Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, announced today that it has begun mass producing the industry's first PCI-Express (PCIe) solid state drive (SSD) for next-generation ultra-slim notebook PCs.

"With the Samsung XP941, we have become the first to provide the highest performance PCIe SSD to global PC makers so that they can launch leading-edge ultra-slim notebook PCs this year," said Young-Hyun Jun, executive vice president, memory sales & marketing, Samsung Electronics. "Samsung plans to continue timely delivery of the most advanced PCIe SSD solutions with higher density and performance, and support global IT companies providing an extremely robust computing environment to consumers." Samsung started providing the new SSD to major notebook PC makers earlier this quarter. The XP941 lineup consists of 512, 256 and 128GB SSDs.

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of NAND flash storage solutions, today announces the introduction of the Ram Disk USB. With sequential read scores of up to 4041 MB/s and sequential write scores of up to 5388 MB/s, the Ram Disk is a speed demon of a drive housed in a sleek aluminum casing. The Ram Disk uses your computer's free RAM to transfer files at an amazingly quick rate. This USB also transfers the files while you are using the program, cutting down on wait time later.

"We are excited to release the RamDisk USB. This product can improve the productivity of those who work with large files and programs by harnessing the power of their system's RAM to deliver transfer speeds of over 4,000 MB/s." -Abraham Ma, CEO Super Talent Technology. The Ram Disk is as portable as a regular USB, giving the user the freedom to take their work anywhere. The Ram Disk provides the power of increased productivity through its incredible speed abilities, which can be many times faster than a SSD. This drive is especially suited for creative professionals. The Ram Disk is an ideal drive for anyone seeking a speedy drive with great performance.

Axtremex Technology is pleased to announce a MicroSSD, the new portable high performance external solid state drive with USB 3.0 interface. The MicroSSD is designed in a small form factor that is lightweight, durable and convenient to carry and use. It offers blazing fast data transfer rates and achieves a read speed of up to 420 MB/s and Write speed of up to 400 MB/s.

The device draws power directly from the USB port and requires no external power cord. It is also backward compatible with USB 2.0 ports. The MicroSSD will be available in 32 GB, 64 GB, 128 GB and 256 GB capacities. 512 GB and 1 TB capacities are being planned.

BIWIN, a world-leading expert in the development and manufacture of flash and advanced NAND flash memory, has introduced two Industrial Grade Disk-On-Modules (DOMs) with SATA interface, D5211 and D5212. They are well suited for installation needing long endurance parts with high reliability under rugged conditions.

D5211 and D5212, available in capacities of up to 16GB, are SLC NAND based modules with a PE Cycle as high as 100,000 times. The products complies with strict, industrial grade controllers to ensure a stable operating performance under extended temperature ranges between -40°C to 85°C.

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of NAND Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, announces its Super Hybrid drives for enterprise and desktop consumers.
The Super Hybrid is a group of SSDs and an HDD combined together that is connected to a system through a PCIe slot. This new product supports sequential read and write speeds of up to 800 MB/s with a cache of 192 GB.

Chinese flash memory specialist KingFast announced its take on high-capacity compound SSDs with the C-Drive 1 TB. The drive looks like any other 2.5-inch, 9.5 mm-thick SSD, but encloses two subunits striped in an internal RAID 0 configuration, that's abstract to the host, to which it connects over SATA 6 Gb/s. Each of the two 512 GB subunits is driven by an LSI-SandForce SF-2281 controller. KingFast didn't mention if the RAID controller lets the contraption retain support for the TRIM command, but unless they have something substantial like OCZ VCA, we suspect it doesn't. The SATA 6 Gb/s interface clearly bottlenecks the C-Drive, which offers sequential speeds of 559 MB/s reads with 532 MB/s writes, with 5~10% of the interface bandwidth being consumed by the various overheads.It's still the fastest sequential speeds advertised for a SATA 6 Gb/s drive.

