Colorful Technology Company Limited, professional manufacturer of graphics cards, motherboards and high-performance storage solutions, is thrilled to announce the release of a new series of SSD from COLORFUL: the new PLUS Series SSD. Available in capacities up to 640GB, the COLORFUL PLUS Series SSD offers the latest in 3D TLC NAND Flash technology along with a new SMI SM2258XT controller offering a new NAND Flash configuration while still offering competitive endurance, capacity and price.

The COLORFUL Plus Series SSD are expected to ship to distributor by November and will be available in three capacities: 160GB(SL300 Plus 160G), 320GB (SL500 Plus 320G) and 640GB (SL500 Plus 640G).

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash products, today launched the XPG STORM heatsink add-on for M.2 2280 drives. STORM features an aluminum heatsink and with a fan. It can be easily affixed to any compatible SSD to provide powerful cooling. Lower SSD temperatures promote more stable storage and system performance, in addition to the XPG-styled STORM heatsink with its colorful RGB lighting contributing to attractive, gaming-themed PC setups.

Lower temperatures complement high speeds
While M.2 2280 PCIe SSDs are currently the fastest on the market, their high data rates also mean considerable heat buildup. Without a heatsink, accumulating heat can compromise performance and accelerate SSD aging. STORM includes an aluminum heatsink that fits on any M.2 SSD without causing overhead issues. Together with the heatsink, STORM uses a fan to circulate cool air and reduces temperature by at least 25% when compared with bare M.2 SSDs.

Intel has reportedly slated launch of its Optane DIMM for the second half of 2018. The Optane DIMM marks the biggest change in computer memory in over two decades, and heralds the era of "persistent memory," which combines the best characteristics of DRAM and NAND flash, in that it has the speed and low-latency of DRAM, but the persistence (ability to store data in the absence of power) of NAND flash. Combining the two will be made possible with improvements to the speed and latency of 3D XPoint memory. Intel is currently selling consumer SSDs based on the technology, and has increased production of 3D XPoint chips.

Intel presented the Optane DIMM at the 2017 USB Global Technology Conference. It described Optane DIMM as a primary storage device that will function as a memory-mapped device, but with much higher storage densities than what's possible with current DDR4 DRAM. The enterprise segment, as usual, will have the first take of the technology, with Intel targeting the exascale computing (supercomputers nearing ExaFLOP/s compute throughput) industry, trickling down to other enterprise segments, before finally making its way to the client/consumer segments. This development is also a polite nudge to the DRAM industry to get its act together, and either bring down prices or scale up densities, or miss the bus of change.

Do your hard drives become idle when you upgraded your computer? Instead of having them retired, with Apacer AD100 and AD300 external enclosures, they can serve new purposes! Equipped with SATA III and USB 3.1 Gen 1 high speed interface with UASP, both models come with enhanced transmission speeds that are up to 400 MB per second. AD100 is built with high-strength steel and plastic for better protection. AD300, on the other hand, is crafted with aluminum alloy, complete with especially designed cooling holes for better heat dissipation. Both enclosures are built with tool-free designs for fast installation, easily turning the unused hard drives into external storage solutions.

The brand new AD100 and AD300 external enclosures are designed especially for 9.5mm and 7mm 2.5-inch HDD/SSD. The SATA III and USB 3.1 Gen 1 interface with UASP significantly improve the transmission performance which is test proven to reach 400 MB/s when operating with a SSD, representing a 73% increase in read speed compared to an enclosure without UASP. Also, the read speed can reach 100 MB/s when operated with a conventional hard drive. AD100 and AD300 make your unused hard drives become high-speed portable storage solutions.

MyDigitalSSD today announces the SBX-series, the consumer grade MyDigitalSSD Super Boot eXpress (SBX) PCIe 3.0 x2 NVMe SSDs featuring the Phison E8 (PS5008-E8) controller. The follow-up to MyDigitalSSD's award-winning enterprise BPX series, SBX NVMe SSDs offer a cost-competitive upgrade option to SATA SSDs with max sequential speeds of 1.60 GB/s read and 1.30 GB/s write.

Designed with best-in-class price, performance, and endurance in mind, SBX pairs Toshiba TLC 3D NAND with NVMe technology to maximize bandwidth while lowering latency for guaranteed peak performance under heavy workloads for near-instant responsiveness when used as either a boot or storage device in Z97 / X99 / X199 / X299 / Z170 based motherboards and more.

