Samsung Electronics, Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, said today that it has begun mass producing the industry's first high-performance, three-bit-NAND-based SSD for servers and data centers. The new SSD will allow data centers to better manage workloads related to social networking, web browsing and email, and enhance operation efficiency. Installations of the 3-bit MLC (multi-level-cell) NAND SSDs, initially in large-scale data centers, are expected to begin later this quarter.

"Following the last year's introduction of 3-bit NAND-based SSDs for PC markets, our new 3-bit SSD for data centers will help considerably in expanding the market base for SSDs," said Young-Hyun Jun, executive vice president, memory sales and marketing, Samsung Electronics. "We expect SSD market growth will gain momentum as this new SSD delivers significant improvements in data center investment efficiency, leading to full-fledged commercialization of SSDs in IT systems later this year."

Micron Technology, Inc., one of the world's leading providers of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced its collaboration with Broadcom Corporation to develop the industry's first solution designed for customers challenged by an intrinsic DDR3 timing parameter called tFAW, or four activate window.

tFAW refers to a DDR3 timing parameter that restricts data throughput in server, storage and networking applications and can compromise bandwidth by 15 to 35 percent. With every new DRAM generation, the access granularity is becoming double, causing some timing parameters like tRDD and tFAW to restrict data throughput. This creates challenges for high-performance applications because no more than four bank activate commands can be issued in any given tFAW period.

"The search for improved performance among network providers remains a challenge in the midst of continuous data overload," said Mike Howard, senior principal analyst of DRAM and memory at IHS iSuppli. "Architecture solutions that can open up bandwidth for high-performance applications will serve to extend operational efficiencies and boost overall network performance."

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has begun mass producing the industry's first three-dimensional (3D) Vertical NAND (V-NAND) flash memory, which breaks through the current scaling limit for existing NAND flash technology. Achieving gains in performance and area ratio, the new 3D V-NAND will be used for a wide range of consumer electronics and enterprise applications, including embedded NAND storage and solid state drives (SSDs).

Samsung's new V-NAND offers a 128 gigabit (Gb) density in a single chip, utilizing the company's proprietary vertical cell structure based on 3D Charge Trap Flash (CTF) technology and vertical interconnect process technology to link the 3D cell array. By applying both of these technologies, Samsung's 3D V-NAND is able to provide over twice the scaling of 20nm-class planar NAND flash.

Greenliant Systems, a leader in energy-efficient, highly secure and reliable solid state storage products, has entered the removable solid state drive (SSD) market and is sampling its new mSATA ArmourDrive GLS86 product line. Based on SATA NANDrive, using Greenliant's internally developed NAND controller, mSATA ArmourDrive is designed for applications that require industrial temperature capability, high reliability and long-life data storage.

mSATA ArmourDrive operates at extreme temperatures between -40 to +85 degrees Celsius with 1-bit-per-cell (SLC) or 2-bits-per-cell (MLC) NAND flash memory, which gives customers a dependable, industrial temperature mSATA SSD using cost-effective MLC NAND. Addressing the needs of space-constrained embedded systems, mSATA ArmourDrive measures 29.85mm x 50.80mm x 4.80mm (JEDEC MO-300).

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it is now supplying its solid state drive (SSD), the SM843T, for use in high-performance servers and storage in next-generation data centers, including Big Data systems.

"Samsung Green SSD products are widely acknowledged for their superior performance and quality design having contributed to data center system improvements and operational cost savings," said Young-Hyun Jun, executive vice president, memory sales & marketing, Samsung Electronics. "In response to customer demand, we are accelerating the growth of the flash storage market with new SSD offerings this year like the SM843T, while reinforcing our competitive edge in next-generation SSD products and solutions."

The Storage Products Business Unit of Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. announced that a leading German luxury car manufacturer is now shipping its vehicles standard with Toshiba's MK2060GSC 200GB Serial ATA automotive hard disk drives (HDD), marking 26 million automotive-grade HDDs shipped. Toshiba has led innovation in the automotive sector since launching its first automotive-grade HDD in 2000, and is the leading vendor in the automotive storage market.

By 2016, more than 55 million people worldwide will have Internet access built into their vehicles, according to iSuppli Corp. Sophisticated navigation and entertainment systems, smartphone and tablet integration, and Internet connectivity are all features that consumers rely on to enhance their in-car experience, and these systems depend on reliable, shock-resistant HDDs to operate. Toshiba works in partnership with premier automotive manufacturers to provide best-in-class storage devices that can withstand severe road conditions, the growing quantities of data embedded in a vehicle's systems, and users' demands for constant connectivity to stream high-definition movies and update their navigation systems simultaneously.