Intel Corporation today announced the Intel Solid-State Drive DC S3500 Series, its latest solid-state drive (SSD) for data centers and cloud computing. Designed for read-intensive applications such as Web hosting, cloud computing and data center virtualization, the Intel DC S3500 Series is an ideal replacement for traditional hard disk drives (HDD), allowing data centers to save significant costs by moving toward an all-SSD storage model.

Intel SSDs, including the Intel SSD DC S3500 Series, enable transformational improvements in cloud infrastructure, fostering new and enriching Web experiences. End customers experience quicker Web page loads and improved response times as a result of dramatically improved data access times and reduced latency. IT managers and cloud developers are rewarded with improved total cost of ownership as a result of reduced power consumption, more consistent performance and smaller space requirements. More than half of U.S. businesses now employ cloud computing applications, and IDC predicts that worldwide spending on cloud services will reach $44.2 billion this year. Data centers powering these cloud applications need to quickly, efficiently and reliably scale to handle the tremendous growth of connected users and data traffic.

Transcend Information, Inc., a leading manufacturer of industrial-grade products, today announced the addition of the SSD740 2.5" SATA III 6Gb/s solid state drive (SSD) to its industrial SSD product line. Combining cutting-edge SATA III technology with a number of performance and reliability features, the SSD740 is the ultimate SSD upgrade solution - especially for devices equipped with modern processors running more advanced operating systems, such as Ultrabooks, Industrial PCs and notebooks, gaming systems, and handheld appliances.

Transcend's SSD740 SSD takes advantage of the next-generation SATA III 6 Gb/s interface, DDR3 DRAM cache, and an advanced JMicron JMF667H controller to achieve extremely fast transfer speeds of up to 530 MB/s read and 470 MB/s write. Essential for handling incompressible data, such as videos, music, and images, the SSD740 also delivers impressive 4K random read/write speeds of up to 283/267 MB per second. Full support of the TRIM command, which automatically removes deleted data permanently, and Native Command Queuing (NCQ), which optimizes the order in which received read and write commands are executed, allow the SSD740 to sustain an incredibly high level of performance while enhancing SSD durability and efficiency.

Mushkin, Inc., an industry leading designer and manufacturer of high?performance and mission?critical computer products, announced today the launch of their new Scorpion Deluxe PCIe SSD alongside Mushkin's "Pacific Rim Sweepstakes" which will run from June 5, 2013 until August 17, 2013. Prizes offered include a home theater system valued at $3,500 and a brand new Razer Blade Pro Gaming Laptop valued at $2,299, in addition to a limited edition Mushkin themed PC and Mushkin/Pacific Rim prize packs.

"Mushkin's Pacific Rim sweepstakes definitely appeals to our audience on a variety of levels and provides our consumers with the chance to win some amazing prizes," said Nicolas Villalobos, Director of Global Marketing at Mushkin, Inc. "Alongside this campaign we are excited to launch our latest Scorpion Deluxe line of SSDs. Our customers can now manage data faster, safer and more efficiently. Whether for digital content creation, virtualization, database acceleration, motion picture visual effects or your own application, the Mushkin Scorpion Deluxe PCIe SSD is always ready."

On Thursday at Computex, Intel unveiled a prototype thumb drive which employs the Thunderbolt interface and claims data transfer speeds of up to 10 Gbps. Dubbed the "world's fastest thumb drive," Intel's prototype device boasts transfer speeds far beyond those reachable by established standards such as the omnipresent USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 devices, of which the latter attains a theoretical maximum transfer speed of 5 Gbps.

The small drive hosts a 128 GB SanDisk SSD and connects directly to a Thunderbolt port on your PC or laptop, dismissing the need for the usually expensive cables associated with Thunderbolt peripherals, typically external storage solutions but also monitors. Thunderbolt hasn't seen wide adoption yet, primarily because of high costs, both implementation costs (expensive controllers) as well as adoption costs (few and expensive compatible devices). However that could soon change, seeing how many motherboards that offer Thunderbolt support were unveiled only in the last few days at Computex, one would think that Intel's Haswell platform could accelerate Thunderbolt adoption despite lacking native chipset support for the standard.

