Shuttle Computer Handels GmbH, the European subsidiary of Shuttle Inc., one of the leading developers and manufacturers of compact PC solutions such as the world-renowned XPC Mini-PC Barebones, expands its range of All-in-One PCs with integrated monitors and adds a 46.7 cm (18.5") version to its original 39.5 cm (15.6") machines.

As well as offering a larger display, the new Shuttle All-in-One Barebone X70S also provides significantly more power. For the first time conventional Intel desktop processors can be used for the LGA1155 socket, e.g. Intel Core i3/i5/i7 (up to 65 W TDP, heatpipe-cooled). DDR3 RAM up to a total of 16 GB can be installed in the two SO-DIMM slots. The 5.7 x 46.8 x 36.4 cm (DWH) chassis of the X70S also has space for a 2.5" drive (SSD/HDD) as well as expansions via the Mini-PCIe slot, which can be fitted, for example, with an mSATA module.

GIGABYTE announced the U2442 Extreme Ultrabook GeForce GT 650M and GT 730M graphics options. The U2442 is exceptionally designed with an elegant shuttle streamline design in a sleek form factor between 18.5 - 21mm and weighs in at just 1.59kg/1.69kg. Designed to bring you ultra-performance, it is powered by 3rd generation Intel Core processors and NVIDIA GeForce GT 730M / GT 650M discrete graphics. The U2442 Ultrabook is able to pack a 256GB mSATA SSD and a large 750GB/1TB HDD into its super slim body. The dual-storage system provides the user with speed and massive storage options. Do away with external storage with the Extreme Ultrabook.

Jetway Computer Corp., a leader in computer electronics and motherboard design and manufacturing, announced availability of the NF82 mini-ITX motherboard for AMD R-Series APU embedded processors, codenamed eTrinity. The eTrinity platform delivers a high-performance platform to SMB and embedded system integrators developing low-power small form factor mini-PC solutions with exceptional graphics performance.

Jetway is the first manufacturer to ship a mini-ITX motherboard supporting the new FS1r2 socket AMD R-Series APU. By using the FS1r2 socket, a system integrator can choose the price or performance they want, rather than be limited by a specific BGA processor soldered onto a motherboard. AMD is currently shipping four R-Series APU models through their AMD Authorized Embedded Distributors; Arrow, ASI, AVNET, Symmetry and Synnex. Below is a list of the available R-Series APU.

MyDigitalSSD proudly introduces the BP4, the 4th generation of their critically acclaimed and award-winning Bullet Proof line of solid state drives. BP4 SSDs feature SATA III 6Gb/s performance in 2.5" Slim 7mm and 50mm mSATA form factors to increase user productivity up to 70X. Backwards compatible with SATA II applications, the BP4 eliminates the bottle-neck found in stock hard drives; making them an ideal upgrade solution for many of today's Tablets, UltraBooks, Hybrids (HDD/mSATA Notebooks), and Desktop PCs.

Unlike their predecessors, BP4 drives have been over provisioned for improved Random Read/Write performance and IOPS, extended performance endurance to reduce sluggishness as the drive fills with data, prolonged drive life, reliability, and low power consumption - all at the unequaled price to performance ratio synonymous with MyDigitalSSD Bullet Proof SSDs.

Intel Corporation announced today the Intel Solid-State Drive 525 Series (Intel SSD 525 Series) in a small mSATA form factor with 6-gigabit-per-second (Gb/s) performance. The Intel SSD 525 Series gives OEM customers, channel and tech enthusiasts an ultra-portable, low-power storage solution in one-eighth the space of a traditional 2.5-inch hard disk drive (HDD) to drive innovative Ultrabook, tablet and embedded applications.

The Intel SSD 525 is the latest entry to the Intel 500 Series SSD Family aimed at higher-performance, enthusiast solutions. Measuring 3.7 mm x 50.8 mm x 29.85 mm and weighing 10 grams, the mSATA with PCI Express (PCIe) mini-connector delivers the performance of the company's Intel SSD 520 Series client drive. This makes the Intel SSD 525 suitable for All-in-One desktops, notebooks, Ultrabooks and workstation upgrades, as well as automotive, digital signage, embedded video and retail solutions.

MSI rolled out the S30 13.3-inch notebook, which misses Ultrabook fame by, well, a centimeter (thickness). Measuring 324 x 227 x 22.8 mm (LxWxH), it weighs 1.4 kg. Its 13.3-inch screen packs 1366 x 768 pixels resolution. Under its hood is an Intel Core i3/i5 "Ivy Bridge" dual-core processor (various options), up to 16 GB of dual-channel DDR3-1333 MHz memory (options), and Intel HD graphics. A 500 GB HDD is standard issue, but a 64 GB mSATA SSD can also be opted for. Connectivity includes USB 3.0, HD web-cam, THX TruStudio Pro audio, gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WLAN, Bluetooth 4.0, SD/MMC card reader, and HDMI display output. Windows 8 comes pre-installed. The S30 is expected to occupy a sub-$700 price-point.

