Western Digital is launching a behemoth, consumer-oriented 4 TB SSD based on its WD Blue product line. The WD Blue 4 TB uses the SATA interface (for which controllers are still slightly cheaper than for NVMe solutions) with a Marvell 88SS1074 4-channel controller with a 64-layer 3D TLC NAND from SanDisk. Read and write speeds are basically SATA III-bound (sequential 560MB/s read and 530MB/s write speeds, with random 4K read/write of 95K/82K IOPS.)

The WD Blue 4TB SATA SSD has its official availability date on May 13th, but it's already popping up here and there around retailers' shops in Europe. The 4 TB SSD is being priced at €545, which seems to be inline with expectations for such a capacity level. Quick napkin math saying that these should find a home at the sub-$500 level is very likely accurate, considering past pricing practices from manufacturers between the European and US markets.

As consumer demand for high-quality content continues to rise, Western Digital Corp. is enabling a bigger, faster experience with new industry-leading solutions that give consumers the best combination of performance and capacity so they can do more with the rich content they capture. At Mobile World Congress, the company is showcasing the world's fastest 1TB UHS-I microSD flash memory card, the 1TB SanDisk Extreme UHS-I microSDXC card. The new card features higher speed and capacity for capturing and moving massive amounts of high-quality photos and videos on smartphones, drones and action cameras. These impressive levels of capacity and speed give consumers the ability to create all the content they want without worrying about space limitations or long transfer times.

Today's smartphones and cameras allow consumers to create high-quality content in the palm of their hands, thanks to features like multi-lenses, burst mode capabilities and the 4K resolution. Western Digital continues to deliver the most advanced solutions to ensure consumers can reliably capture and share a special moment or create video content for personal or professional use.

As mobile content and applications grow increasingly sophisticated, Western Digital Corporation is transforming the mobile experience with new industry-leading mobile solutions designed to enable consumers to better capture, share and enjoy rich content on their devices. At Mobile World Congress, the company is releasing the world's fastest UHS-I flash memory card, the 400GB SanDisk Extreme UHS-I microSDXC card, and demonstrating the future of flash memory card technology with Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe)-enabled cards, designed to deliver the performance required for the next wave of data and content-intensive applications.

Whether it's exploring a new world in an immersive virtual reality app, or capturing 4K footage on a smartphone or drone, consumers can count on Western Digital to deliver even more robust mobile flash memory technology that offers them a premium experience on their favorite device.

Toshiba throughout 2017 made big moves in the flash storage industry, particularly its bitter falling out with WD/SanDisk. The company today is more innovative than ever. Its 2018 International CES booth had a mix of products by the original Toshiba digital storage products division, and its client-focused, US-based, former OCZ division. The star-attraction isn't some big PCIe add-on card SSD that can push a dozen terabytes per second; but the modest RC100 M.2 NVMe drive. Drives like it could make NVMe storage affordable for upper-mainstream gaming PC builders throughout 2018.

The RC100 has been exhaustively detailed in one of our older articles. It's an M.2-2242 drive with PCIe gen 3.0 x2 interface, and more than triple the transfer rates of the fastest SATA SSD you can find. This drive will be gulped down by both the DIY and OEM markets. Next up, is the TR200 entry-level SATA SSD launched last October, targeted at those still clinging onto HDDs or first-time builders. It features Toshiba's 64-layer TLC NAND flash to achieve some of the lowest price-per-gigabyte ratios.

At today's Consumer Electronics Show 2018 (CES 2018), Western Digital unveiled new and breakthrough consumer solutions that address today's personal content explosion, including voice-activated media streaming via popular Smart Home devices, the world's smallest 1TB USB flash drive and a portfolio of ultra-mobile, high-performance, wireless and high-capacity flash storage products. Sold under the SanDisk and WD brands, these offerings ensure that personal experiences and memories can thrive for years to come.

Smartphones, drones, action cameras and virtual reality (VR) goggles are capturing and creating rich content that users want to access and share with friends and followers alike. Innovations in multi-lens cameras, 8K video, 5G wireless, VR, augmented reality (AR) and video streaming are enabling more immersive experiences. As a result, consumers are looking for easier ways to capture, preserve, access and share their personal content as it becomes richer and more robust.

Western Digital today introduced a new portfolio of advanced iNAND embedded flash drives (EFDs) to empower smartphone users to unlock the full potential of today's data-driven applications and experiences. Leveraging Western Digital's 64-layer 3D NAND technology and advanced UFS and e.MMC interface technologies, the intelligent, new iNAND 8521 and iNAND 7550 EFDs deliver outstanding data performance and high storage capacity.