Samsung managed to snag 36 CES 2018 Design and Innovation awards, and the company took to a press release to acknowledge the honors, and shed some light on some of its upcoming products and technologies. Of particular interest to us enthusiasts is the presence of GDDR6 memory, which Samsung says is "(...) The fastest and lowest-power DRAM for next generation, graphics-intensive applications." this new memory is expected to process images and video at 16 Gbps with 64GB/s data I/O bandwidth, which is capable of up to 5 GB/s speeds. Additionally, Samsung said the new DRAM can operate at 1.35 V, offering increased power efficiency over today's graphics memory (which typically requires 1.5 V).

Samsung also announced a NGSFF (Next-Generation Form-Factor) SSD solution, which "dramatically improves the storage capacity and performance of 1U rack servers," which allows for I/O speeds at 0.5 petabytes per second. Measuring only 30.5mm x 110mm x 4.38mm, the drive also improves space utilization and scaling options in hyper-scale datacenter servers.

The first product based on Intel's ambitious "Kaby Lake-G" multi-chip module, which combines a quad-core "Kaby Lake-H" die with a graphics die based on AMD "Vega" architecture, will be a NUC (next unit of computing), and likely the spiritual successor to Intel's "Skull Canyon" NUC. The first picture of the motherboard of this NUC was leaked to the web, revealing a board that's only slightly smaller than the mini-ITX form-factor.

The board draws power from an external power brick, and appears to feature two distinct VRM areas for the CPU and GPU components of the "Kaby Lake-G" MCM SoC. The board feature two DDR4 SO-DIMM slots which are populated with dual-channel memory, and an M.2 NVMe slot, holding an SSD. There are two additional SATA 6 Gb/s ports, besides a plethora of other connectivity options.

Today, Intel announced the Intel Optane SSD DC P4800X Series, the world's most responsive data center solid state drive, is now available in a new 750GB capacity in both half-height, half-length add-in card and a hot-swappable 2.5-inch U.2 form factor. Both form factors and capacities will be broadly available this month.

Increased capacity and multiple form factors expand data center implementation options and deliver both solution-level and total cost of ownership flexibility for customers. Intel Optane technology for data centers combines the attributes of memory and storage with low latency, high endurance, outstanding quality of service and high throughput, creating a new data tier that increases scale per server and reduces transaction costs.

Intel today announced the launch of the Intel Optane SSD 900P Series, the first SSD for desktop PC and workstation users built on Intel Optane technology. Intel, in collaboration with Roberts Space Industries, announced the new SSD at CitizenCon, a Star Citizen community gathering in Frankfurt, Germany.

The Intel Optane SSD 900P Series delivers incredibly low latency and best-in-class random read and write performance at low queue depths - up to four times faster than competitive NAND-based SSDs - opening incredible new possibilities. With the new SSDs, users will unlock more potential from their platform. The Intel Optane SSD 900P Series is ideal for the most demanding storage workloads, including 3D rendering, complex simulations, fast game load times and more. Up to 22 times more endurance than other drives also gives the heaviest users peace of mind.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash products, today launched theXPG SX6000 SSD. The product represents a bold move to provide PCI Express storage performance for nearly the same price to end users as that of traditional 2.5" SATA SSD. The SX6000 uses the compact M.2 form factor and reaches 1000MB/s read and 800MB/s write, easily doubling SATA SSD throughput without a relative increase in price. This is part of an ADATA focus on high speed, compact M.2 drives aimed at gamers, overclockers, and PC DIY enthusiasts. The SX6000 meets NVMe 1.2 specs and offers up to 1TB capacity, all at an approachable entry-level alongside its more premium stablemates the SX7000, SX8000, and SX9000.

The leading advantage of the SX6000 is embodied in its superb cost-performance ratio. Using 3D TLC NAND, a Realtek controller, NVMe 1.2 technology, and a PCIe Gen3x2 interface, it reaches 1000MB/s read and 800MB/s write. Compared to a typical 500MB/s by 400MB/s on SATA III SSDs, this means doubled performance for less than 10% more spend in same-capacity comparisons. Increasingly, motherboards ship with two and four M.2 slots, up from a single slot on select boards just two years ago. Therefore, PCIe M.2 SSDs are expected to become more normative and the SX6000 encourages this trend as an affordable high speed alternative that works great as an OS drive and mass storage.

The hardware world is full of rumors. For example, there was one floating around speculating that Samsung would drop the Pro / EVO naming scheme for their new SSDs. Well, the Samsung 850's product page recently went live on the company's Chinese site, and the Pro / EVO suffix is no where to be seen. So, it looks like the rumor was true after all.

