Mushkin, Inc., an industry-leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance and mission-critical computer products, today announces the U.S. availability of the 480 GB Atlas mSATA solid-state drive. Mushkin's 480GB Atlas mSATA solid-state drive (Model No.: MKNSSDAT480GB) is initially available in the U.S. at Newegg.com, with worldwide availability scheduled for end of January. MSRP on Mushkin's 480GB Atlas mSATA SSD is $499.99 USD. The Atlas mSATA SSD is covered by a three-year limited warranty.

Foremay, Inc., a leader of technology innovation in solid state drives and one of the world's Top SSD OEMs, today announced its 2 TB SSD drives with a standard 2.5" SATA interface and a thickness of 9.5 mm. The 2 TB SSD drives are offered in Foremay's SC199 (for mission-critical applications) and TC166 (for terminal computing) product families. Users can opt for either industrial or commercial grade to suit their specific application. Foremay's 2 TB drive is the largest SSD in the world today in standard 2.5" SATA form factor.

"By leveraging Foremay's patent pending technologies, we are proud to deliver the world's first 2 TB SSD in standard 2.5" SATA form factor," said Jack Winters , Foremay's CTO and co-founder. "We hope our high reliability 2 TB SSD drives can help create more design freedom and storage space for both mission-critical and enterprise applications."

Japanese company Green House announced the GH-SSD22A line of consumer SSDs in the 2.5-inch (9.5 mm-thick) SATA form-factor. Available in 32 GB (GH-SSD22A32), 64 GB (GH-SSD22A64), 128 GB (GH-SSD22A128), and 256 GB (GH-SSD22A256) capacities, the drives are based on Phison PS3107-S7 controller platform, with MLC NAND flash memory. The SATA 3 Gb/s capable drives feature 200 MB/s sequential read speeds, with up to 140 MB/s writes. Most common consumer SSD features, including TRIM, NCQ, 48-bit/1KB ECC, and SMART are available. The GH-SSD22A drives are expected to occupy entry-level price points with about $0.75/GB.

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of NAND Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, announces its updated mSATA 3 SSD drive. Super Talent's mSATA 3 boasts read speeds up to 550 MB/s and write speeds up to 500 MB/s. This mSATA SSD can be installed into tablets and netbooks using an mSATA form factor and the SATA III interface is backwards compatible with previous versions. This drive also has a mean time before failure (MTBF) of over 2 million hours, which is over 200 years of around the clock use.

Other World Computing (OWC) a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, announced today the Mercury Viper Solid State Drive, the next generation of high performance OWC Mercury brand SSDs. Designed for professional users and gamers who require uncompromised workflow performance, Mercury Viper is the industry's fastest 3.5 inch 6G Solid State Drive with speeds that nearly eclipse the fastest internal data interface - SATA 3.0 6Gb/s - offered in today's Mac and PC computers.

OWC will highlight the Mercury Viper along with its broad line of award-winning SSDs in its booth #5812 in the LVCC North Hall during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which begins Tuesday in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Plextor, leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance digital storage devices, will introduce the M5M Solid State Drive at CES 2013. The streamlined M5M provides the same high-performance and reliability expected of a Plextor SSD in a space one-eighth the size of a standard 2.5 inch drive, making it especially well-suited for use in ultrabooks.

64/128/256 GB Versions. The M5M is an mSATA 6 Gb/s SSD following the JEDEC MO-300 form factor. It will be available during the first quarter of 2013 in 64/128/256 GB capacities. All versions feature sequential read speeds of 540 MB/s. The sequential write speeds for the three models are 160 MB/s, 320 MB/s and 430 MB/s respectively.Image courtesy of Anandtech.

Addonics Technologies (www.addonics.com) today announced the Mini HDD Duplicator Station, a compact storage device that is about the size of a desktop computer power supply.

The feature rich storage device is designed to be used as a simple 1:1 HDD/SSD duplicator or as a fast USB 3.0 docking device for up to two SATA hard drives. It is a convenient tool for transferring data between different types of hard drives and flash memory cards as well as for cloning hard drives or making back up hard drives. It operates silently without the need for a cooling fan.