When designed into smartphones and thin, lightweight computing devices, they accelerate the possibilities of a wide range of demanding data-centric applications, including augmented reality (AR), high resolution video capture and rich social media experiences, as well as emerging artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) experiences at the "edge." The volume, velocity, variety and value of data continues to exponentially grow and evolve across Big Data, Fast Data and personal data. Many consumers around the world will experience this confluence of data on their smartphone.

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) ("Western Digital" or the "company") today announced that it has successfully priced $2.963 billion of new U.S. dollar-denominated term B-3 loans at an interest rate of LIBOR + 2.00%, which priced 75 basis points lower than its previous term B-2 loans issued in March 2017.

This new financing marks the company's third successful repricing of U.S. dollar-denominated term B loans since issuing its original term B loans in connection with its acquisition of SanDisk Corporation in May 2016. In connection with this transaction, Western Digital settled the previous U.S. dollar-denominated term B-2 loans with the proceeds of this new loan. The new financing is expected to generate annual cash interest savings of approximately $22 million beginning on Nov. 8, 2017, resulting from the 75 basis point reduction in interest spread.

The new term loans have the same remaining tenor as the previous U.S. dollar-denominated term B loans and mature on April 29, 2023.

Toshiba Corporation today held an extraordinary shareholders' meeting where Toshiba's shareholders approved the Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) previously entered into with K.K. Pangea (Pangea), a special purpose acquisition company formed by the consortium led by Bain Capital Private Equity, LP (including affiliates of Bain), for the sale of all shares of Toshiba's wholly-owned subsidiary Toshiba Memory Corporation (TMC).

SanDisk LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Western Digital Corporation, and certain of its subsidiaries have filed for arbitration before the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) International Court of Arbitration regarding the sale. Despite SanDisk and Western Digital's opposition, Toshiba remains fully determined to resolving the issue through the arbitration process, and looks forward to receiving the arbitrators' decision.

Since signing of the SPA on September 28, 2017, Toshiba and Pangea have been jointly working towards the closing of the transaction by the end of March 2018. Today's approval of the SPA by Toshiba's shareholders is an important step towards closing.

Toshiba today announced that it has signed an agreement with a consortium led by Bain Capital to sell its memory business for JPY 2 trillion (approximately USD $18 billion). The consortium includes Korean memory giant SK Hynix, which contributed JPY 395 billion (nearly 20 percent) of the consortium's investment toward acquisition of Toshiba Memory Corp. Apple and Dell are the other members of the consortium.

Toshiba Corporation (erstwhile parent of Toshiba Memory Corp.) continues to hold a 40.2 percent stake, which along with another Japanese company, Hoya Corporation, holding a 9.9 percent stake, ensure that Japanese firms hold 50.1 percent of the business, keeping Japanese regulators happy. The Bain Capital-led consortium will hold a 49.9 percent stake, ensuring that Toshiba Memory Corp. stays afloat, and away from rival Western Digital, which has dragged Toshiba to a multitude of international courts and arbitrators. Apart from SK Hynix, the Bain Capital-led consortium includes Apple and Dell, who feared they would lose DRAM and NAND flash price bargaining power if Toshiba Memory fell in the hands of Western Digital, which owns SanDisk.

Western Digital Corporation's subsidiary SanDisk LLC (SanDisk) and certain of its subsidiaries, through their attorneys, have notified Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO:6502)(Toshiba) and Toshiba Memory Corporation (TMC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Toshiba, that they have initiated arbitration regarding TMC's planned investments for additional BiCS capacity at TMC's Yokkaichi Operations, including at its Fab 6 building. Although Toshiba has not yet received a formal copy of the arbitration request, and is therefore not in a position to comment regarding its substance, Toshiba is disappointed by Western Digital's initiation of additional arbitration at this important time for the parties' collaboration.

As previously announced, production at Fab 6 will be entirely devoted to BiCS FLASH, Toshiba's premiere 3D Flash memory product. Phase-1 of the fab is scheduled for completion in summer 2018, and will be a unilateral investment by Toshiba following SanDisk's unwillingness to agree to reasonable commercial terms.

Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) today announced that several of its SanDisk subsidiaries have filed an additional Request for Arbitration with the ICC International Court of Arbitration related to three NAND flash-memory joint ventures ("JVs") operated with Toshiba Corporation ("Toshiba").