EVGA is planning a lineup of pre-built mini-ITX gaming desktops, which take advantage of its Z87 Stinger socket LGA1150 motherboard, various choices of 4th generation Core "Haswell" processors, and of course, EVGA-branded graphics cards. These desktops are built into a case custom designed by EVGA called miniBOX, featuring a windowed side-panel, a glossy black front, and a 1U SFF power-supply bearing FSP-Fortron markings. One of the two desktops was fully assembled, running a Z87 Stinger motherboard with Core i7-4770K CPU, a GeForce GTX TITAN, and an SSD. Interestingly, these systems completely lack optical drives, so EVGA will target only those markets in which digital downloads of games (over Steam, Origin, UPlay, etc.,) are prevalent. UPDATE: Actually this units bundle with an 550W FSP PSU and a slimline optical drive which ejects to the side of the case. Currently a DVD-RW is planned, but EVGA is looking to do a BluRay version as well.

Impressed with the SX2000 enterprise SSD? Wish you could have those speeds on a consumer device? The AXNP280E from ADATA could soon become an option. This NGFF (next-generation form-factor) SSD is based on a client variant of the LSI-Sandforce SF-8639 controller, which interfaces with the system over PCI-Express 2.0 x4, and offers sequential transfer rates as high as 1,800 MB/s reads and writes, with up to 200,000 IOPS 4K random access, and features essential to client SSDs, such as TRIM and NCQ. Unlike the 2.5-inch SX2000, the AXNP280E is a little constrained with space, and comes in just 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB variants. The latter was on display.

In addition to the SX1000 and SX2000 series enterprise SSDs, ADATA showed off its latest consumer SSDs, under the XPG SX920 banner. Built in the 7 mm-thick 2.5-inch form-factor with SATA 6 Gb/s interface, and available in 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB capacities, these drives are based on a Marvell-made controller, driving 19 nm MLC NAND flash. These drives offer up to 530 MB/s of sequential reads, up to 480 MB/s sequential writes, and up to 80,000 IOPS 4K random writes. Most common client SSD features such as TRIM, NCQ, and SMART. The drives are backed by 3-year warranties.

ADATA showed off a new high-performance server-grade SSD, the SX2000. Built in the 2.5-inch form-factor, this drive features a PCI-Express 2.0 x4 interface (a cable runs to a PCIe riser card). It is driven by an LSI-SandForce SF-8639 controller, which is a single-chip solution that connects to the host over PCI-Express, and appears to the operating system as ATA AHCI controller, with one drive connected to it. The chip features nearly more than double the ONFI channels as an SF-2281, which reflects on the drive's advertise performance numbers: up to 1,800 MB/s reads with up to 1,800 MB/s writes; up to 200,000 IOPS 4K random reads. The controller supports all modern enterprise SSD features, including TRIM, DEVSLP support, and SMART. It ships in 100 GB, 200 GB, 400 GB, 800 GB, and 1,600 GB variants. The latter was up on display.

ADATA also showed off its SX1000 enterprise SSD, which features a more modest SATA 6 Gb/s interface, an LSI SandForce SF-2500 or SF-2600 series controller, sequential performance numbers of up to 550 MB/s reads with up to 500 MB/s writes, up to 75,000 IOPS 4K random reads/writes, can work as DAS, and most modern enterprise features. This drive will be available in 100 GB, 200 GB, and 400 GB capacities, the 200 GB variant was on display. It's unclear which kind of NAND flash the two drives use, but we're guessing it's high-endurance MLC NAND. Both offer 5-year warranties.

