At the ADATA booth, we ran into two of the company's most exciting products, the XPG SX9000 and XPG SX8000 series M.2 PCIe SSDs. Built in the M.2-2280 form-factor with PCI-Express 3.0 x4 interface, and NVMe protocol support, the drives are positioned in the upper-performance/enthusiast segments. The XPG SX9000 combines a Marvell 88S1093 controller with planar MLC toggle-NAND flash, and comes in capacities of 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB. It offers sequential speeds of up to 2,800 MB/s reads, with up to 1,500 MB/s writes, and features an LDPC ECC engine.

Toshiba today unveiled the XG 5 series performance-segment SSDs in the M.2-2280 form-factor. These drives take advantage of the PCI-Express 3.0 x4 interface, and the NVMe 1.2 protocol. At the heart of these drives is Toshiba's 64-layer BiCS Flash (3D TLC NAND flash) memory. Available in capacities of 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB, the drive offers sequential transfer speeds of up to 3,000 MB/s reads, with up to 2,100 MB/s writes. The drive features an SLC-cache feature, in which the drive treats a small portion of the TLC NAND flash as SLC NAND, by storing just 1 bit per cell, hot data is juggled in and out of this portion. The drives will go on sale in the first week of June.

Remember the Taku Monitor Stand PC Case, that Cryorig showcased mid-2016? Well, it's now made its way to Kickstarter, a likely way for Cryorig to gauge interest in such a product whilst letting consumers foot part of the manufacturing bill. It's an interesting one, really - at least it's different from most other SFF PCs, though I've seen more compact designs. The press-release follows.

CRYORIG, the PC Cooling and peripherals innovator is releasing their first PC case project the Taku on crowdfunding website Kickstarter. The Taku, first announced and exhibited last summer, will also be shown during Computex 2017. The TAKU has been in development for over 2 years in house, with over 6 months of co-development with manufacturing partner Lian Li. The Taku Kickstarter campaign begins on May 29th and ends on July 28th. Besides offering backers the chance to be the first people to receive the Taku, backers are also offered multiple customization options only available on Kickstarter.

It appears that although MLC NAND-based SSDs have many advantages to HDD's from a physical-reliability point of view, the old spinning rust drives might still have one advantage over SSDs: A specially crafted write operation can't corrupt your data.

That's what a new report from Carnegie Mellon University, Seagate, and ETH Zürich is showing: That MLC-based SSD Drives are vulnerable to data-corrupting attacks as simple as a specially crafted write operation.

In a bid to increase options for budget-minded gamers, Acer has introduced the Nitro 5 gaming laptop, whose wealth of configurations start at a respectable $800. Choosing any kind of gaming-focused laptop over building your own desktop will always look like bad business, but how much one values mobility mays edge the decision towards one side or the other.

Specs-wise, it's a mix of respectable with the bare minimum: it features a 15.6-inch FHD IPS display, up to 32 GB of DDR4 2400 MHz memory, and is available in configurations featuring Intel's Core i5 or Core i7 processors paired with an NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti graphics card, or your choice of an AMD 7th-gen A-series FX, A12 or A10 APUs, paired a Radeon RX550 GPU. Some models will include PCIe SSDs (up to 512GB) with up to 2TB of optional HDD storage. Ports include 1x Gigabit Ethernet, 1x USB 3.1 Type-C, 1x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0 ports, and 1x HDMI output. The Nitro 5 also supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi with a 2x2 MIMO antenna. The Nitro 5 will be available in North America starting July 1. Acer did not release detailed pricing, so there's no idea of what the $800 configuration will net you spec-wise (though an AMD and RX 550 are pretty much guaranteed). The Nitro 5 will also be available in the EMEA in August, starting at a much less interesting €1,139.

Kingston introduced the SSDNow KC1000 line of PCI-Express SSDs in the M.2-2280 form-factor. The drives feature PCI-Express 3.0 x4 interfaces, and take advantage of the NVMe protocol. They combine MLC NAND flash memory with Phison PS5007-E7 controller, and come in capacities of 240 GB, 480 GB, and 960 GB.

