Samsung Electronics America, Inc. today announced availability and pricing of the Samsung Portable SSD T3, a premium, palm-sized, external solid state drive (SSD) that offers multi-terabyte (TB) storage capacity. "Today's consumers and business professionals are increasingly relying on external storage, seeking faster data transfers and larger capacities. The Samsung Portable SSD T3 raises the bar for external storage, safely and securely packing up to two terabytes of data into a robust package that fits in the palm of your hand," said Andrew Sivori, vice president of Consumer IT Marketing at Samsung Electronics America.

The Samsung Portable SSD T3 with vertical NAND (V-NAND) technology enables fast and convenient external storage and transfer of large files across devices. With the T3, users can send content to and from Windows, Mac OS, & Android devices with ease and reliability. Enabling them to access their high quality content on Android smartphones, tablets, and compatible Smart TVs via USB port. The drive is ideal for consumers, content creators, business and IT professionals looking to store and access up to 2TB of data with the peace of mind that their data will be protected across their devices.

Samsung Electronics launched its new curved monitor line-up including CF591 (27-inch model) and CF390 (23.5- and 27-inch models). Samsung's newest curved displays meet the diverse multimedia and multitasking needs of both professional and individual users, and foster a visually-comfortable environment conducive to long-term use.

Since releasing the industry's first curved LED monitor in 2014, Samsung has continued to refine its design to accommodate growing demand from various user groups. The new CF591 and CF390 monitors feature many of Samsung's latest innovations, including a sharper curve (1800R, translating to a curvature radius of 1,800 mm) and improved picture quality to deliver an optimal presentation that matches the shape of the human eye. Samsung will launch the new curved monitors in the US, Europe and Asia in March and will expand the sales to other regions by April.

Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, announced that it is now mass producing the industry's first 256-gigabyte (GB) embedded memory based on the Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 2.0 standard, for next-generation high-end mobile devices. The newly introduced embedded memory features outstanding performance for mobile devices that exceeds that of a typical SATA-based SSD for PCs.

"By providing high-density UFS memory that is nearly twice as fast as a SATA SSD for PCs, we will contribute to a paradigm shift within the mobile data storage market," said Joo Sun Choi, Executive Vice President, Memory Sales and Marketing, Samsung Electronics. "We are determined to push the competitive edge in premium storage line-ups - OEM NVMe SSDs, external SSDs, and UFS - by moving aggressively to enhance performance and capacity in all three markets."

Samsung announced the SSD T3 line of portable solid state drives. Measuring 74 mm x 58 mm x 10.5 mm (LxWxH), and weighing in at 51 g, the drives are more compact than the T1 line of portable SSDs by the company. Available in capacities of 250 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB, the drives take advantage of USB 3.0 interface, with a single cable handling both power and host connectivity, and serving up sequential transfer-rates of up to 450 MB/s. The drives feature 256-bit AES native encryption, and a password authentication that works on Windows (Windows 7 and above), OS X (OS X 10.7 and above), and Android (4.4 "KitKat" and above). Backed by 3-year warranties, the 250 GB variant is priced at US $130, the 500 GB variant $220, 1 TB variant $430, and 2 TB variant $850.

The recent 6.4 magnitude Taiwan earthquake, which hit the island nation on February 6th, affected TSMC worse than expected. Taiwan's premier semiconductor foundry, TSMC, had initially expected semiconductor wafer shipments to be down by less than 1%, but it is now emerging that the drop in shipments could be higher, because the damage to one of its facilities, Fab-14, is worse than originally assessed.

TSMC, in an official communication to its clients, assured that 95% of the foundry machines could return to functionality within 2-3 days after the earthquake. To that effect, machines in Fab-6 and Fab-14B have been fully restored. Despite the disaster, the company appears confident of reaching revenue targets of US $5.9-6.0 billion for Q1-2016. TSMC is the primary foundry partner of major fabless semiconductor companies, such as Qualcomm, NVIDIA, and AMD. AMD recently moved its next-generation GPU manufacturing to Korean silicon giant Samsung, while NVIDIA is building its next "Pascal" GPU family on TSMC's process.