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) today announced the rapid growth of certified DisplayPort products during 2012. Over the last twelve months, the number of certified DisplayPort products increased by 80 percent, further establishing the DisplayPort ecosystem as planned by the personal computer industry to increase display and system performance.

During 2012, DisplayPort certifications have increased across all device categories and have expanded into new categories. Certification in computer monitors has grown 95 percent, projectors 100 percent, and graphics cards 18 percent, and there was a 20 percent increase in cable products. New categories experiencing certification growth include handheld devices, notebooks and adaptors. With the introduction of MyDP (Mobility DisplayPort) the DisplayPort ecosystem has been further extended into the tablet and smartphone market.

The NAND and NOR flash memory market landscape is shifting rapidly, with increasingly sophisticated mobile handsets playing a leading role in driving industry trends and determining which suppliers will be successful, according to an IHS iSuppli Mobile & Embedded Market Tracker Report from information and analytics provider IHS.

Revenue for the flash memory market by year-end is projected to decline to $24.3 billion, down 4.7 percent from 25.5 percent from $25.5 billion in 2011. The NAND segment this year will account for $20.8 billion and the NOR sector will make up the remainder at $3.5 billion.

Although the near-term prospects for ultrabooks have dimmed significantly, the solid state drives (SSDs) employed by these next-generation notebooks and other products are so diversified in their uses and so compelling in their value proposition that their growth outlook has decreased only slightly.

SSD shipments in the first half of this year amounted to 12.9 million units, according to the IHS iSuppli Memory & Storage Service at information and analytics provider IHS. Shipments reached 10.5 million in the third quarter and will rise to 17.5 million units in the fourth, amounting to a total of 28.0 million units in the second half-more than double the total shipped during the first six months of the year, as shown in the figure below. This is down from the previous forecast of 13.0 million in the third quarter and 20.0 million in the fourth.

After entering the year with high hopes, the global PC market has seen its prospects dim, with worldwide shipments set to decline in 2012 for the first time in 11 years, according to the IHS iSuppli Compute Platforms Service at information and analytics provider IHS.

The total PC market in 2012 is expected to contract by 1.2 percent to 348.7 million units, down from 352.8 million in 2011, as shown in the figure below. Not since 2001-more than a decade ago-has the worldwide PC industry suffered such a decline.

A year after the Thailand flooding disaster partially derailed production, the global hard disk drive (HDD) industry has fully recovered, with shipments to the computer market expected to hit a record level this year, driven by the enterprise market as well as the arrival of the Windows 8 operating system.

HDD shipments in 2012 for the overall computer market, including PCs, are forecast to reach 524.0 million units, up 4.3 percent from 502.5 million units last year, according to an IHS iSuppli Storage Space Market Brief from information and analytics provider IHS.

A thinner hybrid hard disk drive (HDD) intended to serve as storage media for new computers like Ultrabooks and less bulky than a rival storage form could help the HDD industry in its unremitting battle against tablet devices, according to an IHS iSuppli Storage Space market brief from information and analytics provider IHS.

While the current form of storage for the super-thin Ultrabook laptops produced this year is the hard disk drive containing a cache solid state drive (SSD) element, that form factor at 7 millimeters is still considered too thick and too slow when compared to tablets like the iPad from Apple Inc. Since their appearance on the market two years ago, tablets-with their slim profile and fast "instant-on" capabilities-have eaten mightily into the sales of notebook PCs, whose performance and ease of use have suffered in comparison.

A new and thinner hybrid HDD measuring just 5 millimeters aims to change all that.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a global leader in advanced semiconductor technology solutions, announced today that it has begun producing the industry's first four gigabit (Gb), low power double-data-rate 2 (LPDDR2) memory using 20 nanometer (nm) class* technology. The mobile DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chip, which went into mass production last month, will help the market to deliver advanced devices that are faster, lighter and provide longer battery life than today's mobile devices.

"Samsung began expanding the market for 4Gb DRAM last year with the first mass-produced 30nm-class DRAM, and now we are working on capturing most of the advanced memory market with our new 20nm-class 4Gb DRAM," said Wanhoon Hong, executive vice president, memory sales & marketing, Samsung Electronics. "In the second half of this year, we expect to strongly increase the portion of 20nm-class DRAM within our overall DRAM output to make the 4Gb DRAM line-up the mainstream product in DRAM production, and therefore keeping the leadership position in the premium market and strengthening our competitive edge."

