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Rovi Corporation and Sonic Solutions today announced that the two companies have signed a definitive agreement for Rovi to acquire Sonic in a stock and cash transaction. The enterprise value of the transaction is approximately $720 million and the per share value of Sonic common stock at signing of the agreement is $14.17, a 38.2 percent premium to Sonic's 30 day average per share closing price as of December 21, 2010. The acquisition is structured as an exchange offer for all of the outstanding shares of Sonic common stock, to be followed by a merger.
Rovi, a provider of next generation guidance solutions including TotalGuide, discovery, metadata, advertising and networking technologies and Sonic, a provider of digital video processing, playback and distribution technologies, both leaders in the digital entertainment industry, together will bring an end-to-end solution that enables integration across the ecosystem. The acquisition of Sonic will enable Rovi to broaden its solutions to content owners, device makers, retailers and operators.
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Fujitsu Semiconductor America, Inc. (FSA) will demonstrate its newest USB 3.0-SATA controller products at the 2011 International CES in Las Vegas, Nevada, January 6 to 9.
At booth #36505 in the USB Community Section at CES, Fujitsu will present throughput and interoperability tests between the Fujitsu USB 3.0 host controllers and various motherboards and devices. Fujitsu will demonstrate the superior performance of the MB86E50 USB 3.0-SATA RAID IC in combination with the FrescoLogic FL1009B xHCI host controller chip and two RAID 0 (striping) configured SSDs. A second demonstration will highlight the high transfer speeds attainable with the Fujitsu MB86C31 series USB 3.0-SATA bridge controller IC and a single-port reference HDD/SSD system.
"The USB 3.0 SuperSpeed standard represents an exciting step forward for high-performance external storage applications – especially when combined with the greater throughput and reliability gains of RAID," said Yoshi Masuda, senior manager of marketing, Fujitsu Semiconductor America. "In throughput tests pairing the Fujitsu MB86E50 USB 3.0-SATA RAID IC and FrescoLogic FL1009B xHCI host controller chip, we have seen sequential write throughput exceed 390 MB/s and read throughput at almost 380 MB/s using two RAID 0 configured SSD devices. We believe that these results are the highest in the industry."
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Other World Computing (OWC) announced today it has expanded its award-winning storage solution line with the new Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual mini bus powered portable hardware RAID storage solution. Featuring 14 pre-configured models with hardware RAID-1 “mirrored” redundancy for “live activity” data protection; or RAID-0 “stripe” for maximum data transfer speed, the Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual mini contains two 2.5" hard drives or OWC Mercury SSDs for up to 2.0TB of capacity, a “Quad Interface” of FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0, & eSATA connections for Plug and Play data transfer speeds up to 300 MB/s with Mac and PC computers.
Measuring the approximate size of a portable CD player - 5.6" (D) x 6.1" (W) x 1.1" (H) - the bus powered (no AC adapter needed) Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual mini’s unique flat side by side two drive design enables it to fit into laptop, photography, and other gear carrying bags easily and without adding any bulk. With 14 models offering two 2.5" SATA hard drives with up to 2.0TB of capacity or two award-winning OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSDs with up to 800GB of capacity, the Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual mini delivers big storage performance in an under two pound, fanless solution.
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Addonics Technologies today announced its Multi-Media Tower (MMT), a compact external storage device that can read/write data stored in a variety of formats.
The Multi Media Tower allows users to mix drive types and read/write to the most popular storage formats from a single enclosure. The MMT supports removable hard drives; Blu-Ray/DVD/CD players or burners; a 4-slot Flash memory card reader/writer; or a Micro SATA reader that can access Micro SATA drives and CFast memory cards.
The MMT is lightweight and constructed of durable aluminum. All devices in the Multi-Media Tower connect to any system via a Port Multiplier (PM) compatible eSATA port on a desktop or notebook PC.
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As mainstream demand for high-definition (HD) movies, games and other entertainment forces down prices of Blu-ray equipment, STMicroelectronics, a world-leading supplier of ICs for consumer products, is helping manufacturers respond to market pressures by introducing a new chip enabling smaller, lower-cost Blu-ray players and recorders.
The new STODD01 is a power-supply IC capable of generating all the voltages needed to operate the player’s circuitry, including the high-voltage driver for the blue laser supporting HD read/write capabilities. The device integrates three power supplies to drive low-voltage digital ICs, analog circuitry, and the laser driver. Using this chip, designers can eliminate multiple individual power supplies from the printed-circuit board, reducing component costs, design complexity, time to market, and assembly time. The size of the board can also be reduced, which will allow new generations of compact set-top products, game consoles, PC drives and portable HD devices.
Each of the STODD01′s power-supply channels benefits from highly efficient switched-mode conversion, which minimizes energy losses and heat generation. The device also provides a true shutdown mode, helping to minimize standby power consumption. This enables HD products to attract buyers by offering enhanced user experiences and low operating costs. A major manufacturer of DVD and Blu-ray equipment has already qualified the STODD01, recognizing the importance of superior power management as the markets for HD equipment evolve.
