Toshiba Memory Corporation, the world leader in memory solutions, today announced XFMEXPRESS, a new technology for removable PCIe attached, NVMe memory devices. With a new form factor and an innovative connector, XFMEXPRESS technology delivers an unparalleled combination of features designed to revolutionize ultra-mobile PCs, IoT devices and various embedded applications. Recognizing the need for a new class of removable storage, Toshiba Memory leveraged its extensive background in single package memory designs to develop XFMEXPRESS technology and offer these key features:

Game-Changing Serviceability
Putting serviceability front and center, XFMEXPRESS technology enables a new category of small memory devices and SSDs that are easy to service or upgrade. By pairing a robust, compact package with removable memory functionality and flexibility, XFMEXPRESS technology will help diminish technical barriers and design constraints.

Mobile-Friendly Footprint
The XFMEXPRESS form factor’s no-compromise size and low profile (14mm x 18mm x 1.4mm) offers a 252mm2 footprint, optimizing the mounting space for ultra-compact host devices without sacrificing performance or serviceability. With this minimized z-height, the XFMEXPRESS form factor is excellent for thin and light notebooks and creates new design possibilities for next-generation applications and systems.

Toshiba Memory Corporation, the world leader in memory solutions, today announced that it has developed the industry’s fastest-class PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs for enterprise applications that achieve a sequential read performance of over 6.4GB/s. A reference display and a demo of the new CM6 Series SSDs will be showcased in Toshiba Memory America’s booth (#307, Hall A) at the Flash Memory Summit in Santa Clara, USA, which will be held until August 8.

The CM6 Series SSDs support dual-port PCIe Gen4 x4 lanes and are NVMe 1.4 compliant. The family of enterprise NVMe SSDs will be available in a 2.5-inch form factor with capacity points from 800GB to 30TB, and 1 or 3 drive writes per day endurance options.

Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has begun mass producing 250-gigabyte (GB) SATA solid state drive (SSD) that integrates the company’s sixth-generation (1xx-layer) 256-gigabit (Gb) three-bit V-NAND for global PC OEMs. By launching a new generation of V-NAND in just 13 months, Samsung has reduced the mass production cycle by four months while securing the industry’s highest performance, power efficiency and manufacturing productivity.

“By bringing cutting-edge 3D memory technology to volume production, we are able to introduce timely memory lineups that significantly raise the bar for speed and power efficiency,” said Kye Hyun Kyung, executive vice president of Solution Product & Development at Samsung Electronics. “With faster development cycles for next-generation V-NAND products, we plan to rapidly expand the markets for our high-speed, high-capacity 512Gb V-NAND-based solutions.”

Western Digital today announced two new 96-layer 3D flash NVMe SSD families, the Ultrastar DC SN640 and Ultrastar DC SN340. Both are purpose-built for either mixed-use-case workloads or very read-intensive applications, respectively. The new Ultrastar drives help meet the evolving, and increasingly specific workload demands placed on data centers today, while building a strong, flexible foundation for the zettabyte-scale era of the future. Leveraging Western Digital’s in-house SSD controller designs, firmware development and vertical integration, these new solutions underscore the company’s strengths in developing innovations that allow customers’ data to thrive, from edge to core to cloud.

NVMe is having a great impact on enterprises and what they can do with data, particularly for real-time analytics, M2M and IoT, and emerging technologies like composable infrastructure. Data center customers understand the nature of their data streams and application workloads and are realizing that today's general-purpose architectures are inefficient and can carry resource and cost overhead. Ushering in new NVMe SSD innovations for the workload evolution, Western Digital's new purpose-built solutions include:

Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., a world leader in memory products and technology solutions, today announced it is shipping the A2000 NVMe PCIe SSD. The single-sided M.2 drive is Kingston’s next-gen entry-level, consumer NVMe PCIe SSD utilizing 3D NAND. A2000 delivers efficient performance, lower power and lower heat all at a lower price, making it the perfect storage upgrade solution for Ultrabook™ and notebook users.

A2000 is an affordable storage solution with impressive read / write speeds up to 2,200 / 2,000MB/s, respectively, thus delivering 3x the performance of a SATA SSD. It is ideal for entry-level users and DIY system builders who appreciate responsiveness and ultra-fast loading times. A2000 is a self-encrypting drive that supports end-to-end data protection using 256-bit AES Hardware-based encryption that allows the usage of independent software vendors with TCG Opal 2.0 security management solutions including Symantec™, McAfee™, WinMagic® and others. The drive also has built-in eDrive support, a security storage specification for use with BitLocker.

Toshiba Memory America, Inc. (TMA), the U.S.-based subsidiary of Toshiba Memory Corporation, today announced the launch of a new Storage Class Memory (SCM) solution: XL-FLASH. Based on the company’s innovative BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory technology with 1-bit-per-cell SLC, XL-FLASH brings low latency and high performance to data center and enterprise storage. Sample shipments will start in September, with mass production expected to begin in 2020.

Classified as SCM (or persistent memory), with the ability to retain its contents like NAND flash memory, XL-FLASH bridges the performance gap that exists between DRAM and NAND. While volatile memory solutions such as DRAM provide the access speed needed by demanding applications, that performance comes at a high cost. As the cost-per-bit and scalability of DRAM levels off, this new SCM (or persistent memory) layer in the memory hierarchy addresses that issue with a high density, cost effective, non-volatile NAND flash memory solution. Poised for growth, industry analyst firm IDC estimates the SCM market is expected to reach in excess of $3B in 2022.

Sitting in between DRAM and NAND flash, XL-FLASH brings increased speed, reduced latency and higher storage capacities – at a lower cost than traditional DRAM. XL-FLASH will initially be deployed in an SSD format but could be expanded to memory channel attached devices that sit on the DRAM bus, such as future industry standard non-volatile dual in-line memory modules (NVDIMMs).

Marvell today released the industry’s lowest power PCIe Gen4 NVMe solid-state drive (SSD) controller portfolio. Marvell’s newest SSD controllers are designed to meet the need for lower power and higher performance in next-generation data centers and edge devices as artificial intelligence (AI) and 5G gain momentum. This breakthrough technology delivers unparalleled performance in an ultra-compact footprint, leveraging the company’s complex system-on-chip (SoC) design expertise and groundbreaking storage IP to help data center, notebook, tablet, gaming and edge computing platform architects advance their solutions for the highly distributed data era.

“Marvell’s latest family of storage controllers has been architected to optimally address edge computing and data center pain points of power-performance and capacity-performance,” said Nigel Alvares, vice president of marketing for the Flash Business Unit at Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. “With today’s launch, we’re once again demonstrating Marvell’s leadership in storage, delivering the industry’s first 4-Channel PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD controllers with the industry’s lowest power consumption that will help revolutionize SSD solutions for the data economy.”

Ecosystem Support

“AMD recently introduced the world’s first PCIe® 4.0 ready desktop PC platform, the 3rd Generation AMD Ryzen™ processor and AMD X570 chipset for socket AM4,” said Chris Kilburn, corporate vice president and general manager, Client Channel, AMD. “We are delighted with the Marvell DRAM-less PCIe Gen4 SSD controller helping bring the increased bandwidth and performance required to elevate the user experience with next generation computing devices.”