The Samsung 850 120 GB, which carries the model number MZ-7LN120, is the only model listed at the moment. According to the specifications table, the drive sports Samsung's MGX Controller, V-NAND 3 bit MLC flash memory, and 256 MB of LPDDR3 DRAM. In terms of performance, the Samsung 850 is capable of delivering sequential read and write transfer speeds of 540 MB/s and 520 MB/s, with random read and write IOPS that top out at 88,000 IOPS and 70,000 IOPS respectively.

Last week, we were introduced to Samsung's upcoming PM981 SSDs, which should give way to higher-performance parts such as the 980 series. Today, however, it's the slightly lower-tier PM971 platform that has surfaced, which should give way to Samsung 970 series of NVMe SSDs. Remember that the company seems to be moving away from their "EVO" and "PRO" monikers as performance differentiators, and this new nomenclature series should replace it come launch time.

The PM971-based SSDs will feature a 22mm x 16mm x 1.5mm multi-chip package that includes Samsung's Proton controller, LPDDR4 DRAM cache, and V-NAND flash into a single chip. As was to be expected from a more mainstream solution, performance will be noticeably lower (at least in pure numbers) when compared to the higher-tier 980 series.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of highperformance DRAM modules and NAND Flash products,today launched the industrial-grade IM2S3148 M.2 2280 SATA 6Gbps solid state drive. Utilizing the compact M.2 form factor for an easy fit in various installations and delivering up to 560 MB/s read and 530 MB/s write, the drive employs durable and long-lasting 3D NAND Flash for extended longevity and improved power efficiency compared to 2D NAND. The IM2S3148 is carefully tested to survive extreme temperatures and humidity as well as provide robust resistance to shocks and vibration. Customers can choose capacities from 128 GB to 512 GB.

Thanks to the compact dimensions of the M.2 2280 form factor, the IM2S3148 requires far less room than 2.5" SATA drives. It can therefore better serve users as more proper embedded storage, rather than add-on storage that requires independent power and more intricate accommodation. The IM2S3148 takes power directly from the M.2 slot, consuming just 2.3W at peak.

The Samsung 850 EVO SSD has been in the market for almost three years now. In what seems to be an eternity in tech years the 850 EVO SSD, sporting the 3D NAND flash memory, has held its own in the consumer space. Back when it was released, the 850 EVO SSD heralded a new generation of price and performance combination that established it in the high end enthusiast market. With sequential read speeds of up to 550 MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 520 MB/s, 4 KB Random Read of up to 100,000 IOPS and 4KB Random Write of up to 90,000 IOPS, the 850 EVO solidified and marked a new era of SSD computing.

But now it looks like the 860 EVO will take over where the 850 EVO left off. The 860 EVO SSD has been spotted in the database of the Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) in the integrators listing as having passed interoperability. The 860 comes in variants of 250 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB, 2 TB and 4 TB SATA III in a 2.5-inch 7 mm form factor with support for Native Command Queuing (NCQ), ASR, SSP, IPMh, 3 Gb/s and 6 Gb/s transfer speeds. The 250GB drive is labeled under MZ7LH250**** with the following, 500****, 1T0****, 2T0**** marked respectively. No announcement has been made by Samsung.

Kingston Technology Company, Inc., a world leader in memory storage products and technology solutions, announces tomorrow that it celebrates its 30th year in the business as an innovative technology hardware provider for computers and devices. Kingston was co-founded on October 17, 1987, by CEO John Tu and COO David Sun. The two co-founders continue to guide the company and remain very active in day-to-day operations.

The entrepreneurial spirit of both owners and the success of the company have been recognized globally through the years. Kingston's core tenets of respect, loyalty, flexibility and integrity have created an exemplary corporate culture - one that guides its relationships with customers, partners and vendors, and to which Kingston owes its success. The company continues to be the largest supplier of DRAM modules among non-semiconductor manufacturers and a leading maker of Flash memory products - especially SSDs - where it has become a dominant force among consumers and organizations alike looking to upgrade existing systems and data centers.

Kingston manufactured just one product when it started in 1987 and has steadily and strategically evolved as a company by controlling as much of the production cycle as possible - from initial wafer processing through finished product - for both DRAM and Flash. The company has done this through expansion, strategic investments, partnerships and adapting to industry needs as early as possible.

Samsung is the most well-regarded company when it comes to consumer SSDs. even if their SSD solutions do usually carry a premium versus the competition, that price delta is usually well justified: Samsung's SSDs are frequently the most reliable, fastest option in the market. Samsung's 960 PRO and 960 EVO SSDs have done a good job of clarifying the company's market positioning, and now, the successors for those Samsung SSDs have already surfaced.