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Sans Digital, a leading provider of high performance storage subsystems, is introducing a brand new TowerSTOR series featuring an abundant array of host connectivity interfaces including the Mac friendly Firewire 800, high-performance eSATA, and the widely available USB 2.0 interfaces, providing over 200 MB/s of data transfer rate in a compact elegant silver metallic-finish RAID tower system that is aesthetically pleasing to the eyes.
The TS5CT is a 5-bay tower supporting five 3.5” hard drives, while the TS25CT is a 5-bay tower supporting five 2.5” hard drives. Both the TS5CT and TS25CT are embedded with the hardware RAID processors to offload complex RAID algorithm calculations while reducing CPU utilization from the host computer or server. The built-in hardware RAID engine supports RAID 0, 1, 10, 3, or 5, JBOD, and CLONE (N-way Mirror) to provide data protection against potential hard drive failure, and at the same time increases data transfer throughput. Since RAID engine is built-in on both the TS5CT and TS25CT, it eliminates the potential of an in-compatibility between the host computer OS and the RAID controllers as the TS5CT/TS25CT do not require software driver or any additional RAID controller, making them extremely versatile for use with various operating systems such PC, MAC or Linux. The built-in LEDs also provide critical status information regarding the health of the RAID array while the included software RAID monitoring utility provides real-time information of the TowerSTOR RAID system.
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Western Digital today announced the addition of several entertainment and social sites to the popular WD TV media player family. WD TV Live and WD TV Live Plus media player customers will now be able to connect with their friends and family through Facebook – including uploading photos and videos, sharing their status, viewing their wall and getting the latest updates from their News Feed – among other entertainment choices, all from their HDTV. Meanwhile, WD TV Live Plus media player customers in the U.S. can now instantly rent or purchase the newest movie releases the same day they become available on DVD and Blu-ray Disc through the Blockbuster On Demand service.
In addition, new features for the WD TV Live and WD TV Live Plus media players include:
- Deezer: a personalized on-demand music service for listening to 7 million tracks anytime, anywhere and one of the most popular Internet and mobile music offerings in Europe;
- Flingo: free Internet television from leading studios, TV networks, and video websites;
- AccuWeather.com: a worldwide weather forecasting service; and,
- USB wireless keyboard support: use any popular wireless keyboard with USB dongle to easily update Facebook status and conduct YouTube searches.
"The WD TV family of media players lets our customers enjoy all of their personal media plus the best of the Internet on the biggest screen in the house," said Brian Miller, director of business development for WD. "We listen to our user community and integrate their feedback to continuously improve the experience with our products. That includes working with our content partners to curate the best set of Internet services to meet customers' needs."
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TRENDnet, a best-in-class wired and wireless networking hardware brand, today announces the availability of the first to market 500Mbps Powerline AV Adapter, model TPL-401E, and the 500Mbps Powerline AV Adapter Kit, model TPL-401E2K. Each device represents the fastest Powerline solutions available to consumers today.
Plug the 500Mbps Powerline AV Adapter into any electrical outlet to create a secure 500Mbps building-wide network. Connect one adapter to your router and plug another adapter into any outlet on your electrical system for instant high speed network access. Connect adapters quickly using the convenient one-touch connect button. Use up to 16 Powerline adapters to network devices in different rooms without running new cabling.
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Newer Technology, Inc. (NewerTech) announced today the NewerTech USB 3.0 Universal Drive Adapter for connecting any 2.5", 3.5", or 5.25" hard drive, SSD, or optical drive to Macs and PCs via USB 3.0 for file transfer after the upgrade of an internal hard drive; for backing-up and storing file archives; and for data access from stored backup drives with driverless, Plug & Play ease and SuperSpeed 5Gb/s data transfer rate performance.
The NewerTech USB 3.0 Universal Drive Adapter is available immediately for $39.99 MSRP from NewerTech's exclusive distributor, Other World Computing (OWC), as well as through the retail channel. It comes with everything needed for immediate use including power cables, interface connecting cables, a heavy duty UL listed 2.0 Amp AC adapter, and a full one year NewerTech warranty. It is compatible with Mac computers running OS 8.6 or higher including all versions of OS X and Microsoft Windows based systems.
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TRENDnet, a best-in-class wired and wireless networking hardware brand, today announces the availability of the 200Mbps Powerline AV Adapter with Bonus Outlet, model TPL-304E, and the 200Mbps Powerline AV Adapter with Bonus Outlet Kit. Each device features a built in electrical outlet and embedded power saving technology, which reduces power consumption by up to 70% in standby mode.
The 200Mbps Powerline AV Adapter with Bonus Outlet creates a secure high speed building-wide network from any electrical outlet. When the TPL-304E is plugged in, consumers don't lose the use of an outlet-an additional electrical socket is built into the front of the adapter. Connect one adapter to your network, and plug another adapter into any outlet on your electrical system for instant high speed network access. Connect adapters quickly using the convenient one-touch connect button. Install up to eight Powerline adapters in different rooms for building wide networking.
