Four leading companies — Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Thomson Licensing, Toshiba Corporation and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (collectively, the "BD4C Licensing Group") — today announced that they have commenced a worldwide joint licensing program beginning on March 1, 2010 for Blu-ray ("BD") and DVD patents essential for BD decoders, BD encoders, BD players, BD read-only discs, BD recordable discs, BD drives, BD/DVD hybrid discs and BD recorders ("BD Products"), including BD Products that incorporate DVD functionality.

The potential licensees will benefit from one-stop shopping for the essential patents owned or controlled by the four companies, which will facilitate the development of the BD market.

The license portfolio consists of BD and DVD patents, owned or controlled by the four companies, that are essential for BD Products. Licenses for the portfolio will be available for products that comply with the specifications for the BD formats promulgated by the Blu-ray Disc Association.

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Active Media Products, manufacturer of SSDs and endangered species USB drives, today released new 32GB and 64GB 1.8-inch PATA ZIF SSDs that support read speeds up to 100MB/sec and, thanks to their DRAM cache, reach write speeds up to 85MB/sec. These new Turbo ZIF SSDs are available now through Amazon.

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With no moving parts, SaberTooth ZT is rugged enough for use in industrial, embedded and network computing applications where a very compact yet high speed storage solution is needed. Its PATA / IDE ZIF interface supports PIO mode 4 and UDMA mode 6. It also supports SMART commands. The ZT includes excellent ECC, wear leveling and bad block management technologies that improve reliability and extend endurance. These drives have the same physical dimensions as industry standard 1.8-inch HDDs, measuring only 2.8 x 2.1 x 0.2 inches (71 x 54 x 5 mm), making them an easy plug-in replacement in many laptops and netbooks.

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LG Electronics officially unveiled its new 12x Blu-ray Disc writers this week at CeBIT 2010. According to a report by bluray-disc.de, the company had the internal BH12LS and external BE12LU on display. Along with support for LightScribe, the two drives are capable of 12x BD-R, 12x BD-R DL, 6x BD-R LTH, 2x BD-RE and 2x BD-RE DL writing speeds and a maximum BD-ROM read speed of 10x.

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At this point, it is not exactly clear what connection options the BE12LU has. However, with specs like this, it probably has either USB 3.0 or eSATA.

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Optical storage technology leader , Verbatim is continuing the advancement of Blu-Ray media by  by applying the well renowned AZO technology.  The new Blu-ray 2x BD-R ‘LTH Type Printable’ offers 25GB of storage capacity with a 2x burn speed  as well as having a fully wide-printable surface. This is the latest product suitable for recording films in high definition, backing up large amounts of data and the long-term archiving of photos and videos. The new Verbatim Blu-ray BD-R LTH Type 25GB 2x Printable is now available in retail supplied as a 10 spindle pack, priced at  £29.99 (RRP).

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The advent of Blu-ray technology has led to the introduction of high capacity storage discs to meet the demand caused by the rapid growth of high definition television (HDTV). And with its new Blu-ray disc BD-R 25GB 2x Printable LTH Type (LTH=low to high in-groove recording) Verbatim is affirming its technology leadership in the field of optical storage media. With an impressive capacity of 25GB (up to 5 times the capacity of a DVD), the new Verbatim BD-R LTH is the ideal solution for long-term storage and archival needs for all personal data, office work files as well as photos and videos.  It offers space for up to 135 minutes (MPEG2) of entertainment in HD-quality at a burning time of 45 minutes and is fully inkjet printable (22 – 118mm) due to its printable surface to the inner ring.

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Mach Xtreme Technology Inc. today unveiled the MX-DS Series 2.5” SSD which makes MLC (multi-level cell) NAND-based storage a must have offering for enthusiasts demanding the latest technology. Based on the best-in-class SandForce SF1222 controller, the MX-DS Series delivers an enhanced computing experience with much faster application loading, ultra-fast data access, shorter boot-ups, and longer battery life.

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Mach Xtreme Technology has gained momentum in pioneering flash storage technology while maintaining an attractive price point that is truly within the reach of a wide range of consumers. The MX-DS Series SSD provides outstanding performance, endurance and power efficiency resulting in exceptional user experience. This series maintains the highest level of read and write performance through the life of the SSD. Highly intelligent block management and wear leveling optimizes longevity of MX-DS series drives.

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Intel Corporation today launched its first Intel® Atom™ processor- based platform optimized for networked home and small office/home office (SOHO) storage devices.

The energy-efficient platform consists of the Intel® Atom™ processor D410 single-core or D510 dual-core and the Intel® 82801IR I/O Controller and delivers the processing performance and input/output (I/O) connectivity required to meet the throughput demands of leading storage vendors such as LaCie, LG Electronics, QNAP, Synology and Thecus.