All three variants read at speeds of up to 2,700 MB/s; the 480 GB and 960 GB variants write at speeds of up to 1,600 MB/s, while the 240 GB up to 900 MB/s. 4K random read performance is rated at 290,000 IOPS for the 480 GB and 960 GB variants; and 225,000 IOPS for the 240 GB variant. 4K random writes, on the other hand, are chalked at up to 190,000 IOPS for all variants. Kingston is selling the KC1000 are both standalone M.2 drives, and in combination with a PCIe x4 to M.2 adapter add-on card. The drives are backed by 5-year warranties.

ADATA is set to officially unveil its new SX9000 line-up of high-performance M.2 SSDs on Computex 2017, but the company has already taken to social media to tease and sort of pre-announce some of the products they will be showcasing. The teaser photo shows the 1TB version of the XPG SX9000 drive in an M.2 2280 form-factor featuring a red PCB. The company says the drive's name "sounds like that car from RoboCop", though if they're referencing the 6000 SUX, well... I hope the similarities aren't as great as they claim to be.

These new SSDs come with a Marvell 88S1093 controller (the company's first NVMe-geared solution), probably paired with 3D TLC NAND for higher capacities and lower cost. This means the company is eschewing the Silicon Motion controllers previously used on their SX7000 and SX8000 SSDs. ADATA certainly wouldn't be putting their stock behind a new controller if they didn't think it was worth it cost or performance-wise, so let's wait and see what comes of this pairing.

HighPoint, known for its enterprise storage RAID HBAs, has a thriving portfolio of workstation-grade storage solutions, such as Thunderbolt enclosures. The company developed a new line of NVMe RAID solutions beginning with its RocketRAID 3800 PCIe x16 HBA, and now the SSD7101 series PCIe solid-state drives. The drives are built in the full-height PCI-Express add-on card form-factor, with PCI-Express 3.0 x16 host interface. The card combines a number of M.2-2280 SSD subunits wired to an NVMe RAID controller, and either striped in user-transparent RAID 0 for maximum performance, or RAID 1 and RAID 5 modes, for data redundancy. The resulting volume exposed to the OS has full NVMe protocol and TRIM support.

The SSD7101 comes in two variants, the SSD7101A featuring factory-fitted Samsung 960 EVO sub-units, and the faster SSD7101B featuring factory-fitted Samsung 960 PRO series sub-units. The card features four 32 Gb/s M.2 slots, the SSD7101A comes in capacities of 500 GB (2x 250 GB), 1 TB (4x 250 GB), 2 TB (4x 500 GB), and 4 TB (4x 1 TB); while the SSD7101B comes in capacities of 1 TB (4x 250 GB), 2 TB (4x 500 GB), 4 TB (4x 1 TB), and 8 TB (4x 2 TB). The SSD7101A offers sequential transfer rates of up to 13,000 MB/s reads, with up to 7,500 MB/s writes; while the SSD7101B offers up to 13,500 MB/s reads, with up to 8,000 MB/s writes, and 33 percent higher endurance. You can halve the capacity and double the endurance by running the drives in RAID 1 mode. Both drives feature an aluminium fin-channel cooling solution, with heatsinks over each of the four M.2 subunits, and the NVMe RAID controller. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Plextor today announced retail availability of its M8Se series of PCI-Express solid-state drives (SSDs). Designed to compete with Samsung 960 EVO series, the drives use Toshiba-made TLC NAND flash memory, mated to a Marvell 88SS1093 controller. Available in M.2-2280 and half-height PCI-Express 3.0 x4 add-on card form-factors, the drives take advantage of PCI-Express gen 3.0 x4 interface, and the NVMe protocol.

The M8Se lineup are available in three distinct variants based on form-factor, M8Se-Y (PCIe add-on card), M8Se-G (M.2-2280 with heatsink), and M8Se-GN (M.2-2280 without heatsink, ideal for notebooks); the three further consist of variants based on capacity - 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB. Performance ratings are the same on all variants - up to 2,450 MB/s sequential reads, up to 1,000 MB/s sequential writes, up to 210,000 IOPS 4K random reads, and up to 175,000 IOPS 4K random writes. The M8Se-Y and M8Se-G series drives feature chunky aluminium heatsinks which make contact with the NAND flash, DRAM, and main controller. Prices start at 83€ for the 128 GB variant, and go all the way up to 494€ for the 1 TB variant.

