space for their material. And the built-in smart algorithm management mechanism can ensure operation efficiency, speed and data storage stability.

skyBOX, the all-in-one, portable SSD storage with built-in Wi-Fi 6 technology and universal compatibility, ensures effortless streaming and backup of photos, videos, and music files from and to any mobile devices, cameras or drones. It is a must-have for photographers/videographers/content creators who travel light without laptops.

skyBOX is just about the size of a credit card. It will fit in a pocket or bag easily so that it is easy to back up devices anywhere. Backing up the internal storage of a device or an SD card only takes one touch and a minute, thanks to the Wi-Fi 6 technology and extreme transfer speed up to 2200 MB/s. Wi-Fi 6 can transfer 40% faster than current Wi-Fi 5. Internal SSD is available from 512 GB to 4 TB as options.

Crucial, Micron's global consumer brand of memory and storage, today announced the new Crucial X6 portable solid-state drive (SSD). This new transportable, ultra-sleek drive expands the company's award-winning SSD portfolio and offers more value, capacity and performance options, making it perfect for customers who require instant access to all their digital content.

"The need for flexible access to digital content is essential right now - and the Crucial X6 and X8 portable SSDs bring Micron's unparalleled quality in storage technology directly to customers' fingertips," said Teresa Kelley, vice president and general manager of Micron's Consumer Products Group. "Whether working remotely, staying home with family, preparing for a virtual class, or getting out for an adventure, storing and accessing digital files has never been easier - even without an internet connection or access to the cloud."

KIOXIA America Inc, is the first supplier to launch PCIe Gen4 NVM Express (NVMe ) data center-class solid-state drives (SSDs) within the HPE NVMe mainstream performance SSD portfolio available on HPE ProLiant, HPE Synergy and HPE Apollo servers. KIOXIA offers the industry's broadest SSD product portfolio and has been collaborating with HPE to create best-in-class flash-based storage solutions for years. Today, the company announced that its CD6 Series of PCIe Gen4 NVMe U.3 SSDs now enables HPE customers to upgrade from SATA to NVMe performance at an affordable price point.

For consumers who need to accelerate their productivity and protect their valuable content without compromising style, Western Digital Corp. today introduced the new WD brand My Passport SSD in capacities up to 2 TB. With a sleek, compact metal design and blazing fast speeds powered by NVMe technology, the new palm-sized drive allows home and business users to save, access and protect the content that matters.

"The new My Passport SSD delivers the speed, reliability and functionality consumers have come to expect from us," said Susan Park, vice president, Consumer Solutions, Western Digital. "It is a powerful and sophisticated solution for the everyday content creators, curators and hobbyists who need to move files quickly. The rounded corners, waving ridges and soft edges enhance the My Passport SSD's portability and make it easy to carry, yet also distinctly recognizable as a member within WD's award-winning My Passport product line-up."

TerraMaster, a professional brand that specializes in providing innovative storage products, including network attached storage (NAS) and direct attached storage (DAS), proudly introduce the TerraMaster D4-300 4-bay driverless, plug-and-play DAS suitable for home and small enterprises. With support for up to 72 TB of storage capacity and speeds of up to 417 MB/s, the D4-300 offers fast and large-capacity storage for a wide variety of applications. Furthermore, it features a simple 5-second drive installation for fast and convenient setups.

The TerraMaster D4-300 incorporates high-speed USB 3.1 Type-C Gen1 interface and supports Windows, Mac, and Linux systems making it a versatile storage solution with cross-platform compatibility. Its four bays are supports 3.5" and 2.5" HDDs and 2.5" SSDs with total storage support of 72 TB (4x 18 TB drives). The D4-300 comes with a full suite of protection against data corruption, power failure, and other risks.

In response to the long-distance business opportunities in the era of 5G IoT, and the trend towards storage of massive amounts of data, Apacer, a leading industrial storage and memory brand, has launched SSDs tailored specifically for network attached storage (NAS) applications. Apacer has been deeply involved in the field of industrial memory for more than 20 years, focusing on the development of non-volatile flash memory and SSD applications, and providing highly customized industrial-grade storage and memory solutions.

Considering NAS users' stringent data storage and security requirements, Apacer's NAS SSDs combine high durability, high efficiency, high reliability, and silent operation. They make it easy to quickly upgrade from traditional hard drives or ordinary SSDs, and create security and reliability for home office or small-and-medium-business (SMB) NAS applications.