Samsung is giving finishing touches to a new fleet of high-speed ultra-wide monitors. These monitors will be among the first to leverage DisplayPort 1.3, to serve up blazing fast 144 Hz refresh rates, on resolutions as high as 3440 x 1440 pixels. Samsung has plans of at least two monitors with these specs - a 30-inch, and a 35-inch display. The two will feature VA (vertical-alignment) panels. It's likely that the two could also feature adaptive-sync features, such as AMD FreeSync. The two could come out later this year.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., announced today that it has begun mass producing the industry's first 4-gigabyte (GB) DRAM package based on the second-generation High Bandwidth Memory (HBM2) interface, for use in high performance computing (HPC), advanced graphics and network systems, as well as enterprise servers. Samsung's new HBM solution will offer unprecedented DRAM performance - more than seven times faster than the current DRAM performance limit, allowing faster responsiveness for high-end computing tasks including parallel computing, graphics rendering and machine learning.

"By mass producing next-generation HBM2 DRAM, we can contribute much more to the rapid adoption of next-generation HPC systems by global IT companies," said Sewon Chun, senior vice president, Memory Marketing, Samsung Electronics. "Also, in using our 3D memory technology here, we can more proactively cope with the multifaceted needs of global IT, while at the same time strengthening the foundation for future growth of the DRAM market."

The newly introduced 4GB HBM2 DRAM, which uses Samsung's most efficient 20-nanometer process technology and advanced HBM chip design, satisfies the need for high performance, energy efficiency, reliability and small dimensions making it well suited for next-generation HPC systems and graphics cards.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today announced that it has begun mass production of advanced logic chips utilizing its 14 nm LPP (Low-Power Plus) process, the 2nd generation of the company's 14 nm FinFET process technology.

In leading mass production of advanced FinFET logic process, Samsung announced in Q1 of 2015 the launch of the Exynos 7 Octa processor built on the industry's first 14 nm LPE (Low-Power Early) process. With the new 14 nm LPP process, Samsung continues to demonstrate its process technology leadership, and unparalleled performance and power efficiency for its Exynos 8 Octa processor and its many foundry customers including Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor uses Samsung's new 14 nm LPP process and is expected to be in devices in the first half of this year.

"We are pleased to start production of our industry-leading, 2nd generation 14 nm FinFET process technology that delivers the highest level of performance and power efficiency," said Charlie Bae, Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing, System LSI Business, Samsung Electronics. "Samsung will continue to offer derivative processes of its advanced 14 nm FinFET technology to maintain our technology leadership."

Samsung Electronics America, Inc. today added two new laptops to the award-winning Notebook 9 line: the 13.3-inch Notebook 9 and the 15-inch Notebook 9. These PCs meet the needs of today's mobile users through premium ultra-lightweight magnesium design, connected mobility, productivity and all-day battery life.

"Having a laptop that is easy to carry around but doesn't sacrifice functionality or style is no longer just a luxury - it's a necessity for many people," said Gary Riding, senior vice president, Mobile Computing at Samsung Electronics America. "The new Notebook 9s offer the features Samsung is known for - extraordinary displays, premium performance, all-day battery life and seamless connectivity with other devices - all in the ultraportable package demanded by today's mobile consumers."

Samsung Electronics America, Inc., today announced the Samsung Portable SSD T3, a premium, palm-sized, external solid state drive (SSD) that offers multi-terabyte (TB) storage capacity. Equipped with Samsung's proprietary Vertical NAND (V-NAND) and SSD TurboWrite technology, the T3 drive provides advanced performance, enabling consumers, content creators, business and IT professionals, to quickly and easily store and transfer large multimedia content across a variety of devices.

"Following the successful worldwide launch of the Portable SSD T1 in 2015, we made several significant upgrades to the T3 based on the feedback and needs of our customers, which included content creators and business professionals in particular," said Un-Soo Kim, Senior Vice President of Brand Product Marketing, Memory Business at Samsung Electronics. "As such, the T3 delivers the outstanding performance, storage capacity and durability needed from an external storage device for today's mobile lifestyle, without compromising on style or security. It's the new portable external storage drive users can depend on in any situation or environment."