Early on in Intel's 3D XPoint teasers and announcements, the company planned to have this memory integrated not only as a system cache solution or SSD replacement, but also as a potential substitute for DRAM memory. The objective: to revolutionize the amount of DRAM memory a given system can carry, at a much lower price per GB, with a somewhat acceptable performance penalty. Intel describes the current DRAM implementation as too small, too expensive, and too unstable (read: data loss on power loss) to continue being on top of the memory food chain. This is where the 3D Xpoint DIMM implementation can bear fruits, by offering significantly higher amounts of storage at much lower pricing, while keeping attractive bandwidth and latency performance. DRAM will still be used for system-critical operations and booting, albeit in lower capacities, and will be used side by side with these 3D XPoint DIMM slots, which will take in the bulk of the work.

This kind of usage for Intel's 3D XPoint also delivers an interesting side-effect: since this memory is persistent (which means that data isn't lost when the power is turned off,) interruption or loss of power won't erase the work in memory. At the same time, this means that this kind of DRAM-substitute memory requires some security precautions DRAM doesn't, since anyone with direct physical access to the stick could just remove one and take it with all the data inside. Even though a 2018 time to market seems a little to optimistic, considering all the changes this implementation would require from adopters, the technology is definitely promising enough to tempt users to make the jump.

Bungie's space-opera extraordinaire (well, let's hope it is so) Destiny 2 will apparently offer a great level of support for us PC enthusiasts. It has been confirmed through the hands-on portion after yesterday's live-stream that the game will offer some PC-centric features, including support for up to 4K resolutions, ultra-widescreen support, an adjustable FOV, and uncapped frame-rates for those of you who like to live on the edge. These features, however, make it likely that cross-play between PC, XBOX and PlayStation versions of the game won't be possible, if the added speed and precision of the mice and keyboard options over their gamepad counterparts wasn't enough already. Additionally, it has been confirmed that the game will be distributed through Blizzard (formerly Battle.net), which makes a resounding business sense. Why would Activision distribute its game through Steam, having its profits capped by 30%, when they already have the infrastructure to support a game of this magnitude? Sadly, it has been confirmed that the PC version will be delayed, not being launched on September 8th like the console versions.

There was already some hands-on time with Destiny 2's PC version yesterday. While the PC requirements for the game have not yet been released, I think we can interpret the systems on offer at the stage as an overkill approach to it: the systems featured an Intel Core i7-7700K, 16 GB of Ram, an NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti graphics card, a 500 GB SSD, and Windows 10, which powered an Acer Predator XB271HK monitor (4K, IPS, G-Sync screen.) Though the fact the game was running at over 60 FPS on 4K with the above configuration does speak to relatively mild performance requirements.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of highperformance DRAM modules and NAND Flash products,today launched industrial-grade ISSS333 solid state drives in 3D MLC and 3D TLC versions. The ISSS333 range offers robust temperature, vibration, and shock tolerance as required in commercial and industrial applications. At the same time, users tap fast performance via universally-compatible SATA 6Gbps in a standard 2.5" form factor. Compared to mechanical storage, ISSS333 drives deliver vastly increased reliability, speed, and power efficiency.

While SSDs become more popular as industrial and commercial storage, demand diversifies. Consequently, ADATA offers the ISSS333 range in 3D MLC and 3D TLC (multi-level cell and triple-level cell) versions. The use of 3D NAND ensures improved reliability and efficiency compared to older 2D NAND, with the MLC models ranging in capacity from 120GB to 1TB while TLC ISSS333 drives ship in 128GB to 1TB.

QNAP Systems, Inc. today released the TVS-1582TU - a pioneering 19-inch rack-mountable Thunderbolt 3 NAS that is suited for moving vehicles and outdoor media editing environments. The TVS-1582TU includes four Thunderbolt 3 ports, two 10GbE ports, and can utilize its Thunderbolt 3 ports to have USB-C 3.1 Gen2 (10 Gbps) connections for high-speed data transfer and backups. The collection of high-speed connections provides an ideal 4K solution for SNG/OB van live productions in the fast-paced media industries.