On Aug. 3, 2017, Toshiba announced that it would unilaterally invest in manufacturing equipment for the Fab 6 clean room at the JV operations in Yokkaichi, Japan. The arbitration demand seeks, among other things, a permanent injunction preventing Toshiba from making unilateral investments in manufacturing equipment for Fab 6 without first giving SanDisk the opportunity to make a comparable investment in expansions and conversions of JV capacity for BiCS 3D NAND flash memory.

Western Digital commented: It is unfortunate that SanDisk is forced to initiate binding arbitration to remedy Toshiba's retaliatory breach of the JV agreement entered into by both SanDisk and Toshiba.

Western Digital Corporation, a global data storage technology and solutions leader, today announced its 400 GB SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I card, the world's highest-capacity microSD card for use in mobile devices. Two years after introducing its record-breaking 200 GB SanDisk Ultra microSDXC card, Western Digital has doubled the capacity within the same tiny form factor. Keeping up with the demands of today's mobile-centric lifestyle, the new SanDisk microSD card provides consumers with the freedom to capture, save and share photos, videos and apps, and enjoy offline content - all without worrying about storage limitations.

"Mobile devices have become the epicenter of our lives, and consumers are now accustomed to using their smartphones for anything from entertainment to business. We are collecting and sharing massive amounts of data on smartphones, drones, tablets, PCs, laptops and more. We anticipate that storage needs will only continue to grow as people continue to expect more sophisticated features on their devices and desire higher quality content," Jeff Janukowicz, research vice president, IDC. "We estimate mobile device users worldwide will install over 150 billion applications alone this year, which require a ton of memory on all of our favorite devices."

Western Digital and SanDisk have updated their Blue and Ultra line of consumer SSDs with the latest 3D BiCS FLASH NAND technology. Capacities will range from 250 GB capacities through 500 GB and up to 1TB at launch, with a 2 TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD "coming soon." The hardware powering each drive is exactly the same, save for the difference in available storage: the controller used is a Marvell 88SS1074, protocol is SATA 6Gbps / AHCI, and even warranty stays the same through all WD and SanDisk models, at three-years (limited.)

The WD Blue line of SSDs will be available in both 2.5" and M.2 2280 single-sided models. Sequential read speed starts at 550 MB/s for both WD Blue 250 GB and SanDisk Ultra 3D, with sequential write speeds at a rated 525 MB/s and read/write IOPS being set at 95,000/81,000 respectively. All other (higher) capacities deliver slightly more performance: 560 MB/s sequential read speeds, 530 MB/s sequential writes, 95,000 random read IOPS, and 84,000 random write IOPS. Pricing is as follows: WD Blue 3D 250 GB ($89); Blue 3D 500 GB ($149.99), Blue 3D 1 TB ($279.99); SanDisk Ultra 3D 250 GB ($99.99), Ultra 3D 500 GB ($164.99), Ultra 3D 1TB ($279.99) and Ultra 3D 2TB ($549.99, currently unavailable.)

No, that isn't a major typo on this article's headline. According to print magazine c't, who conducted a test bench consisting of two pieces each of OCZ's TR150, Crucial's BX 200, Samsung's 750 Evo, Samsung's 850 Pro, SanDisk's Extreme Pro and SanDisk's Ultra II, the last SSD to actually give out the last breath was Samsung's 256 GB 850 Pro, with a staggering 9100 TB (that's 9.1 Petabytes) written. This is well beyond Samsung's suggested longevity for this particular SSD, which stands at 150 TBW.

The first particular model to give out was one of Crucial's BX 200, at 187 TBW (still more than twice over the manufacturer's 80 TBW). The second model to fail was the second Crucial BX 200, at 280 TBW. The remaining SSDs apparently died after a power peak (unclear whether a surge or a spike), save for the Pro models, in the form of SanDisk's Extreme Pro and Samsung's 850 Pro (it seems those Pro-oriented features do serve some purpose, eh?.) One of these SanDisk Extreme Pro models lasted for about 2,200 TBW, the same amount of writes the first Samsung 850 Pro model endured. However, the second Samsung 850 Pro broke through all records with its total 9,100 TB written. Naturally, these are interesting and impressive overall results, but they can't really be counted upon as being statistically significant; two models each aren't enough to achieve a representation of the tested SSD models' endurance. However, this also probably means that save a defect on your SSD's manufacturing, you can count on it for a considerable amount of writes.