Solid manufacturing and strong pricing allowed Micron Technology Inc. and Hynix Semiconductor Inc. to post strong performances in the global NAND flash business in the fourth quarter, allowing them to narrow the gap in market share between them and the industry leaders, and setting the stage for further advances in 2012.

No. 3-ranked Micron Technology Inc. of the United States achieved 11.7 percent revenue growth in the fourth quarter compared to the third, according to a new IHS iSuppli Data Flash Market Tracker report from information and analytics provider IHS. Meanwhile, fourth-placed Hynix Semiconductor Inc. of South Korea expanded its revenue by 5.4 percent, as presented in the table below.

New demand from all-in-one desktop PCs combined with requirements for new processors, lower power consumption and a thinner, smaller storage alternative to existing 3.5-inch hard disc drives (HDD) will help create a viable market for 2.5-inch HDDs beginning next year, according to an IHS iSuppli Storage Space market brief from information and analysis provider IHS.

Shipments of 2.5-inch HDDs to all-in-one PCs are forecast to reach approximately 1 million units in 2013, up from virtually zero this year. Shipments will then increase to 3 million units the following year and move up steadily until they hit some 7 million units in 2016. The HDD market for all-in-one PCs will continue to be dominated by 3.5-inch discs, with shipments by 2016 estimated at 31 million units, but growth will be much slower for the segment during the same period.

Fueled by strong sales growth in its core chip businesses-and boosted by a major acquisition-leading semiconductor supplier Intel Corp. in 2011 attained its highest annual market share in more than 10 years, according to the IHS iSuppli Competitive Landscape Tool from information and analytics provider IHS (NYSE: IHS). Intel in 2011 increased its overall semiconductor market share to 15.6 percent, up 2.5 percentage points from 13.1 percent in 2010, according to the final IHS semiconductor estimate for the year. This represents the highest market share for Intel going back to at least 2001, when it reached 14.9 percent. Over the last five years, Intel's share of the market ranged from 11.9 percent to 13.9 percent.

"Intel in 2011 captured the headlines with its major surge in growth," said Dale Ford, head of electronics and semiconductor research for IHS. "The company's rise was spurred by soaring demand for its PC-oriented microprocessors, and for its NAND flash memory used in consumer and wireless products. Intel's revenue also was boosted by its acquisition of Infineon's wireless business unit. The company's strong rise helped it to stave off the rising challenge mounted by No. 2 semiconductor supplier Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., which had been whittling away at Intel's lead in recent years." The table below presents the final 2011 semiconductor market share ranking from the IHS.

Team Group Inc. has overcome the economic stagnation to make another success through slow and steady strategies. iSuppli, the leading research institution, released the latest market statistics of Q2 2011, indicating that the firm ranks no.8 in Flash category in the top 3 Taiwan manufacturers; ranks no. 7 in USB category, moving one place up from the previous quarter; and maintains position as the 12th largest DRAM manufacturer.

According to the President of Team Group, Danny Hsia says that "Team Group Inc. has dedicated itself to Taiwan as well as overseas markets for a long time, and the branding operation has matured. A survey of iSuppli showed our excellent performance, while winning the 10th Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific award is also recognition of Team's potential and competitiveness."

Greenliant Systems, a leader in energy-efficient, highly secure and reliable solid state storage products, has started volume production of its SATA interface NANDrive solid state drives (SSDs). The GLS85LS product family has the same pin-out across all capacities-2 GB, 4 GB, 8 GB, 16 GB, 32 GB and higher in the future-which simplifies system-level board design.

Measuring 14mm x 24mm x 1.95mm, in a 145 ball grid array (BGA), 1 mm ball pitch package, SATA NANDrive devices are one of the smallest SSDs, giving OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) flexibility when designing data storage into their embedded products. The BGA package can be soldered directly onto the motherboard-no extra connectors are needed-providing added stability to the SSD.

Samsung is launching a new SSD 470 package with greatly enhanced user convenience features compared to the existing SSD 470 series. This July, all Samsung 470 Series SSDs will include a full copy of Norton Ghost 15.0 to greatly reduce the frustration of data migration, backup, and recovery. While the physical installation of the drive is trivial to many users, the tedious process of installing the OS, running OS updates, installing patches, reinstalling software, setting up user preferences, and migrating old data is frustrating and time-consuming. With the inclusion of Norton Ghost 15.0, the time it takes to migrate to a new SSD is reduced by up to 75 percent, meaning your new drive can be up and running in under an hour instead of nearly four.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has started the industry's first production of a high-performance toggle DDR 2.0 multi-level-cell (MLC) memory chip. The new NAND flash chip features a 64 gigabit (Gb) density, made possible by using an advanced 20 nanometer (nm) class* process technology. The chip is designed to support the high-performance requirements of mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets and solid state drives (SSDs).

