HTC VIVE, a global leader in innovative technology, today officially announces it will enter the cloud software business with the VIVE XR Suite offering at its hybrid event, "Journey into the Next Normal", which took place physically in Shanghai and online through the Engage virtual events platform. Comprised of five separate applications covering remote collaboration, productivity, events, social and culture, the VIVE XR Suite gives users the tools they need to overcome the new challenges faced while working and living in a socially distant world. The VIVE XR Suite is targeted to launch in Q3 2020 in China, with additional regions to follow throughout the year.

The VIVE XR Suite is comprised of 5 major applications (VIVE Sync, VIVE Sessions, VIVE Campus, VIVE Social, and VIVE Museum) to meet the daily needs of the users to overcome the new challenges faced by users around the world who are working, learning and living remotely. Although it is called an XR Suite, it is important to note that this software is not dependent on VR/AR devices to function. All the applications will function on existing PCs/laptops and some apps will even support modern smartphones, but for a superior immersive experience, PC VR or standalone VR devices would be recommended. Users will be able to login to all apps in the suite using a single account and across various devices they own. This integrated application bundle which is created in partnership with the leading software companies in their respective areas will provide a seamless experience for the consumer and business user. The CEO's of all the software partners in the VIVE XR Suite (Immersive VR Education, VirBELA, VRChat, and Museum of Other Realities) attended the event live via video and within VR in avatar form.

Western Digital Corp. announced today that it has completed the acquisition of sTec, Inc., an early innovator in enterprise solid-state drives (SSDs). sTec will be integrated into HGST, a wholly owned subsidiary of Western Digital. The acquisition augments HGST's existing solid-state storage capabilities, accelerating its ability to expand its participation in the rapidly growing area of enterprise SSDs.

Completion of the sTec acquisition follows HGST's recent purchase of VeloBit, an advanced SSD caching software company, and the proposed acquisition of Virident, an innovative provider of server-side flash storage solutions. Collectively these building blocks expand HGST's presence in the enterprise SSD space, which IDC predicts will grow from $2.5B in revenue in 2012 to $7B in revenue by 2017.

sTec, Inc., a leading global provider of solid-state storage solutions, today introduced the sTec s260 mSATA solid-state drives (SSDs), whose reliability, small footprint and low power draw make them ideal for embedded storage in rugged, space-conscious environments. The SSDs, which feature a 6 Gbps Serial ATA (SATA) interface, are designed to tackle a range of embedded-storage applications, including operating-system booting, data logging, code-storage/application hosting, caching, and fast data backup.

The s260 drives, which comply with the JEDEC-defined MO-300A and MO-300B (mSATA mini) standards, draw just 1.5W, a fraction of the power required by rotating-disk storage. Additionally, they deliver industry-leading reliability through sTec's patented PowerSafe technology and support industrial temperatures, ranging from -40° to 85° C. These features combine to meet the demands of embedded designs in remote and/or space-constrained systems where access is limited, airflow is restricted and heat exacts both performance and durability penalties.

sTec, Inc., a leading global provider of solid-state storage solutions, today announced it has expanded its s800 family of Serial Attached Storage (SAS) solid-state drives (SSDs) with the introduction of the industry's first generally available Micro SAS SSDs. Additionally, sTec announced that the new small-form-factor (1.8-inch) Micro SAS SSDs are available with stringent 256-bit AES-XTS encryption, enabling hardware-level security in cloud computing, data centers and web-based applications, as well as in government and defense environments where data protection is crucial. The new sTec Micro SAS drives are available directly from sTec and through its distribution channel.

Uniquely designed for blade servers, caching and high-density computing environments, the new Micro SAS drives provide storage-system developers with the smallest enterprise-class SAS SSD form factor yet. They meet the demanding performance, footprint and power requirements of today's enterprise-storage applications.

Western Digital Corporation and sTec, Inc. announced today that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which sTec, Inc., an early innovator in enterprise solid-state drives (SSDs), will be acquired by HGST, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Western Digital. sTec will be acquired for approximately $340 million in cash, which equates to $6.85 per share. This represents approximately $207 million in enterprise value, net of sTec's cash as of March 31, 2013.

The pending acquisition augments HGST's existing solid-state storage capabilities, accelerating its ability to expand its participation in the rapidly growing area of enterprise SSDs. HGST remains committed to its highly successful joint development program with Intel Corp. and will continue to deliver current and future SAS-based SSD products with Intel.

