Micron Technology, Inc., today announced that it has begun volume shipments of the world’s first 176-layer 3D NAND flash memory, achieving unprecedented, industry-pioneering density and performance. Together, Micron’s new 176-layer technology and advanced architecture represent a radical breakthrough, enabling immense gains in application performance across a range of storage use cases spanning data center, intelligent edge and mobile devices.

“Micron’s 176-layer NAND sets a new bar for the industry, with a layer count that is almost 40% higher than our nearest competitor’s,” said Scott DeBoer, executive vice president of technology and products at Micron. “Combined with Micron’s CMOS-under-array architecture, this technology sustains Micron’s industry cost leadership.”

Representing Micron’s fifth generation of 3D NAND and second-generation replacement-gate architecture, Micron’s 176-layer NAND is the most technologically advanced NAND node in the market. Compared with the company’s previous generation of high-volume 3D NAND, Micron’s 176-layer NAND improves both read latency and write latency by more than 35% — dramatically accelerating application performance. Featuring approximately 30% smaller die size than best-in-class competitive offerings, Micron’s 176-layer NAND’s compact design is ideal for solutions using small form factors.

KIOXIA America, Inc. (formerly Toshiba Memory America, Inc.) today unveiled the PC OEM focused KIOXIA XG7/XG7-P Series, the company’s first PCIe 4.0 client solid-state drive (SSD) series for notebooks, desktops, and workstations with qualification samples currently shipping to customers. Now spanning enterprise, data center, and client segments, KIOXIA’s comprehensive PCIe 4.0 SSD portfolio addresses a wide array of applications, optimizing tomorrow’s data, service and content-driven world.

Built for demanding PC environments, the XG7/XG7-P Series offers 2x the sequential read speed and approximately 1.6x the sequential write speed of the PCIe Gen3 based XG6 Series, delivering a high performance, feature-rich storage experience for content creators, gamers and professionals. With leading capacity support up to 4096 gigabytes (GBs), the XG7-P Series SSDs enable power users to take advantage of PCIe Gen4 x4 lane bandwidth and ample storage space. Furthermore, this series deploys an all-new in-house controller vertically integrated with KIOXIA’s BiCS FLASH™ 3D flash memory, ensuring next generation feature support such as the NVMe® 1.4 specification and System Management Bus (SMBus) for improved system thermal management through a sideband channel.

CDRLabs kicks off the week with a review of ADATA's new PCIe 4.0 SSD, the XPG GAMMIX S50 Lite. Designed with gamers, overclockers and enthusiasts in mind, this heatsink-equipped, M.2 form factor drive is powered by Silicon Motion's new SM2267 controller and is available with up to 2TB of 3D TLC NAND flash. The GAMMIX S50 Lite also utilizes dynamic SLC caching and a DRAM cache buffer to improve read and write performance as well as Low-Density Parity Check (LDPC) code technology, End-To-End (E2E) data protection and a RAID engine to ensure data integrity and stability. To top it all off, the GAMMIX S50 Lite is equipped with an ultra-fast PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe 1.4 interface and is capable of 3,900 MB/s read and 3,200 MB/s write speeds.

Teaming with 343 Industries, Seagate today announced the latest addition to its popular line of storage for gamers – Game Drive for Xbox Halo: Master Chief Limited Edition.

Celebrating the legendary Master Chief from the Halo video game franchise, this limited edition Game Drive features a one-of-a-kind sleek case design that celebrates the Master Chief John-117. A limited Master Chief vinyl die-cut sticker set also comes in the box for fans to collect. The new drive is available in 2TB and 5TB capacities so gamers can install more games and downloadable game content by balancing their gaming workload between console and external HDD.

Gamers can easily begin their Halo journey as the Game Drive is compatible with and automatically recognized by the full family of Xbox One devices, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S consoles, and easily installed in under two minutes through Xbox OS. It is USB 3.2 Gen 1 bus powered and does not need a separate power cord to play so fans can unite in their mission from anywhere. Users can play legacy games and archive next generation games on the Game Drive which can store more than 502 downloaded games.

Available in limited quantities beginning next week, Game Drive for Xbox Halo: Master Chief Limited Edition retails for $89.99 (2TB) and $149.99 (5TB). It is the perfect holiday gift for gamer and collector alike, so be sure to grab yours before they are gone!

Phison Electronics, the industry leader in flash controller technology, is delivering the storage industry’s fastest PCIe Gen 4x4 NVMe SSD solution, its second generation PS5018-E18 (E18) PCIe 4.0 controller. The E18 succeeds the PS5016-E16 released in late 2019.

Phison designed the new E18 from the ground up on the efficient TSMC 12nm process node. This provides SSD manufacturers with a state-of-the-art controller solution in an increasingly competitive field. The controller utilizes Phison’s proprietary CoXProcessor™ 2.0 technology, an innovative SSD architecture that enables E18 to deliver exceptional performance and power efficiency. Phison architecture is also primed for AI-assisted storage, where its distributed architecture uses many small cores to perform the workload in parallel. The E18 is ideal for gamers, content creators, and computing enthusiasts, which demand the best experience. This ultra-low latency is possible only with NVMe SSDs.

CDRLabs has put together a brief review of SecureData's SecureUSB BT encrypted flash drive. This pocket-sized storage device features a FIPS compliant design with military-grade AES 256-bit XTS encryption. What really makes SecureDrive BT stand out amongst other encrypted USB flash drives is that, instead of a keypad, it offers secure wireless user authentication via the SecureData Lock app on your mobile device. The drive is also equipped with a rugged, extruded aluminum sleeve that protects it against dust, water and physical damage as well as a USB 3.0 interface capable of delivering up to 130 MB/s read and 43 MB/s write speeds.

TEAMGROUP today announces the release of T-FORCE TREASURE Touch External RGB SSD, which has specially designed touch surface to switch the magical RGB lighting effects that is bright and soft, but not too dazzling for your eyes. It supports multiple platforms and provides up to 1TB of capacity. The EVA cushioning packaging inside the box is designed into a simple stand. It is not only the perfect partner for gaming console, but also an expansion partner for gamer’s external RGB SSD.

The T-FORCE TREASURE Touch External RGB SSD has a simple and stylish design with a metallic brushed finish and an upgraded texture that effectively reduces fingerprint residue. With soft RGB lighting effects and the black body design, you can freely turn on, off and adjust the color of the light to what you prefer by touching the surface. You can enjoy the different atmosphere of the game by creating your own ones.