Micron Technology, Inc. today introduced the M500 solid state drive (SSD), featuring terabyte-class capacity, new ultra-slim package designs, and increased response times at a more affordable price point. Available to consumers, businesses, and system builders under the Crucial brand, and to OEM customers under the Micron brand, the new M500 SSD is built start-to-finish by Micron, providing the quality and reliability that only a NAND flash memory and SSD manufacturer can provide. Watch this behind-the-scenes video to see how Micron designs and builds SSDs.

Benefits of Advanced NAND Flash Technology

The M500 SSD utilizes Micron's award-winning, 20-nanometer (nm) multilevel cell (MLC) NAND flash to achieve terabyte-class capacity and enable a new level of SSD price competitiveness; the 960 GB Crucial M500 SSD will be initially priced under $600.

ROCSTOR, a leading provider of fast, high-capacity data storage and encryption solutions, announces the launch of Amphibious X5. The Amphibious X5 is a secure, ruggedized portable hard drive with real time hardware encryption and offers advanced single-factor authentication, USB and FireWire 800. In addition, the crypto module is FIPS 140-2 certified.

The Amphibious is considered as one of the most secure and user-friendly devices in the world for size, strength of encryption, and method of authentication. It offers users the option of using the device in a cross platform and Operating System independent fashion, and no GUI or software installations required. The Amphibious is the result of a year of intensive R & D effort and collaboration. For the user it offers the value of data security by using an original concept of single-factor authentication, real time hardware encryption, and futuristic design sense. The Amphibious X5 is appropriate for consumers, SOHO's, enterprises, institutions, military and government applications who want to store data in a secure manner.

SMART Storage Systems an innovative enterprise solid-state drive (SSD) technology provider, today announced that the company has extended its CloudSpeed product line with the introduction of two new drives, the CloudSpeed 1000 and CloudSpeed 1000E. While leveraging cost-effective 19 nm consumer-grade multi-level cell (MLC) Flash and enhancing its base endurance with SMART Storage Systems award winning Guardian Technology Platform, the new CloudSpeed SSDs deliver up to 5x better endurance than competing MLC-based SSDs, resulting in the lowest cost per terabyte written (TBW) in the industry. This enables enterprise customers to better control their storage total cost of ownership (TCO).

Mushkin's Scorpion line of PCI-Express SSDs, which made for good show at last year's CES, made a comeback with this year's, albeit with a design overhaul. To begin with, while last year's Scorpion featured a PCI-Express 2.0 x4 host interface, this year's Scorpion uses a newer controller, with double the host interface bandwidth, at PCI-Express 2.0 x8. Also, this year's Scorpion shows traces that are designed to hold capacitors that can keep the SSD running for a few seconds, just enough to "gracefully" shut it down in case of a power-failure, and safeguard data. The new Scorpion also appears to use an auxiliary SATA power input. Aside from these, the new Scorpion appears to use the same SandForce SF-2281 based SSD subunits as last year's drive (which is pictured at the far-right, below).

Mushkin, Inc., an industry‐leading designer and manufacturer of high‐performance and mission‐critical computer products, today announces at CES 2013, the world's largest consumer electronics show, the worldwide release of its new line of 1.8‐inch Chronos SATA III (6Gbps) solid‐state drives (SSDs), now shipping in 40GB, 60GB, 90GB, 120GB, 180GB, 240GB and 480GB capacities.

The new line of 1.8‐inch Chronos SSDs feature a smaller, lighter footprint than the previous generation, and offer performance and reliability improvements for power users. Originally designed as an enterprise‐class drive, the new Chronos SSD has been adapted and re‐engineered to deliver the highest possible storage capacity in a drive that is optimized for high‐performance and ultimate reliability, even in the most demanding 24x7 environments.

Mushkin, Inc., an industry‐leading designer and manufacturer of high‐performance and mission‐critical computer products, today announced the worldwide launch of its new 960GB Chronos solid‐state drive (SSD), slated to start shipping this month.

The newest addition to the Chronos line of SSDs offers 960GB of space, almost double the storage capacity of typical 2.5‐inch form factor drives. The much higher storage capacity, combined with the performance and reliability benefits of an SSD, make the 960GB Chronos an ideal choice for disk intensive applications like workstations and servers.

It's finally happened! ASUS took a long overdue plunge into the ocean of enthusiast storage, by unveiling the Republic of Gamers (ROG) RAIDR, a PCI-Express SSD that uses a number of mSATA SSD sub-units in an internal RAID 0 configuration that's abstract to the host. As it goes with every other ROG product, the RAIDR is dressed in secsi red+black, and uses a conventional full-height add-on card design that's completely covered by an EMI shield. The card connects to its host over PCI-Express 2.0 x4, and probably packs four mSATA 6 Gb/s sub-units, which make up various capacities.

SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, today announced new products, a new distribution channel and a key notebook design win, all aimed at delivering the benefits of advanced SanDisk solid state drive (SSD) technology to a greater number of customers.

"With today's announcements, it's clear SanDisk is going all out in its commitment to delivering industry-leading SSD technology to our customers," said Kevin Conley, senior vice president and general manager, client storage solutions. "SanDisk now offers the broadest SSD lineup in the industry, with a full portfolio of products for consumers, OEMs and enterprises. We're also broadening our reach with a new distribution channel and continuing to see strong customer acceptance with our latest design win in the ASUS Transformer Book."

OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced that it will demonstrate a pre-production version of its new flagship Vector SSD Series for PCI Express (PCIe) interfaces at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2013, Venetian Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, from January 8th through 11th. In addition to showcasing the PCIe-based Vector Series, OCZ will also present its portfolio of enterprise and consumer SSDs, as well as enterprise software used to cache, virtualize or accelerate key applications and associated data.

Driven by its cutting-edge Indilinx Barefoot 3 controller, which has received worldwide accolades for industry-leading performance, enhanced reliability/endurance, and differentiated features, the PCIe-based Vector SSD Series has improved input/output operations per second (IOPS) burst performance and consistently delivers superior 'real-world' sustained performance regardless of whether the data streams are in compressed or uncompressed formats.

Chinese peripherals maker Orico rolled out the DNSB-84172, a unique 2.5-inch SATA drive enclosure that is built out of solid metal, designed to resemble conventional 3.5-inch hard drives, so much so, that it even features curves and domes over parts that typically cover the platters, spindle and actuator. Its top metal lid can be unscrewed to reveal a 2.5-inch SATA 6 Gb/s drive bay, which is wired to both a properly-located SATA power+data interface (letting you insert the enclosure into NAS caddies), and a USB 3.0 connector, letting you carry the enclosure around, like a boss. Place an inherently shock-resilient SSD inside, and 'shock' coworkers with its speed and the acrobatics it lets you perform.

Toshiba announced a new storage option for its 2013 Qosmio X875 gaming notebook, a combination of a 1 TB HDD with 8 GB SSD caching. Toshiba claims the contraption offers a 3.6-times speed increase in read/write speeds over conventional hard drives, and a more modest figure of 30 percent faster application load time. The rest of the notebook should remain unchanged, featuring a Core i7 processor, 32 GB RAM, and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670M graphics. With the new storage option, the Qosmio X875 goes for $1,480.

Cooltek adds with the "Coolcube" a particularly compact aluminum HTPC cases to its product range. The minimalistic cube is completely made of 1.5 mm thick, black anodized aluminum. The Coolcube offers a classical, timeless design that blends in perfectly with any environment. The case is designed for Mini-ITX systems and can be equipped with a standard ATX power supply.

You can mount either a 3.5 inch and a 2.5 inch hard disk or two 2.5 inch HDD/SSD inside the case. Two PCI expansion slots are available for the installation of graphics cards with a maximum length of about 180 mm. If you use a standard ATX power supply, you can mount HTPC coolers with a maximum height of about 80 mm.

SanDisk is kicking off 2013 with the release of a new solid state drive, the Ultra Plus. This SSD has a 2.5-inch form factor (7 mm thickness) and features a Marvell controller, 19 nm MLC NAND memory, a SATA 6.0 Gbps interface, and a MTBF of 2 million hours.

The Ultra Plus is backed by a three-year warranty and comes in three capacities - 64 GB (520 / 155 MB/s sequential read/write speeds), 128 GB (530 / 290 MB/s) and 256 GB (530 / 445 MB/s). Amazon has SanDisk's SSDs priced at $120 (64 GB), $170 (128 GB) and $250 (256 GB).

The Storage Products Business Unit of Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc., a committed technology leader, announces new enterprise-grade SATA SSD models supporting cryptographic-erase and self-encrypting drive (SED) models, one an enterprise SAS solid state drive (eSSD) and the other a mobile SATA hard disk drive (HDD). Collectively, these four new 2.5-inch storage device models provide both IT system and PC system administrators with more effective tools to help secure sensitive business information.