ASRock Z87-Extreme11/ac motherboard can connect to no less than 22 drives over its six SATA 6 Gb/s, and sixteen SAS3 ports, so why not show it off? It's just that ASRock chose 22 Plextor M5 Pro SSDs, which make for a creepy cemetery-like sight. Sadly, they couldn't give us performance numbers because the 22 drives aren't exactly striped across in any RAID configuration, but at least you know you can take something like this to your next Left4Dead LAN, and pull crowds. It's not just the drives, ASRock also fitted the board with four Radeon HD 7970 cards in CrossFireX, maxed out the memory, and wired the board to its Wi-SD box accessory, a 3.5-inch front-panel that features the board's WiFi+Bluetooth antenna, a couple of USB 3.0 ports, and a multi-format card reader.

SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, today announced that it has further expanded its trusted and broad solid state drive (SSD) portfolio with the addition of three new models - the high-performance SanDisk Extreme II SSD for technology enthusiasts and gamers, as well as two new OEM SSDs designed to enable cutting-edge notebooks and tablets.

All of the new SSDs introduced by SanDisk today are built with the company's advanced 19 nanometer (nm) manufacturing process technology and rely on SanDisk's intelligent flash memory architecture. This combination enables SanDisk to create SSDs that are exceptionally responsive, reliable and energy-efficient1. SanDisk will be showcasing its full SSD line-up at the company's booth at COMPUTEX TAIPEI on June 4-8, 2013 (booth number N0804).

Toshiba's Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today announced its completely redesigned Qosmio X75 enthusiast-class laptop and PX35t All-In-One Touchscreen Desktop Computer, two powerful entertainment hubs equipped with 4th generation Intel Core processors.

"These entertainment-driven PCs are designed to help consumers do more and be more productive with Windows 8," said Carl Pinto , vice president of marketing, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Digital Products Division. "Both systems enable users to do everything from creating, managing and enjoying HD content, multitasking and playing graphics-intensive games with an amazingly responsive experience."

Razer, the world leader in high-performance gaming hardware, software and systems, announced that it is taking pre-orders for its new 14-inch Blade gaming laptop.

Powered by a 4th gen Intel Core i7 quad core processor with Hyper-Threading (Base 2.2 GHz/Turbo 3.2 GHz) and the latest NVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M GPU, the Blade is the thinnest and lightest 14-inch gaming laptop in history. Measuring in at just 0.66-inches thin, the Razer Blade packs more power-per-cubic-inch than any other laptop in the world. The Razer Blade utilizes solid-state storage technology with boot speeds of up to four-times faster than a traditional 5400-RPM notebook hard drive. The Razer Blade has a rigid all-aluminum chassis, with a stunning 14-inch LED-backlit HD+ display and features a custom-designed track pad and backlit gaming grade keyboard.

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of NAND flash storage solutions, today announces the release of the UltraDrive MX3. This addition to their UltraDrive SSD line includes a SATA III interface and read/write speeds of up to 500/400 MB/s. The MX3 is designed to survive a high endurance atmosphere filled with shock, vibration, and extreme temperatures.

"We are excited to introduce the MX3. Not only does it offer a considerable upgrade in speed from its predecessor, the MX2, it is also an extremely reliable device that we believe fits the needs of our OEM and consumer customers," said Abraham Ma, CEO Super Talent Technology.

Introducing the Icy Dock ToughArmor MB991SK-B 2.5" SATA Mobile Rack solution for use in 3.5" device bays (Floppy bay). It is a smaller form factor device built specifically for systems with small real estate to work with. Using a heavy duty metal construction, it is capable to withstand the harshest enterprise type environments. The drive is fully secured by our proven technologies such as, the Eagle-Hook lock system and metal 2-segment safeguard key. Our full metal EZ Slide Mini Tray allows interchangeability of data between multiple systems with other ToughArmor products. Suggested applications in Medical & Military systems, Media servers, and IPCs, approved by Tier 1 companies.

The MB991SK-B is perfect for use in industrial PCs, SMB SFF servers, mobile DVR systems, or even home servers. These systems tend to use components that provide the needed features, in the smallest form factor available. The ability to house one SATA SSD or HDD in a single 3.5" bay makes it a valuable asset in specific applications such as, integration into an industrial imaging or medical device.