"TV and film production and outdoor broadcasting require on-location recording and editing, and need their videos to be backed up immediately to prevent file loss," said David Tsao, Product Manager of QNAP, adding "The TVS-1582TU is designed for this environment, and its 19-inch rack form factor makes it especially usable for SNG/OB van live media production that requires frequent relocation."

Western Digital Corp., a global data storage technology and solutions leader, today announced the HGST-branded Ultrastar SS300, the company's highest-performing SAS SSD to date. It is the latest addition to the company's family of Ultrastar 12Gb/s SAS SSDs, which are used to meet the rigorous data demands of many of the world's largest companies today. Developed in partnership with Intel, the new Ultrastar SS300 delivers best-in-class random performance, offering speeds of up to 400,000 IOPS random read and up to 200,000 IOPS random write.

"Today, we raise the bar with our newest 12 Gb/s SAS SSD, the Ultrastar SS300," said Ulrich Hansen, vice president of SSD product marketing at Western Digital. "Built with high-endurance 3D NAND flash memory, the Ultrastar SS300 offers best-in-class speed, outstanding capacity and intelligent power options that enable customers to tailor storage systems and server solutions that are just right for their demanding needs. These benefits are delivered with the same tremendous reliability that has helped to make Ultrastar 12 Gb/s SAS SSDs popular around the globe."

Transcend Information Inc., a leading manufacturer of storage and multimedia products, is proud to introduce the SSD430, an industrial-grade solid-state drive. Compatible with SATA III 6Gb/s specifications, the SSD430 delivers impressive transfer speeds of up to 560MB/s read and 490MB/s write. In addition to blazing speed, Transcend's SSD430 features excellent reliability and comes in a small, stylish case. The drive is loaded with low-density parity check (LDPC) error-correction code (ECC) and advanced protective technologies, making it an excellent choice for industrial needs.

The industrial-grade SSD430 solid-state drive is constructed of 3D MLC NAND flash chips. 3D engineering has increased SSD430's speeds to an incredible sequential 560MB/s read and 490MB/s write; the random transfer efficiency is also boosted to 310MB/s read and 350MB/s write. Low power consumption and high reliability are also hallmarks of 3D NAND. Transcend's SSD430 is manufactured for a long-term, stable operation for various types of data and application, and is suited for industrial PCs, automated machinery, and fanless industrial systems.

PNY Technologies (PNY) considered one of the worldwide leaders in consumer electronics market and flash memory products, has launched one of the smallest, pocket-sized design SSD product to enter the global tech market, the ELITE Portable Solid State Drive (SSD). The ELITE Portable SSD drive is faster, more reliable and much more efficient than normal hard drives (HDD) available in the market. It transfers and stores large files quickly with incredible read speeds up to 430MB/s and write speeds up to 400MB/s, so you can boot up almost instantly, reduce load times, and accelerate demanding applications with ease. Get more out of your computer by boosting nearly every aspect of performance. Users can push the boundaries of their storage needs and ensure that they have more than enough space to store their video, photos and files.

The ELITE Portable SSD is manufactured in high-quality and smooth aluminum housing. It is more durable than a hard drive and contains no small moving parts that are prone to failure delivering long-lasting performance and product satisfaction. With 2.36" x 1.4" x 0.35" dimensions, the ELITE Portable is one of the smallest and most compact SSD released on the global market compared to other portable SSD and external hard drive solutions. It is powered with latest TLC flash technology and is backed with USB 3.0 specifications. The drive is also backwards compatible with USB 2.0 ports, so you can use it with any laptop or desktop model.

Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq:MU) today introduced the Micron SolidScale architecture, an integrated platform that delivers breakthrough low-latency and high performance access to compute and storage. The Micron SolidScale architecture provides customers with the agility to deploy next-generation, cloud-native applications while supporting legacy applications that run the enterprises of today - and tomorrow. From online transaction processing, to virtual platforms and analytics, to machine learning, Micron's innovative architecture not only delivers data quickly due to its extremely high throughput, but it delivers faster time to results because of its unprecedented low latency.