The next-gen Samsung NVMe drives carry the PM981 code-name - where "PM" stands for TLC NAND (in this case, based on 64-layer 3-bit per cell V-NAND chips), "9" stands for Samsung's highest performing solutions, and "81" stands for the part number - two tiers ahead of Samsung's 960 series. It's expected that there will be a 970 part, since Samsung seems to be steering away from the "EVO" and "PRO" monikers to differentiate products according to performance - a straight numeral is expected to be the norm going forward. For now, the parts that have surfaced carry 512 GB and 1 TB of memory. These will make use of Samsung's Polaris V2 controller (with a metal heatsink over it to aid in cooling), and deliver 3,000 MB/s and 3,200 MB/s sequential read speeds (for the 512 GB and 1 TB versions respectively) and 1,800 MB/s and 2,400 MB/s sequential write, respectively. The models surfaced from a Vietnamese retailer, which has them going for $233 and $439 - which doesn't mean this will be the final consumer retail price, but seems reasonable for the technology and performance tier of these NVMe SSD solutions.

Silicon Power adds a second model, the Bolt B10, to its brand new portable SSD product line. The Bolt B10 is the perfect companion for busy commuters and frequent travelers who need fast and reliable storage on the go. It is not much bigger than a business card and weighs only 25g, yet offers storage capacities of up to 512GB.

With fast read and write speeds of up to 400 MB/s, the B10 ensures smooth file management and hassle-free data backups. It has a USB 3.1 Gen 1 interface and comes with a micro-B (B10) to Type-A cable. Traditional portable hard drives store data on a spinning disk. The B10 is more robust and forgiving to accidental bumps and drops, as it stores data on an SSD which contains no moving parts. It offers protection against data corruption by supporting LDPC (Low-Density Parity Check) coding, a very effective error correction function.

SP/ Silicon Power releases its first portable SSD, the Bolt B80, which combines bold design, impressive performance and safe storage. The Bolt B80 impresses with an extraordinary design, shape, size, as well as feather lightness. Its futuristically stylish UFO-shaped aluminum housing measures only 1.2cm thick and 7.5cm in diameter and will glide effortlessly into pockets or bags for safe storage. Equipped with a Type-C port and USB 3.1 Gen 2 interface, the B80 reaches read/write speeds of up to 500/450MB/s for blistering-fast data transfers and back-ups.

The B80 has repeatedly passed a 1.22m military free fall test (MIL-STD-810G 516.7 Procedure IV) and is IP68 water and dustproof, effectively preventing data loss or damage caused by accidental drops, bumps, spills, splashes, or dust. With this level of protection, it's the thinnest portable SSD on the market.
The Bolt B80 is made for professionals who need fast and safe local storage and trendsetters who have a weak spot for award-winning design that compliments high-end laptops and ultrabooks.

"Industry contacts" have told TweakTown that a successor to Intel's well received 750 series NVMe drives will launch within weeks. The second generation Optane 900P SSDs will be available in both the U.2 and AIC (PCI-E 3.0) form factors, with capacities of 280, 480, 960 and 1500 GBs. Like the Intel 750 series, the Optane 900P has enterprise roots, namely Intel's ridiculously expensive 375GB P4800X; which we covered earlier. As the 900P is aimed at consumers, maybe more accurately prosumers, prices should be "affordable".Slide courtesy of TweakTown

SilverStone rolled out the SST-MS09C, an interesting accessory that converts M.2 SATA SSDs into USB 3.1 flash-drives. The accessory, shaped like a large flash drive, features an aluminium body, and encloses a PCB with an M.2 B-key slot. You can install drives up to 80 mm (M.2-2280) in length. The VIA Labs VL715 controller at the heart of this device connects to your drive over SATA 6 Gbps, converting it to 10 Gbps USB 3.1 gen 2. You cannot install M-key (PCIe/NVMe) drives. Measuring 110 mm (W) x 9 mm (H) x 26 mm (D), it dry-weighs about 33 g. Its type-A USB 3.1 connector is mechanically retractable. The company didn't reveal pricing.

ASUS rolled out the Hyper M.2 x16 riser card, an accessory which could prove useful for those who want to add up to four extra M.2 SSDs. The card features a PCI-Express 3.0 x16 upstream interface, which it splits into four 32 Gb/s M.2-22110 slots (up to 110 mm length), with PCI-Express 3.0 x4 wiring, each. The card doesn't have any serious HBA logic of its own, beyond simple circuitry to power the four M.2 drives, and put out power/activity status LEDs for each slot.