Home server and SOHO network-attached storage (NAS) devices based on the new Intel Atom processor- based platform act as centralized hubs that organize, manage, protect and share documents, photos, videos and music throughout the home and small office. This makes it possible to keep digital content safe and available anytime, anywhere.

“NAS systems have traditionally been found in businesses to manage, store and access data,” said Seth Bobroff, general manager, Intel Data Center Group, Storage. “Today, households and small offices have an ever-increasing number of computers, laptops, netbooks and mobile phones that create and consume digital content. This advancement in mobility coupled with the explosive growth of data and media are creating the need for centralized, easy-to-use network storage solutions for the home and small office.”

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WD today announced that the company is shipping its new high performance WD SiliconDrive® N1x 2.5-inch solid state drive (SSD) family. The new SSDs feature fast read/write speeds in high capacities and are designed for embedded system OEM applications that require superior performance, high reliability and long product life. The single-level cell (SLC) -based WD SiliconDrive N1x SSDs are an ideal storage solution for a wide range of embedded system OEM applications in growing markets such as automotive and transportation, data center, communications infrastructure, video surveillance and industrial automation.  The new WD SiliconDrive N1x family of products complements the recently announced multi-level cell (MLC) -based WD SiliconEdge™ Blue™ SSDs, which offer a cost-effective alternative for less-demanding OEM applications while still providing high read/write speeds and high random write IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second) performance.

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WD SiliconDrive N1x SSD products feature a native SATA 3.0 gigabits per second (Gb/s) interface with target read speeds up to 240 megabytes per second (MB/s) and write transfer rates up to 140 MB/s in capacities up to 128 gigabytes (GB). WD SiliconDrive N1x SSDs deliver maximum drive endurance and high sustained sequential write speeds to satisfy the 24/7 operational requirements in critical OEM applications. The WD SiliconDrive N1x products also feature WD's innovative Speed Assurance™ technology for consistent read/write performance.

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Corsair, a worldwide leader in high-performance computer and flash memory products, today announced the Force Series of SSDs, providing outstanding SATA II performance based on innovative SSD Processor technology from SandForce Inc. 

By utilizing the state-of-the-art SandForce SF-1200 SSD processor combined with MLC flash memory, the Corsair Force Series of solid-state drives deliver outstanding performance figures of up to 280MB/sec read and 260MB/sec write. In addition, these drives feature class-leading random read/write performance. The highly innovative SandForce DuraClass Technology also delivers unparalleled write endurance and error correction features. 

“The Force Series are the fastest SSDs that Corsair has launched to date,” stated Kevin Conley, Vice President of Engineering at Corsair. “We have been very impressed with the SandForce SSD Processor innovations in the months that we have been working with them, and we can’t wait to get these extraordinarily fast SSDs into the hands of our most demanding customers.”

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WD today announced that the company is shipping its first consumer-oriented solid state drive (SSD) with the new WD SiliconEdge™ 2.5-inch SSD family. WD SiliconEdge Blue™ SSDs offer fast read/write speeds and high SSD capacities, making them an ideal storage solution for read-intensive applications requiring high performance and plug-and-play compatibility.

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WD SiliconEdge Blue SSDs, in capacities up to 256 gigabytes (GB), feature a native SATA 3.0 gigabits per second (Gb/s) interface with read speeds up to 250 megabytes per second (MB/s) and write transfer rates up to 170 MB/s. Fast and rugged, WD SiliconEdge Blue SSDs accelerate application performance and deliver maximum tolerance for drops, shock and vibration along with silent and low-power operation.

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Nero, creators of liquid media technology, today announced plans to update its SecurDisc data protection technology in April 2010. SecurDisc 2.0 extends the lifespan of burned content on CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray Discs by increasing the chances of retrieving data from damaged discs, regardless of scratches, age or deterioration, protecting data from unintended alteration and access, and enabling the verification of the originator of the data using digital signatures.

The average life expectancy of an optical disc is between two and five years; yet, unforeseen events can decrease the lifespan even more. According to a survey of 1,000 American households commissioned by the National Consumers League, respondents re-purchased an average of two commercial DVDs because the disc was lost or damaged. This number is significantly higher among households with children. The number of defective DVDs is likely even higher with non-commercial DVDs burnt at home. Recognizing the need to improve disc longevity so that consumers can enjoy content they’ve created or access important data, Nero developed and integrated SecurDisc technology into its products in order to meet the consumer demand.

SecurDisc 2.0 is the new industry standard for optical drive security and data reliability. It will now provide a full feature set of data security-related functions, regardless of the optical recording hardware and media being used – including Blu-ray Discs. This simple to use solution increases the chances of retrieving files if an optical disc is damaged or scratched, ensures the security of important files by guaranteeing that data cannot be altered accidently or maliciously through password protection and encryption, and lets people verify the authenticity of files with the originator’s digital signatures.

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