Lenovo today unveiled its newly expanded and highly innovative X1 portfolio. Designed for forward thinkers, the series includes new additions such as the brilliantly adaptable ThinkPad X1 Tablet with its unique modular design; the immersive ThinkPad X1 Yoga with world's first OLED display; and the award-winning ThinkPad X1 Carbon is even thinner and lighter, strengthening its superiority in the ultrabook market. Furthermore, desktop users will be wowed by the stunning new ThinkCentre X1 all-in-one, the must-have design centerpiece for any office with outstanding performance to match.

The full size ThinkPad keyboard with the iconic TrackPoint has three adjustable typing angles and recreates the classic ThinkPad keystroke feel. Keyboard and tablet together weigh just 2.4 pounds for an ultra-light laptop experience. What's more, it is the first Windows tablet with LTE Advanced support for superfast connectivity from virtually anywhere. The ThinkPad X1 Tablet also features a removable rear panel for serviceability and upgrades.

The fourth generation of AMD Graphics CoreNext GPU architecture has been reportedly codenamed "Polaris" by the company. It makes its debut later this year in the company's "Arctic Islands" GPUs, built on Samsung's 14 nm FinFET node. According to the company, Polaris will provide a "historic leap in performance/Watt" for Radeon GPUs. Chips based on Polaris will feature improvements to not just the compute units, but will also come with generational improvements to pretty much every other component, including a new front-end, display controllers, and a new memory controller supporting HBM2.

AMD debuted its first generation GCN architecture with the Radeon HD 7000 series, notably the "Tahiti" silicon. Its second-generation, GCN 2.0, (reported in the press as GCN 1.1), debuted with the R9 290 series, notably the "Hawaii" silicon. The third-generation, GCN 3.0 (reported in the press as GCN 1.2), debuted with the R9 285, notably the "Tonga" silicon; making "Polaris" the fourth-generation. GCN 4.0 will form the core micro-architecture of the "Arctic Islands" family of GPUs, which make their debut in mid-2016.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today announced that it is addressing the growing trend of quantified health with an all-in-one advanced system logic chip for the health-oriented wearables market, the Bio-Processor. The Samsung Bio-Processor, now in mass production, is specifically designed to allow accelerated development of innovative wearable products for consumers who are increasingly monitoring their health and fitness on a daily basis.

"With improvements in smart, fitness devices and an increase in consumer health consciousness, more and more people are looking for ways to monitor various personal bio-data, or fitness data, to constantly manage their health" said Ben K. Hur, Vice President of marketing, System LSI business at Samsung Electronics. "Samsung's Bio-Processor, which can process five different biometric signals, is the most versatile health and fitness monitoring chip available on the market today and is expected to open up many new health-based service options for our customers."

This week on TechPowerUp News: Samsung to build AMD "Zen" and "Arctic Islands" on its 14 nm FinFET LPP node, while NVIDIA stares at a possible sales ban over patent spat with Samsung.

The ongoing patent dispute between NVIDIA and Samsung over mobile SoC patents, in which NVIDIA fired the first shot, is not going to well for team-green. With Samsung counter-suing NVIDIA over infringing its own bouquet of patents, NVIDIA is staring at a possible sales ban. A United States International Trade Commission (US-ITC) judge held that NVIDIA is violating at least three Samsung patents.

This decision is due for review in a few months from now. If upheld, NVIDIA is staring at a sales-ban on all products violating the three Samsung patents. Luckily for NVIDIA, one of the three patents expires in 2016, and the sales-ban could last a few months, at best. NVIDIA predictably stated that it is disappointed in the decision. Samsung hasn't commented.

It has been confirmed that Samsung will be AMD's foundry partner for its next generation GPUs. It has been reported that AMD's upcoming "Arctic Islands" family of GPUs could be built on the 14 nanometer FinFET LPP (low-power Plus) process. AMD's rival NVIDIA, meanwhile, is building its next-gen "Pascal" GPU family on 16 nanometer FinFET node, likely at its traditional foundry partner TSMC.