A monolithic, stylish brushed aluminium shroud doubles up as a heatsink for the M.2 drives. There's also a lateral-blower fan, which guides air from inside your case through the drives and outside through the perforated rear bracket. You can turn this fan off with a physical switch on the card, although there's no software-based fan-control. The card is 20.2 cm long, 9.6 cm tall, and 1-slot thick. The company is advertising the card to be compatible only with its X299 chipset-based motherboards, for now. The company didn't reveal pricing.

In addition to the StoreJet 600 for Mac, Transcend introduced a two new M.2 PCIe SSD models, beginning with the MTE820 designed for PCs, and the JetDrive 820 for Macs. The MTE820 is based on the same controller as the MTE850 the company launched in May, but features 3D TLC NAND flash memory instead of 3D MLC NAND. At the heart of this drive is the Silicon Motion SM2260 controller. Built in the M.2-2280 form-factor, the drive takes advantage of 32 Gb/s M.2 (PCI-Express 3.0 x4 wiring), and the NVMe 1.2 protocol. It offers sequential transfer speeds of up to 1,760 MB/s reads, with up to 860 MB/s writes. The drive is available in 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB capacities.

Next up, is the JetDrive 820. Designed for Macs after late-2013, the drive features a proprietary PCI-Express 3.0 x2 interface for Macs, and comes in capacities of 240 GB, 480 GB, and 960 GB. It's based on the same combination of controller and memory as the MTE820 - SMI2260 with 3D TLC NAND flash, and on account of its host interface, offers sequential transfer speeds of up to 950 MB/s reads, with up to 950 MB/s writes, on Macs with PCIe 3.0 NGFF slots. On older Macs with gen 2.0 slots, it offers up to 700 MB/s reads, with up to 650 MB/s writes.

Transcend Information Inc., a leading manufacturer of storage and multimedia products, is proud to announce the release of the StoreJet 600 for Mac. Housed in a stunning metallic casing, this light and durable StoreJet 600 for Mac matches the sleek lines and elegant curves of Mac devices. The space-gray color reflects a sophisticated style, and makes this portable SSD a fashionable on-the-go accessory. The StoreJet 600 for Mac features the latest USB 3.1 Gen 2 interface and pre-formatted HFS+ file system, allowing it to be used right out of the box.

Transcend's StoreJet 600 for Mac utilizes the USB 3.1 Gen 2 interface, which achieves double the transfer speeds of USB 3.1 Gen 1 devices, and meets UASP standards to boost transfer rates up to 470 MB/s. In addition, both a USB Type-C cable and a USB Type-C to Type-A cable are included in the package to accommodate Mac models featuring the Thunderbolt 3, USB Type-C, or USB 3.0 interface.

QNAP Systems, Inc. (QNAP) recently revealed and promoted the use of global SSD cache acceleration for both basic and enterprise users. Compared with similar products on the market, QNAP's global SSD cache acceleration technology can share a single SSD volume/RAID with all volumes/iSCSI LUNs for a read-only or read-write cache. When configuring relevant settings there are no service interruptions and users can flexibly balance efficiency and capacity needs. With these industry-leading advanced design and technologies, QNAP is an ideal choice for obtaining greater benefits with a lower TCO (total cost of ownership).

QNAP's global SSD cache acceleration technology lets users accelerate all of the volumes/LUNs on a NAS with a minimal number of SSDs. This cost-saving technology allows users to choose an efficient combination of high-capacity HDDs and high-speed SSDs for a personalized solution. Furthermore, configuring settings for the QNAP global SSD cache will not interrupt NAS services, thus a 24/7 uninterrupted environment is ensured.

Team Group, world renowned memory solutions and accessory provider, is proud to announce today the addition of new products as to their prestigious T-FORCE gaming line of products. Announced today, the T-FORCE arsenal welcomes the T-FORCE CARDEA ZERO M.2 PCI-E solid-state drive and the T-FORCE FORCE SABLE gaming mouse pad. Both designed by Team Group, the T-FORCE CARDEA ZERO is a patented M.2 PCI-e M.2 SSD featuring graphene copper foil cooling on the SSD module allowing the SSD to maximize cooling benefits from both natural passive cooling and directed air cooling via fans to deliver excellent heat dissipation.

The T-FORCE CARDEA ZERO M.2 PCI-E SSD is the world's first super slim SSD on the market built specifically for gaming laptops and high-performance tablet PCs. The newly released T-FORCE GAMING mouse pad, the T-FORCE FORCE SABLE, features special 3D sensing technology to effectively enhance the performance of optical or laser-sensor gaming mice. The mouse itself is made from environmental-friendly fabric which provides better comfort and smoother control and is completely washable and easy to clean.