SanDisk today announced the SkyHawk and SkyHawk Ultra lines of enterprise SSDs. Built in the 12 mm-thick 2.5-inch form-factor, the drives feature PCI-Express 3.0 x4 interface over U.2 or SATA-Express connections. The drives incorporate high-endurance 15 nm MLC NAND flash memory. The SkyHawk series includes 1920 GB and 3840 GB variants, and offer transfer speeds of up to 1500 MB/s reads, with up to 1700 MB/s writes; up to 250,000 IOPS 4K random reads, and up to 47,000 IOPS 4K random writes. Its MTBF is rated at 2 million hours, and it is backed by a 5-year warranty.

The more premium SkyHawk Ultra series comes in 1600 GB and 3200 GB variants, with sequential transfer speeds of up to 1700 MB/s reads, and up to 1200 MB/s writes, up to 250,000 IOPS random reads, with up to 83,000 IOPS random writes. These drives offer nearly triple the durability of the SkyHawk (standard) series, with 1.7 DWPD (vs. 0.6 DWPD of the SkyHawk standard); although their MTBF are rated the same, at 2 million hours, and are backed by the same 5-year product warranties.

Western Digital Corporation, a global storage technology and solutions leader, today unveiled its SanDisk 1TB terabyte (TB) SDXC card prototype at the world's leading trade fair for photo and video professionals. With increasing demand for high resolution content, such as 4K and 8K, the company continues to push the boundaries of technology with solutions that support the exponential growth of data-intensive production demands.

"Showcasing the most advanced imaging technologies is truly exciting for us," said Dinesh Bahal, vice president, product management, Content Solutions Business Unit, Western Digital. "Sixteen years ago we introduced the first SanDisk 64MB SD card and today we are enabling capacities of 1TB. Over the years our goal has remained the same; continue to innovate and set the pace for the imaging industry. The SanDisk 1TB SD card prototype represents another significant achievement as growth of high-resolution content and capacity-intensive applications such as virtual reality, video surveillance and 360 video, are progressing at astounding rates."

Western Digital Corporation today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Western Digital Technologies, Inc. has completed the acquisition of SanDisk Corporation. The addition of SanDisk makes Western Digital Corporation a comprehensive storage solutions provider with global reach, and an extensive product and technology platform that includes deep expertise in both rotating magnetic storage and non-volatile memory (NVM).

The Company also indicated that the debt financing associated with this transaction has been consummated and that the previously obtained funds from this financing have been released from escrow to Western Digital Technologies, Inc. "Today is a significant day in the history of Western Digital," said Steve Milligan, chief executive officer of Western Digital. "We are delighted to welcome SanDisk into the Western Digital family. This transformational combination creates a media-agnostic leader in storage technology with a robust portfolio of products and solutions that will address a wide range of applications in almost all of the world's computing and mobile devices. We are excited to now begin focusing on the many opportunities before us, from leading innovation to bringing the best of what we can offer as a combined company to our customers. In addition, we will begin the work to fully realize the value of this combination through executing on our synergies, generating significant cash flow, as well as rapidly deleveraging our balance sheet, and creating significant long-term value for our shareholders."

SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) today announced that the Ministry of Commerce of China ("MOFCOM") has approved the acquisition of SanDisk by Western Digital Technologies, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC). All necessary regulatory approvals for the acquisition have now been received and the transaction is expected to close on Thursday, May 12, 2016. SanDisk stockholders previously voted to approve the transaction at a special meeting of stockholders held on March 15, 2016.

"We are pleased that the final regulatory approval has been received and we can now proceed with the planned combination with Western Digital," said Sanjay Mehrotra, president and chief executive officer, SanDisk. "We thank our stakeholders for their support of this transaction and look forward to contributing to the success of Western Digital as it transforms into the leading storage solutions company."

SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash storage solutions, today announced the SanDisk Z410 SSD, a cost-competitive, half-terabyte solid state drive (SSD) that enables manufacturers to design for a broad range of desktop PCs and laptops. The 15-nanometer, three-bits-per-cell based Z410 SSD delivers the performance, capacities and form factor ideal for mainstream computing platforms.

"SSDs are being rapidly adopted as the preferred storage option across the entire spectrum of the PC marketplace," said Tarun Loomba, vice president and general manager of Client Platform Solutions, SanDisk. "In addition to the performance and durability benefits that SSDs provide, the SanDisk Z410 SSD delivers storage that is ample for most consumers and the right size for typical corporate users. The Z410 is an important addition to our overall SSD portfolio, as our customers require a complete range of storage options, from home/office PCs to the latest high-performance, ultra-thin laptops."

SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash storage solutions, today introduced the 128GB* SanDisk Extreme PLUS microSDXC card, one of the first microSD cards to carry the Works with GoPro verification. The new, higher capacity SanDisk Extreme PLUS microSDXC card is verified to deliver optimal performance and reliability when used with GoPro cameras, even under extreme conditions.

"We are proud to be one of the first companies to unveil a new offering that carries the Works with GoPro logo, as well as one of the first to have access to Works with GoPro verification tools," said Brian Pridgeon, director of retail product marketing, SanDisk. "We strive to deliver a great user experience that includes performance, reliability and the peace of mind that data is safely stored. The early testing and verification through this program further confirms our customers get the best possible user experience with their SanDisk cards and GoPro cameras."

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) today announced that Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), a leading independent proxy advisory firm, has issued a report recommending that Western Digital shareholders vote to approve the issuance of Western Digital stock (the NASDAQ Stock Issuance Proposal) in the proposed acquisition of SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) and all other proposals described in Western Digital's proxy statement/prospectus relating to the company's special meeting of shareholders to be held on March 15, 2016.

"We are pleased that ISS has recommended voting in favor of this compelling combination," said Steve Milligan, chief executive officer of Western Digital. "The Western Digital Board of Directors believes that the acquisition of SanDisk is the best strategic option for the company and the path that creates the most long-term value for shareholders. This combination is the next step in our ongoing strategy to transform Western Digital into a leading storage solutions company with global scale, extensive product and technology assets, and deep expertise in non-volatile memory."

SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash storage solutions, today introduced the world's fastest microSD card. The SanDisk Extreme PRO microSDXC UHS-II card enables action camera, drone and smartphone users to offload huge video files at unprecedented speeds.

"Action cameras are now the fastest-growing segment in digital imaging and drones are becoming increasingly popular, creating an opportunity for people to capture more high-capacity, high-quality 4K Ultra HD content," said Dinesh Bahal, vice president, product marketing, SanDisk. "We designed this card specifically to address consumers' needs for a faster solution when transferring massive files - and now, with nearly 3x the speed of our fastest microSD UHS-I card, this new offering dramatically reduces time spent transferring content."

SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash storage solutions, today introduced the SanDisk Ultra USB Type-C Flash Drive designed specifically for next-generation devices. The sleek, new drive features a versatile and powerful USB Type-C connector for quick file transfer between USB Type-C enabled mobile devices, laptops, tablets and future devices.

"We expect to see many new USB Type-C supported devices released in 2016," said Dinesh Bahal, vice president, product marketing, SanDisk. "As more consumers purchase ultra-mobile PCs, smartphones and tablets that feature this new, more advanced USB standard, it is critical to offer a complete ecosystem of compatible products. New offerings, like our SanDisk Ultra USB Type-C Flash Drive, will give consumers the capabilities they've come to expect from traditional Type A ports, but with the added benefit of better performance."

SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash storage solutions, today announced availability of the new SanDisk X400 SSD, the world's thinnest one terabyte (1TB) M.2 solid state drive (SSD). It is the first single-sided 1TB SATA M.2 form factor with a mere 1.5mm height. The X400 SSD is designed for fast start-up and application launch, as well as for extended battery life. Consumer research conducted by SanDisk in late 2015 indicates that these benefits are important for more than 70% of consumers when using PCs.

"Consumers have spoken. They want to work faster, with fewer interruptions. Our ultra-slim 1TB M.2 X400 SSD enables our OEM customers to build completely new form factors with outstanding reliability and the near-instant boot-up and application loading that consumers expect," said Tarun Loomba, Vice President and General Manager of Client Storage Solutions at SanDisk. "The X400 SSD is the flexible, highly reliable platform that our customers need to ensure an exceptional user experience for consumers."

SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash storage solutions, today expanded its SSD product line with a new high-performance, durable, water-resistant portable SSD1. Designed for photographers and videographers who need a reliable and superfast storage solution, the SanDisk Extreme 510 Portable SSD delivers whether on location or in the studio.

"We are constantly amazed by the stories we hear from our customers about the incredible places they take our products. Their insight inspires us to create durable, innovative products that can improve their experience no matter where the job takes them," said Philippe Willams, director retail product marketing, SanDisk. "For many years SanDisk has been trusted by the pros to deliver reliable, innovative storage solutions, and the SanDisk Extreme 510 portable SSD raises the bar even further."