Intel's performance-segment mSATA SSDs, the SSD 525 series, started selling in Japan under OEM packaging, although freely available in ground stores (much like bare hard drives). Based on the LSI-SandForce SF-2281 processor and Intel's own 25 nm MLC NAND flash chips, the SSD 525 is available in four capacities: 30 GB, 120 GB, 180 GB, and 240 GB. The 240 GB variant stands out, with speeds of up to 550 MB/s reads with 500 MB/s writes; while the others max out at 500 MB/s reads with 275 MB/s writes. The 30, 120, 180, and 240 GB variants are priced at 5,180¥ ($57), 14,480¥ ($160), 20,800¥ ($228), and 26,980¥ ($295), respectively.

Mushkin, Inc., an industry-leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance and mission-critical computer products, today announces the U.S. availability of the 480 GB Atlas mSATA solid-state drive. Mushkin's 480GB Atlas mSATA solid-state drive (Model No.: MKNSSDAT480GB) is initially available in the U.S. at Newegg.com, with worldwide availability scheduled for end of January. MSRP on Mushkin's 480GB Atlas mSATA SSD is $499.99 USD. The Atlas mSATA SSD is covered by a three-year limited warranty.

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of NAND Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, announces its updated mSATA 3 SSD drive. Super Talent's mSATA 3 boasts read speeds up to 550 MB/s and write speeds up to 500 MB/s. This mSATA SSD can be installed into tablets and netbooks using an mSATA form factor and the SATA III interface is backwards compatible with previous versions. This drive also has a mean time before failure (MTBF) of over 2 million hours, which is over 200 years of around the clock use.

Plextor, leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance digital storage devices, will introduce the M5M Solid State Drive at CES 2013. The streamlined M5M provides the same high-performance and reliability expected of a Plextor SSD in a space one-eighth the size of a standard 2.5 inch drive, making it especially well-suited for use in ultrabooks.

64/128/256 GB Versions. The M5M is an mSATA 6 Gb/s SSD following the JEDEC MO-300 form factor. It will be available during the first quarter of 2013 in 64/128/256 GB capacities. All versions feature sequential read speeds of 540 MB/s. The sequential write speeds for the three models are 160 MB/s, 320 MB/s and 430 MB/s respectively.Image courtesy of Anandtech.

NCS Technologies Inc., a leading domestic computing systems manufacturer for government, enterprise and education, announced the availability of the NCS Altus XT mobile workstation, a powerful laptop PC featuring available Intel 3rd generation i3/i5/i7 Quad Core processor family technologies.

The NCS Altus XT and other advanced computing products are manufactured at a modern campus outside of Washington, D.C. At this headquarters NCS designs, manufactures, distributes and supports a wide range of computing products for customers worldwide.

Micron Technology, Inc. today introduced the M500 solid state drive (SSD), featuring terabyte-class capacity, new ultra-slim package designs, and increased response times at a more affordable price point. Available to consumers, businesses, and system builders under the Crucial brand, and to OEM customers under the Micron brand, the new M500 SSD is built start-to-finish by Micron, providing the quality and reliability that only a NAND flash memory and SSD manufacturer can provide. Watch this behind-the-scenes video to see how Micron designs and builds SSDs.

Benefits of Advanced NAND Flash Technology

The M500 SSD utilizes Micron's award-winning, 20-nanometer (nm) multilevel cell (MLC) NAND flash to achieve terabyte-class capacity and enable a new level of SSD price competitiveness; the 960 GB Crucial M500 SSD will be initially priced under $600.

Mushkin Inc., An industry-leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance and mission-critical computer products, unveils its latest and most exciting range of products ever at the world's largest consumer electronics show, CES 2013.

Mushkin will host meetings at their 1,800 square foot suite, where they will showcase their entire lineup of next generation products. On-site pr esentations will be held to introduce the new and coming product lines. Mushkin representatives from the product, sales, and global teams will be on hand to answer any questions regarding these new and upcoming products for the digital home, office, and beyond.

SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, today announced new products, a new distribution channel and a key notebook design win, all aimed at delivering the benefits of advanced SanDisk solid state drive (SSD) technology to a greater number of customers.

"With today's announcements, it's clear SanDisk is going all out in its commitment to delivering industry-leading SSD technology to our customers," said Kevin Conley, senior vice president and general manager, client storage solutions. "SanDisk now offers the broadest SSD lineup in the industry, with a full portfolio of products for consumers, OEMs and enterprises. We're also broadening our reach with a new distribution channel and continuing to see strong customer acceptance with our latest design win in the ASUS Transformer Book."