STEC, Inc., a leading global provider of solid-state drive (SSD) solutions, today introduced a pair of two-Terabyte (2 TB) Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) and Serial-attached SCSI (SAS) SSD drives - each with select versions supporting unlimited writes - becoming the first supplier to offer 2 TB SSDs with both interfaces. Additionally, the company has released a significant update to its EnhanceIO SSD Cache Software.

The new STEC 2 TB s840 SAS SSD and 2 TB s1120 PCIe Accelerator SSD, along with the updated EnhanceIO software, deliver on STEC's mission of providing innovative solid-state storage solutions that solve many of the performance and optimization challenges in the enterprise storage market.

STEC, Inc., a leading global provider of solid-state drive (SSD) technologies and products, today announced the small-form-factor s230 Series of Slim SATA solid-state drives providing an efficient storage design tailored for embedded systems.

Anchoring STEC's line of industrial-grade embedded solid-state-storage solutions that feature SATA and SATA-II SSDs and capacities of up to 50 GB, the s230 is a low-power, small-footprint Slim SATA drive in an industry standard JEDEC MO-297 format occupying less than half the space of a standard 2.5-inch drive. It features advanced PowerSafe Technology, making it one of the most reliable and cost-effective devices for space-constrained systems, in which protection against drive corruption (due to unexpected power loss) is essential. The s230 is available in a range of cost-effective capacities - from 8 GB to 32 GB.

STEC, Inc., a leading global provider of solid-state drive (SSD) technologies and products, today announced that the company has validated its proprietary CellCare Technology's ability to extend the endurance of 24 nm consumer-grade multi-level cell (cMLC) NAND flash memory to 40,000 program/erase cycles. This represents an increase of greater than 13 times the manufacturer's specified endurance metric of 3,000 program/erase cycles.

This is a significant advancement in one of the company's core technologies, as it provides for the development of a new generation of STEC's enterprise-class SSDs that utilizes low-cost cMLC NAND chips, while still achieving 10 full capacity random writes to the drive each day for five years, and data retention for three months (at 40°C)-all with no degradation in performance. This equates to approximately 7.3 petabytes (PB) of data being written to a 400 GB SSD over the life of the drive.

STEC, Inc., The SSD Company, a leading global provider of solid-state drive (SSD) technologies and products, today announced that its enterprise-class MACH16 SSD technology now extends to the embedded market in one of the industry's smallest solid-state form factors.

The new MACH16 Slim SATA SSD provides embedded system designers with the same advanced flash management technology as STEC's enterprise SSDs. The device leverages industry-standard 22-pin SATA cabling (supporting JEDEC MO-297 and SFF-8156 specifications) and provides the highest data integrity, endurance and reliability available in this market segment. With these features, the MACH16 Slim SATA SSD is well-suited for high-performance and rugged embedded systems.

Hitachi GST showed off its first solid state drive (SSD) to the public, at the Hitachi uValue 2010 convention held in Tokyo. The company made its entry with an enterprise-grade SSD, expected to carry the UltraStar label which the company's high speed (15,000 rpm) enterprise hard drives carry. The SSD comes in the 2.5" form-factor, with serial-attached SCSI (SAS) and fiber-channel arbitrated loop (FCAL) interfaces, becoming only the next SSD-maker after STEC to offer FCAL. While no storage capacity figures were quoted, the drives are expected to come in capacities ranging from 64 GB to 512 GB. Hitachi GST is popular hard drive maker, known more for its enterprise-grade hard drives, than its consumer-desktop products.

STEC, a designer, manufacturer and marketer of high performance solid state drives (SSDs), announced today that it has received notice of a patent infringement lawsuit brought by Seagate Technology LLC, Seagate Technology International, Seagate Singapore International Headquarters Pte. Ltd. and Maxtor Corporation in United States District Court, Northern District of California, alleging infringement of U.S. Patent Nos. 6,404,647 (issued in 2002), 6,849,480 (issued in 2005), 6,336,174 (issued in 2002) and 7,042,664 (issued in 2006).

HDD maker Seagate Technology LLC has filed a patent-infringement suit against STEC Inc., a global engineering and manufacturing company for OEM memories and SSD solutions, accusing it of infringing four patents held by Seagate and its Maxtor subsidiary. These patents include solid-state memory storage, memory-backup systems and device self-testing systems. The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco and Seagate seeks STEC to stop further infringement of its patents, and asks for damages and royalties to be awarded for violating the Seagate patents. Seagate didn't disclose any specific financial damages it is seeking from STEC.

This is not about stifling innovation or threats to our business. ... We have an obligation to our company and our shareholders to protect what belongs to them.

, said Seagate Chief Executive Bill Watkins in s statement.