For the enterprise, the PX02AMU value line of SATA eSSD models and PX03ANU read-intensive line of SATA SSD models feature cryptographic-erase. In addition, the PX02SMQ/U series offers Trusted Computing Group (TCG) enterprise protocol self-encryption and cryptographic-erase support in high-performance eSSD SAS models.

Intel's next-generation SSD 530 series, which sees a single product line covering 2.5-inch and compact form-factors, arrives in the second quarter of 2013. The new series is being designed to offer high-performance even at smaller card form-factors, which is particularly important for the ultra-thin/Ultrabook ecosystem. The drive has been pictured in the newer NGFF (next generation form-factor), which is designed to be even smaller than mSATA.

While mSATA drives typically measure 51 x 30 mm, NGFF measures 42 x 22 mm. NGFF is a single interface featuring pins for both SATA and PCI-Express x2 or x4, and cards designed around its specification can either be SATA SSDs, or other bandwidth-heavy devices (such as 802.11ac WLAN controllers). Cards can even be designed to have an SATA SSD subunit on one side, and a PCI-Express device on the other, saving swathes of PCB real-estate in the process. The form-factor even supports double-sided SSDs such as this one from Lite-On, which features an independent SSD subunit on each side, which is striped in RAID 0. The NGFF Intel SSD 530 family will be introduced in Q2-2013, in two capacities - 80 GB and 180 GB.

GammaTech Computer Corp., a major international manufacturer and supplier of innovative notebook and tablet computers, announces the introduction of its semi-rugged ultra-mobile tablet PC (UMPC), Durabook model CA10. The unit features a 10.1" TFT LCD display with resistive multi-touch screen panel, meets Military Standard 810G and IP43 standard for drop, shock, dust and water resistance, has hot swappable dual-battery design that offers up to eight hours of power, and a quick menu support for easy operability.

"Access to a computer away from an office setting is very important in today's world," stated Jen Chen, GammaTech president. "The CA10 will benefit many different mobile-oriented service industries, including retail, logistics, healthcare and especially field service workers in the utilities, fleet management, and public safety sectors. Its durability, long battery life, various wireless connections, and dust and spray resistance capabilities make it especially suitable for these ultra-mobile individuals, who often find themselves in harsh environments."

The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO), the industry consortium dedicated to sustaining the quality, integrity and dissemination of Serial ATA (SATA) technology, today announced that SATA Express, a new specification that standardizes PCI Express (PCIe) as an interface for client storage, has started the ratification process. The specification has moved into the member review stage, the final step prior to the specification's release to SATA-IO members. SATA Express will be available to the general public in the next version of the specification, expected to be completed in 2013.

SATA Express enables an ecosystem for client storage in which SATA and PCIe solutions can coexist, providing a low-cost solution to fully utilize the performance of next generation solid state drives (SSDs) and hybrid drives. PCIe technology enables interface speeds of up to 1GB/s per lane in the client space, as compared to today's SATA technology at 0.6GB/s. Storage devices not requiring the speed of SATA Express will continue to be served by existing SATA technology. The specification will define new SATA Express device connectors and motherboard connectors that will support both new PCIe drives and existing SATA devices. See this page for more details.

Marvell today announced the availability of the Marvell DragonFly NVDRIVE, a turnkey enterprise-class PCIe SSD caching solution with built-in SSD modules that extends the company's award-winning DragonFly NVCACHE and NVRAM adapter product offerings first announced last August. Targeted for large-scale Internet and cloud computing datacenters, the DragonFly NVDRIVE dramatically scales both bare metal and virtualized server applications, including Web servers, OLTP and analytic databases, as well as NoSQL and big data distributed applications.

"The NVDRIVE is a game-changing extension of the popular DragonFly NVRAM and NVCACHE family. It delivers the same unprecedented application acceleration as the existing NVCACHE solution, but now seamlessly integrates with onboard SSD modules for plug-and-play ease of use," said Alan Armstrong , vice president of marketing of Marvell Semiconductor's Storage Business Group. "The innovative application of non-volatile DDR memory, highly optimized caching algorithms, and entry enterprise SSD modules creates a converged solution that is ideally suited for mixed-workload cloud data centers. The NVDRIVE raises the bar on affordability and performance, and its unique cache automation and consistent write latency capabilities will be sought after by both OEM and cloud computing customers who require predictable performance at reasonable costs."