It gets better - not only will Samsung manufacture AMD's next-gen GPUs, but also its upcoming "Zen" family of CPUs, at least a portion of it. AMD is looking to distribute manufacturing loads between two foundries, Samsung and GlobalFoundries, perhaps to ensure that foundry-level teething trouble doesn't throw its product launch cycle off the rails. One of the most talked about "Arctic Islands" GPUs is codenamed "Greenland," likely a successor to "Fiji." Sales of some of the first chips - GPUs or CPUs - made at Samsung, will begin some time in Q3 2016. Some of the other clients for Samsung's 14 nm FinFET node are Apple and Qualcomm. The company plans to speed up development of its more advanced 10 nm node to some time in 2017.

G.SKILL International Enterprise Co., Ltd., the world's leading manufacturer of extreme performance memory and gaming peripherals, is thrilled to announce new DDR4 specifications based on 16GB and 8GB modules, upgrading the speed from DDR4 3000MHz CL14 16GB (2x8GB) up to a blazing DDR4 3200MHz CL14 64GB (4x16GB) extreme speed memory kit, assembled with ultra-high performance Samsung ICs.

Seeing the future trend of DDR4 16GB module-based kits becoming the mainstream in the hardcore PC enthusiast communities, G.SKILL is now providing higher speed in ultra-high density memory solutions. The flagship DDR4 3200MHz CL14 64GB (4x16GB) memory kit provides enthusiasts with the perfect combination of higher capacity and faster frequency, with an incredible CL14-14-14-35 low CAS Latency. This memory kit represents the fastest DDR4 64GB memory kit by far.

Samsung launched the 750 EVO line of mainstream SSDs, designed for the OEM channel, particularly business desktops and notebooks. These 2.5-inch drives, featuring SATA 6 Gb/s interfaces, offer extended corporate warranty periods. Some models offer warranties as high as 6-year, others 5-year. The drives are available in two capacities, 120 GB and 250 GB, with variants based on warranty policy on offer. Under the hood, these drives offer a feature set similar to the 850 EVO series - up to 540 MB/s sequential reads, up to 520 MB/s sequential writes, 97,000 IOPS 4K random access for the 250 GB variant, and 94,000 IOPS random access for the 120 GB variant.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., announced today that it is mass producing the industry's first "through silicon via" (TSV) double data rate-4 (DDR4) memory in 128-gigabyte (GB) modules, for enterprise servers and data centers. Following Samsung's introduction of the world-first 3D TSV DDR4 DRAM (64GB) in 2014, the company's new TSV registered dual inline memory module (RDIMM) marks another breakthrough that opens the door for ultra-high capacity memory at the enterprise level. Samsung's new TSV DRAM module boasts the largest capacity and the highest energy efficiency of any DRAM modules today, while operating at high speed and demonstrating excellent reliability.

"We are pleased that volume production of our high speed, low-power 128GB TSV DRAM module will enable our global IT customers and partners to launch a new generation of enterprise solutions with dramatically improved efficiency and scalability for their investment," said Joo Sun Choi, executive vice president, Memory Sales and Marketing, Samsung Electronics. "We will continue to expand our technical cooperation with global leaders in servers, consumer electronics and emerging markets, where consumers can benefit from innovative technology that enhances their productivity and the overall user experience."

The United States Federal Trade Commission (US-FTC) has found that Samsung Electronics did not infringe upon patents held by NVIDIA. In a ruling made by Judge Thomas Pender on Friday (09/10), it's held that Samsung did not infringe two out of three NVIDIA-claimed patents, it did infringe upon a third one, but that patent is invalid because it's not a new invention compared to previously known patents.

Samsung manufactures the Exynos brand ARM SoCs for its own smartphones, which embed a graphics core that NVIDIA claims is based on patent infringing technology. NVIDIA, which claims that it invented the first GPU and released it in 1999, accused Samsung and Qualcomm of using its patents on graphics chip technology without permission. The company claims that both Samsung Exynos and Qualcomm Snapdragon (which make up a majority of Android device chips), breach its IPR. Its claims don't seem to hold water with the US-FTC. "We remain confident in our case," commented NVIDIA spokesperson Robert Sherbin to Reuters. The ruling will be reviewed by the full bench of the commission in February 2016.