Intel's next-generation SSD 530 series, which sees a single product line covering 2.5-inch and compact form-factors, arrives in the second quarter of 2013. The new series is being designed to offer high-performance even at smaller card form-factors, which is particularly important for the ultra-thin/Ultrabook ecosystem. The drive has been pictured in the newer NGFF (next generation form-factor), which is designed to be even smaller than mSATA.

While mSATA drives typically measure 51 x 30 mm, NGFF measures 42 x 22 mm. NGFF is a single interface featuring pins for both SATA and PCI-Express x2 or x4, and cards designed around its specification can either be SATA SSDs, or other bandwidth-heavy devices (such as 802.11ac WLAN controllers). Cards can even be designed to have an SATA SSD subunit on one side, and a PCI-Express device on the other, saving swathes of PCB real-estate in the process. The form-factor even supports double-sided SSDs such as this one from Lite-On, which features an independent SSD subunit on each side, which is striped in RAID 0. The NGFF Intel SSD 530 family will be introduced in Q2-2013, in two capacities - 80 GB and 180 GB.

Velocity Micro, the premier builder of award winning enthusiast desktops, laptops, peripherals, and Cruz tablets announces several new products to be debuted at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Products include the dual core D610 Cruz tablet, quad core Q610 Cruz tablet, and the 4" x 4" Edge Mini. Additionally, the recently announced NoteMagix Ultrabook devices and Edge AIO will be on display along with several Velocity Micro desktop skus and peripherals. All product demos for press and retail customers will be held via scheduled meetings in a private suite at Bellagio.

The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO), the industry consortium dedicated to sustaining the quality, integrity and dissemination of Serial ATA (SATA) technology, today announced that SATA Express, a new specification that standardizes PCI Express (PCIe) as an interface for client storage, has started the ratification process. The specification has moved into the member review stage, the final step prior to the specification's release to SATA-IO members. SATA Express will be available to the general public in the next version of the specification, expected to be completed in 2013.

SATA Express enables an ecosystem for client storage in which SATA and PCIe solutions can coexist, providing a low-cost solution to fully utilize the performance of next generation solid state drives (SSDs) and hybrid drives. PCIe technology enables interface speeds of up to 1GB/s per lane in the client space, as compared to today's SATA technology at 0.6GB/s. Storage devices not requiring the speed of SATA Express will continue to be served by existing SATA technology. The specification will define new SATA Express device connectors and motherboard connectors that will support both new PCIe drives and existing SATA devices. See this page for more details.

On taking apart the Acer S7 Ultrabook, The SSD Review discovered a strange new SSD form-factor, which bears the label of Lite-On, and carrying the model number "CMT-256L3M." This is perhaps the first mSATA SSD with two independent SSD subunits, one on each side. The mSATA interface itself is modified to have two SSD ports. The drive registers on the system BIOS as two individual drives, which is then run as a 256 GB (physical) RAID 0 volume by the BIOS and operating-system.

Each of the CMT-256L3M's two subunits feature a Marvell 88S9175 controller, which supports SATA 6 Gb/s interface, two 64 GB dual-channel 24 nm toggle NAND flash memory chips by Toshiba, and a Nanya-made DRAM cache chip. Putting the drive through sequential-friendly benchmarks such as CrystalDiskMark shows a sequential read speed of the drive (combined with its two subunits) to be around 877 MB/s, with sequential writes up to 672 MB/s. Multi-subunit SSDs aren't new, most high-end consumer SSDs from the pre-TRIM, pre-SandForce era used to be dual- to quad-subunit drives. The CMT-256L3M is the first one in the super-compact mSATA form-factor, and its performance numbers could impress more Ultrabook designers.

Aussie PC maker Pioneer Computers has introduced a new, DreamBook-branded mobile solution, the T14 ultrabook featuring a 14-inch (1366 x 768) touch-enabled display. This ultrabook weights 1.5 kg and has an Intel Core processor (up to a 1.9 GHz i7-3517U), up to 8 GB of RAM and up to a 256 GB mSATA solid state drive, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, optional Bluetooth, a 1.3-megapixel webcam, an SD card slot, one USB 3.0 ports (and two USB 2.0 connectors), and an HDMI output.

The DreamBook T14 starts at 799 AUD (837 USD / 646 Euro).

Kontron launched today the feature-packed, yet highly cost-efficient, embedded Flex-ATX motherboard KTA75/Flex based on the new AMD Embedded R-Series Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) and the AMD A75 controller hub. It is designed for graphics intensive and highly parallel embedded computing applications and provides outstanding, long-term stability and reliability due to its sophisticated board layout with long-term stable solid capacitors and a high-quality selection of components.