"We estimate that companies using NVMe SSDs deployed in application servers today are on average using less than 50% of their IOPS and capacity. With the new Micron SolidScale architecture, capacity is shared across application servers, unlocking capacity customers have already paid for so that they can do more with less and unleash flash's true performance," said Darren Thomas, vice president, Storage Business Unit, Micron Technology, Inc. "At Micron, we consider the impact of every workload, application and environment as we design the technology, products and systems that allow our customers to deploy applications faster and scale without limits."

Transcend Memory announced four client SSD product lines based on 3D NAND flash memory. The lineup begins with the new MTS810 and MTS420 lines of mainstream SSDs built in the M.2-2280 and M.2-2242 form-factors, respectively, which take advantage of the SATA 6 Gb/s interface. The MTS810 succeeds the MTS800 series the company launched in 2016. It is based on a newer TLC NAND flash memory, and a more compact SSD controller made by Silicon Motion. The drive puts out up to 560 MB/s of sequential transfer rates. The MTS420 is its miniaturized version in the M.2-2242 form-factor. Both drives will be available only in 128 GB capacities.

Next up, is the SSD230 series. The company already announced this drive back in November 2016. Built in the 7 mm-thick 2.5-inch form-factor, it comes in 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB capacities, and offers sequential transfer rates of up to 560 MB/s reads, with up to 520 MB/s writes. Lastly, Transcend unveiled its latest high-performance M.2-2280 SSD, which takes advantage of the PCI-Express 3.0 x4 interface with NVMe 1.2 protocol, the MTE850 series. Available in 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB capacities, the drive belts out sequential transfer rates of up to 2,500 MB/s reads, with up to 1,100 MB/s writes. It features 3D MLC NAND flash memory.

BIOSTAR has announced an evolution of their G300 SSDs that it introduced in August 2016. The new, revised G330 series maintains the overall design from the series it supersedes, but upgrades the controller to an SMI 2258 (from an SMI 2256). They're built on Micron's 3D TLC NAND, with a DRAM cache that boosts performance, and come in three different capacities (128, 256 and 512 GB) in a 2.5-inch form factor, with a 6.8 mm height.

The drives feature read speeds up to 565MB/s and write speeds up to 515MB/s over a SATA 6Gb/s interface, and come with a MSRP of $59 for the 128GB model (G330-128GB), $99 for the 256GB model (G330-256GB), and $169 for the 512GB model (G330-512GB).

In what could be the first of many such bundles by motherboard manufacturers, MSI is preparing special SKUs of its motherboards that include Intel Optane cache SSDs. The drives won't be free, but the bundle would be slightly cheaper compared to buying the board and the drives separately. These bundles will be demarkated as variants of existing motherboards, and will come with the drives pre-installed on the boards' M.2 slots. MSI announced two such SKUs for now, the B250M Bazooka Opt Boost, and the Z270 Tomahawk Opt Boost, which come with 16 GB Intel Optane memory pre-installed and configured.

The 16 GB Intel Optane memory offers burst speeds that are 14X those of regular hard drives. The latest Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver, when configured for Optane caching, juggles "hot" data (most frequently accessed data) in and out of the drive from your main storage (HDD or even SSD), thereby boosting performance. MSI did not reveal pricing of the two SKUs, but they are expected to be nominally cheaper than purchasing the boards and drives separately.

SMART High Reliability Solutions LLC ("SMART HRS"), a provider of current and next-generation solid-state storage solutions specializing in ruggedized, high-performance and high-capacity solid-state drives ("SSDs") for defense, aerospace and industrial markets, today announced its new 8TB HRS-M1HC 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s SSD. The HRS-M1HC is the latest in a growing product portfolio of highly ruggedized, reliable and secure SSDs from SMART HRS. The M1HC is designed for land, air and sea applications where collecting and storing large amounts of mission critical information is essential.