Samsung Electronics America, Inc., a leader in digital media and technology, today announced the SE370, the world's first monitor with an integrated wireless charging function for compatible mobile devices. The monitor, available in a 23.6-inch version, aims to declutter work areas by eliminating unnecessary cables for charging mobile devices.

"As a leader in both mobile devices and display technology, Samsung has combined our knowledge of consumer behavior and needs in these areas to create the SE370 wireless charging monitor," said Dave Das, Senior Vice President at Samsung Electronics America, Inc. "With consumers increasingly relying on mobile devices, we are proud to offer them the ability to declutter their workspace and use mobile devices simultaneously. As an industry-first, this monitor transforms the way users see and utilize their workspace, enabling them to work in a smarter and more efficient manner."

Samsung Electronics America, Inc. today unveiled three additions to its Wireless Audio Radiant360 speaker series - the R5, R3 and R1 models. The new speakers feature a breakthrough design that transforms the home entertainment experience with omnidirectional, balanced sound, regardless of speaker or listener position, and even more intuitive controls, new user interface and multiroom capability for greater convenience.

Developed in Samsung's new state-of-the-art U.S.-based Audio Lab, the R5, R3 and R1 join the R7 in the Wireless Radiant360 speaker series line launched earlier this year. Each utilizes Samsung's "Ring Radiator" technology to deliver a vibrant and rich audio experience with balanced room-filling sound, more so than any conventional speaker.

Samsung Electronics today announced the introduction of the Samsung 950 PRO solid state drive (SSD), designed to meet the demands of high-performance consumer and business laptops and PCs. The drive's M.2 form factor means that users with ultra-slim notebook PCs and workstations can benefit from industry-leading storage endurance, reliability and energy efficiency.

The Samsung 950 PRO SSD is Samsung's first consumer-ready Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) M.2 form factor SSD with vertical NAND (V-NAND) technology; supporting the Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) 3.0 interface. With the introduction of NVMe, the first protocol optimized for SSDs, users of the Samsung 950 PRO will benefit from improved performance and power saving which can help increase battery life and potentially reduce operating costs. The drive is ideal for professionals who want cutting-edge performance, higher bandwidth and lower latency from their high-end PCs and workstations, for projects such as computer-aided design, data analysis and engineering simulation. The compact M.2 2280 form factor ensures compatibility with next-generation desktop and mobile platforms that support the M.2 PCIe slot and interface.

According to a new market report published by Transparency Market Research "Solid State Drive Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2022," the global Solid State Drive (SSD) market was valued at US$15.1 billion in 2014 and is expected to reach US$229.5 billion by 2022, expanding at a CAGR of 40.7% from 2015 to 2022.

Asia Pacific was the largest revenue contributor in 2014 and accounted for 57.0% of the global solid state drive market. The higher performance requirement in enterprise applications and consumer mobile devices is fueling the demand for solid state drives. Features such as lower power consumption, cooler computing, low form factor, and reduced latency are cementing the demand for solid state drives. The solid state drive market has witnessed rising demand for client SSDs, owing to their use in devices such as notebooks, tablets, and mobiles. Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing market for solid state drive in terms of revenue during the forecast period. Growth in this region is mainly attributed to an expanding customer base and high IT infrastructure spending in countries such as Japan, China, and Taiwan. Competition in the market is paving way for the development of novel technologies in the solid state drive market. Furthermore, benefits offered by SSDs over HDDs, and the resulting replacement demand, are expected to drive the growth of solid state drive market during the forecast period.

NVIDIA's next-generation GPUs, based on the company's "Pascal" architecture, will be reportedly built on the 16 nanometer FinFET node at TSMC, and not the previously reported 14 nm FinFET node at Samsung. Talks of foundry partnership between NVIDIA and Samsung didn't succeed, and the GPU maker decided to revert to TSMC. The "Pascal" family of GPUs will see NVIDIA adopt HBM2 (high-bandwidth memory 2), with stacked DRAM chips sitting alongside the GPU die, on a multi-chip module, similar to AMD's pioneering "Fiji" GPU. Rival AMD, on the other hand, could build its next-generation GCNxt GPUs on 14 nm FinFET process being refined by GlobalFoundries.