Memoright is announcing next-generation XTM Series SATA III SSD products at Computex 2013. Including Memoright's exclusive Endurance Write firmware architecture developed with in-house R&D, the product supports MLC and TLC flash memory made with the latest process technology. Offering the best combination of reliability and high-speed performance, the product is ideal for applications in cloud computing, business servers, workstations and high-end personal computers. Using the latest 19 nm MLC / TLC flash memory, the XTM SSD includes Memoright's exclusive Endurance Write firmware architecture that significantly enhances SSD life while providing stable, high-speed read/write performance.

Earlier TLC flash memory applications have been confined to digital audio players and other products that have flash drive storage requirements at the low range of performance and service life. Yet market expectations for SSDs have increased steadily, making a design that balances performance, product life and product cost an important test for the SSD industry and manufacturers.

BIWIN, a world-leading expert in the development and manufacture of flash memory, has launched a new business-grade SSD M5301, a full sized mSATA that runs at 99% lower power consumption under DEVSLP mode. This is designed to meet the ever more aggressive power/battery life requirements of today's Ultrabook and other compact mobile devices. The company will be presenting their latest products at the Computex trade show in Taiwan at Booth No. J0218.

DEVSLP enables hosts and devices to completely shut down the SATA interface, saving more power vs. the existing Partial and Slumber power states, which require the physical layer to be left powered. DEVSLP will help to enable a new generation of power friendly SATA-based mobile devices.

Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced the latest addition to its SSDNow family, the KC300 solid-state drive. KC300 enables business, mobile and power users to be more productive as the drive maximizes power efficiencies in notebook PCs. KC300 provides advanced power management via an LSI SandForce second-generation SF-2281 processor, allowing users to do more from a single charge.

KC300 is the next-generation business drive, replacing the Kingston V+200 and KC100 SSDs. The drive features enterprise-grade SMART attributes, allowing IT departments to monitor wear range data, SSD life left, write amplification and total bytes written. KC300 comes equipped with Data Integrity Protection featuring DuraWrite technology to extend the life of the SSD by effectively and efficiently reducing the number of Flash writes via an intelligent compression engine without sacrificing data integrity. RAISE reduces the number of uncorrectable errors in the drive, over and above standard error code correction.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced the release of the Vertex 450 SATA III SSD Series featuring the company's proprietary Indilinx Barefoot 3 M10 Series controller. As part of the leading-edge Vertex series, Vertex 450 lives up to its name and bridges the gap between high performance and mainstream solid-state storage. With advanced storage performance, reliability, and quality, the Vertex 450 utilizes 20 nm process geometry NAND flash to meet the needs of today's high-end consumer and client applications.

"As one of the industry's most highly awarded SSD Series to date, the Vertex name has become synonymous with the latest and greatest in flash-based storage providing an exceptional balance of performance and cost efficiency," said Daryl Lang, Senior Vice President of Product Management for OCZ Technology. "The Vertex 450 marks the first time this popular OCZ series utilizes in-house ASIC technology delivering an even greater level of speed, reliability and value for our customers."

Innodisk, a designer and manufacturer of SSDs for commercial and industrial applications, announces a release of the industrial-embedded industry's first SATA device in accordance to SATA µSSD standards - nanoSSD.

Through the integration of a control chip, flash memory and peripheral power components into a single ball grid array (BGA) package, Innodisk has managed to reduce the size of the nanoSSD to approximately 1% the size of a 2.5" SSD. With dimensions of only 16 x 20 x 2 mm (WxLxH), a weight of only 1.5g, SATA III support, capacities ranging from 4 to 64 GB and both x86 and ARM compatibility, nanoSSD can be incorporated into a wide variety of applications where a small form-factor and high transfer rates are important, including industrial mobile devices, embedded systems, tablets, high-end smart phones and Ultrabooks.