SMART's new HRS-M1HC builds on its predecessor the HRS-M1, leveraging all of the ruggedness and performance features of the M-Series product line, and is available in capacities of 1, 2, 4 and 8 Terabytes. The 8TB drive comes in a high-strength industrial design 9.5 mm enclosure while the 1, 2 and 4TB drives are housed in the same but a more compact 7.0 mm enclosure that addresses the size, weight and density requirements of more standardized applications. It's fast sequential read speed of 520 GB/s and write speed of 500 MB/s makes it a perfect candidate for many demanding defense, industrial automation, transportation, medical and telecommunication applications.

Synology Inc. launched DiskStation DS1517+ and DS1817+ together with the Expansion Unit DX517 today. These powerful and scalable 5-bay and 8-bay tower servers offer a high-performance, reliable, and versatile network-attached storage solution for tech enthusiasts and small/medium-sized businesses. The exciting new feature in DS1517+ and DS1817+ is the inclusion of a PCIe slot, which allows users to install an optional 10GbE network interface card or Synology's new M2D17 M.2 SATA SSD adapter. In addition, DS1517+ and DS1817+ both come in 2GB and 8GB memory configurations, which can be upgraded to 16GB thanks to the easily accessible memory compartment.

Installing an additional network interface card allows enthusiasts and businesses to take advantage of up to two 10GbE ports to boost maximum throughput. When combined with the Intel Atom quad-core 2.4GHz processor and equipped with optional dual channel memory, DS1517+ and DS1817+ can deliver sequential throughput performance up to 1,179 MB/s reading and 542 MB/s writing speeds. With the introduction of Synology's new M2D17 PCIe adapter card, DS1517+ and DS1817+ can be equipped with dual M.2 SATA SSDs, allowing users to enhance performance and latency using SSD caching without occupying the front drive bays.

SK Hynix Inc. today introduced the industry's first 72-Layer 256 Gb (Gigabit) 3D (Three-Dimensional) NAND Flash based on its TLC (Triple-Level Cell) arrays and own technologies. The company stacks 1.5 times more cells for the 72-Layer 3D NAND than it does for the 48-Layer 3D which is already in mass production. A single 256Gb NAND Flash chip can represent 32 GB (Gigabytes) storage. SK Hynix launched 36-Layer 128 Gb 3D NAND chips in April 2016, and has been mass producing 48-Layer 256 Gb 3D NAND chips since November 2016. In just 5 months, the company has developed the 72-Layer 256 Gb 3D NAND chips, securing the industry's finest product portfolio.

The technological achievement of this 72-Layer 256 Gb 3D NAND compares figuratively to the difficulty of approximately 4 billion 72-storied skyscrapers on a dime. The chip also achieves approximately 30 percent more manufacturing productivity over its predecessor 48-Layer by stacking 1.5 times more cells and utilizing existing mass production facilities. Also by bringing high-speed circuit design into the new chip, its internal operation speed is two times faster and read/write performance is 20 percent higher than a 48-Layer 3D NAND chip.

To meet the ever growing demands of the embedded and industrial storage market, Innodisk is launching the SATA 3IE4 series with integrated Marvell controllers. Running on Innodisk's proprietary iSLC technology, it provides performance equal to that of SLC at a much lower cost. The iSLC technology in combination with integrated LDPC error correcting code ensures an extended lifespan; upward to seven times that of standard MLC products.

Traditional MLC flash boasts high capacity, but often falls short with regards to product lifespan. SLC is a better choice for performance and longevity; however the cost is comparatively high. This is where iSLC comes in as a golden mean with a drastic increase in lifespan compared to MLC products, while sporting SLC like performance at a much lower price. This makes iSLC SSDs the perfect choice for industrial and embedded applications where MLC often do not meet longevity demands and SLC are seen as too costly.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash products, today launched theSX7000 SSD as part of its growing XPG gaming brand. The SX7000 uses an M.2 2280 form factor and carefully-sorted 3D TLC NAND Flash, paired with an SMI controller. The SX7000 interfaces with motherboards via PCI Express 3.0 x4 and meets NVMe 1.2 specifications to deliver 1800MB/s read, 850MB/s write, and 130K/140K IOPS. The SX7000 is available in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB, making the most of the flexibility of 3D NAND to present consumers with greater choice based on budget and need.