With its integrated discrete-class AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series Graphics it delivers leading edge 3D/HD graphics and accelerated processing capabilities together with the ability to drive up to four displays simultaneously, either as independent displays, or as a single large surface. This makes the long-term available Kontron KTA75M/Flex an ideal solution for applications requiring high graphics and/or parallel computing performance in markets such as industrial automation, medical, and POS/POI, digital signage as well as gaming.

Mushkin, Inc., an industry-leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance and mission-critical computer products, today announces that the company will begin shipping the world's largest capacity mSATA Solid-State Drive in January 2013. As the latest addition to Mushkin's Atlas family of mSATA drives, the new solid-state drive delivers up a colossal 480 gigabytes (GB) of storage capacity on a single mSATA module.

"We're excited to present our latest Atlas 480 GB mSATA solid state drive, demonstrating once again Mushkin's consistent ability to combine top performance, functionality, capacity, and low-power innovation," said Brian Flood, Director of Product Development at Mushkin Inc. "Keeping z-height as low as possible and managing to fit eight NAND flash chips and a controller on a mSATA PCB was no easy feat, but now capacity-hungry Ultrabook and notebook users can go beyond the 256 GB mSATA barrier."

Jetway is now prepping its second motherboard powered by the AMD A85X chipset, the HA21-85X. This ATX board supports AMD's Socket FM2 APUs and features a 4+2 phase power design, four DDR3-1866 memory slots, an mSATA connector, five SATA 3.0 Gbps ports, one PCIe 2.0 x16 slot, Gigabit Ethernet, 7.1 channel audio, two USB 3.0 ports, and D-Sub, DVI and HDMI outputs.

The HA21-85X's price tag has not been revealed.

Intel's SSD 525 line of performance mSATA SSDs may be slated for 2013, but made an early debut with the company's NUC (next unit of computing) desktop. A 180 GB variant of the drive was put to test by VR-Zone, which is driven by LSI-SandForce SF-2281 processor, and features three Intel-made 20 nm MLC NAND flash chips (6-channels). The drive cracked Anvil Storage Utilities benchmark with 504 MB/s (compressible) and 463 MB/s (incompressible) sequential read speeds, 468 MB/s (compressible) and 240 MB/s (incompressible) sequential writes, and about 55,841 IOPS 4K random write (QD16) performance. The performance numbers make the drive appear nearly as fast as larger 2.5-inch SATA SSDs, and could be a boon for Ultrabook makers.

ECS unveiled the NM70-TI, a slim Mini-ITX variant of the NM70-I, which was launched in October. The board is designed for extremely compact chassis, perhaps even those meant for nettops that latch onto monitors using VESA wall mounts. The board stays low profile thanks to a dense aluminum fin fan-heatsink, half-height connectors, and SO-DIMM memory slots that are arranged almost along the plane of the motherboard.

The NM70-TI integrates an Intel Celeron 807 single-core 1.50 GHz processor (Celeron 847 dual-core option available), wired to its low board-footprint NM70 PCH. In addition to two SATA 6 Gb/s ports, the board features a SATA 3 Gb/s, and an mSATA 3 Gb/s slot. The lone bus expansion slot is an mPCIe. D-Sub and HDMI make up display outputs. Gigabit Ethernet, and a few USB 2.0/1.1 ports on the rear panel, and by headers, make for the rest of it. The board is driven by UEFI BIOS. More details are awaited.

Gigabyte launched the Z77X-UD4H, a new socket LGA1155 motherboard model designed to fill the gap between the $155 Z77X-UD3H and $190 Z77X-UD5H. It is built with Gigabyte's Ultra Durable 4 construction, featuring 2 oz copper layer, temperature, humidity, and electrostatic protection features. The LGA1155 socket is powered by a 11-phase VRM that draws power from an 8-pin EPS connector. The socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, and three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (electrical x16/NC/NC, x8/x8/NC, x8/x4/x4, depending on how they're populated). 3-way NVIDIA SLI and AMD CrossFireX are supported. Other expansion slots include three PCI-Express 2.0 x1, and a legacy PCI.

Straightaway, you'll notice that Gigabyte did away with the mSATA slot featured on the Z77X-UD3H and Z77X-UD5H. In addition to the two SATA 6 Gb/s and four SATA 3 Gb/s ports that the Z77 PCH provides (all of which are wired as internal ports), Gigabyte added two additional 2-port SATA 6 Gb/s controllers, which provide two each of internal SATA 6 Gb/s, and eSATA 6 Gb/s. The board features a total of eight USB 3.0 ports, six on the rear panel, and two by headers. In addition to the four ports the Z77 PCH provides, a 4-port VLI-made host controller is used.