Equipped with a toggle DDR (Double Data Rate) 2.0 interface, the new 64Gb MLC chip can transmit data at a bandwidth of up to 400 megabit per second (Mbps). This provides a 10-fold increase over the 40Mbps Single Data Rate (SDR) NAND flash memory in widespread use today, and a three-fold boost over 133Mbps toggle DDR 1.0, 32Gb NAND flash memory, which Samsung was first to produce in 2009.

Hynix Semiconductor Inc. ('Hynix') today announced that it has developed 2Gb(Gigabit) DDR4 DRAM and DDR4 DRAM based 2GB(Gigabyte) ECC-SODIMM(Error Check & Correction Small Outline Dual In-line Memory Module) applying its leading 30nm class process technology. The DDR4 DRAM product meets the JEDEC standard and the module product is designed for the micro server.

DDR4 DRAM is a next generation memory product which consumes less electronic power while it transfers data as twice as faster than the existing DDR3 DRAM. The device works at the industry's fastest speed of 2400Mbps(Megabits per second), which is also 80% faster than DDR3 1333Mbps product. The Module product operates at such a low voltage of 1.2V and processes up to 19.2 GB (Gigabytes) of data per second with a 64-bit I/O.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, a leader in advanced semiconductor technology solutions, announced today that it started the industry's first production of four gigabit (Gb), low power double-data-rate 2 (LPDDR2) DRAM using 30 nanometer (nm) class technology earlier this month. The mobile DRAM chip will help the market to deliver thinner, lighter smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices, with longer battery life, at a level unachievable until now.,

"Mass production of 4Gb LPDDR2 is a tremendous advancement for the mobile industry, one that will enable our OEM customers to move quickly in launching better differentiated high-performance mobile devices into the market." said Wanhoon Hong, executive vice president, memory sales & marketing, Samsung Electronics. "Samsung will continue to take the initiative in accelerating growth of the market by providing high-performance, high-density green memory products as often and as early as possible."

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, announced today that it is mass producing the highest density memory module for laptops and mobile workstations ' an eight gigabyte (GB) small outline dual inline memory module (SoDIMM) or unbuffered dual inline memory module (UDIMM), based on 4-gigabit (Gb), 40 nanometer (nm)-class* DDR3. High-density DDR3 will benefit chip designers, CAD/CAM engineers and other professionals who need to work with large data sets at significantly faster speeds.

Samsung is shipping 1G x64 (8GB) configurations of its new high-density, high-performance 40nm-class DDR3-based modules. Dell, first to market with the new module, is offering it in the 17 inch Dell Precision M6500 mobile workstation, which features 32GBs of Samsung 40nm-class DDR3, or four 8GB SoDIMMs.

DisplayLink Corp., the market share leader with more than three million USB graphics users worldwide, today provided a glimpse at its new SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0) chip platform for next generation displays, docking stations and other integrated devices to be showcased next week at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, California, in booth #948.

The new DisplayLink single-chip family, DL-3000 and DL-1000 series, includes integrated display and networking connectivity, high performance audio and HD video support, as well as third generation DisplayLink adaptive real-time compression technology that dynamically manages bandwidth, taking full advantage bi-directional throughput of SuperSpeed USB. This means multiple full HD videos, high resolution graphics and networking data can be processed simultaneously, while also substantially increasing today's HighSpeed USB (USB 2.0) graphics performance and enabling graphics delivery over gigabit Ethernet.

As the semiconductor industry begins its transition to the next technology node, GLOBALFOUNDRIES is on track to take its position as the foundry technology leader. On October 1 at the Global Semiconductor Alliance Emerging Opportunities Expo & Conference in Santa Clara, Calif., GLOBALFOUNDRIES (Booth 321) will provide the latest details on its technology roadmap for the 32nm/28nm generations and its innovative "Gate First" approach to building transistors based on High-K Metal Gate (HKMG) technology.

"With each new technology generation, semiconductor foundries are increasingly challenged with the economics to sustain R&D and the know-how to bring these technologies to market in high-volume," said Len Jelinek, director and chief analyst, iSuppli. "With a heritage of rapidly ramping leading-edge technologies to high volumes at mature yields, combined with aggressive investments in capacity and technology, GLOBALFOUNDRIES is uniquely-positioned to challenge for next-generation foundry leadership."