Micron Technology, Inc. today added a new cost-efficient solid-state drive (SSD) to its client computing portfolio. The Micron 1300 SSD makes flash storage accessible to more users, enabling its adoption in a broader set of personal computing devices for a better mobile computing experience. Consumers who are eager to move from rotating media to solid state drives value fast performance, quick startup, and reliability -- whether for desktop, mobile or workstation PCs. SSDs address these needs better than power-hungry hard disk drives (HDDs), yet their higher prices have kept users from shifting to SSDs. Micron redesigned the 1300 SSD series to close the price gap.

"The deployment of advanced 3D NAND technologies has led the client SSD market to branch into value and higher-performance storage segments," said Gregory Wong, president of Forward Insights. "Micron's latest client SSD solutions provide a coherent migration path from HDD to value-oriented SSDs."

Western Digital Corp. today announced two new additions to its broad portfolio of NVMe-based systems, platforms, SSDs, and memory drives for data center and cloud customers. With a full portfolio covering applications from edge-to-core, these additions are the Western Digital Ultrastar DC SN630 NVMe SSD and the Western Digital CL SN720 NVMe SSD. Each leverages the power of Western Digital’s vertical integration capabilities, including internally developed controller and firmware architectures, and 64-layer 3D NAND technology. As a replacement for lower-performing SATA SSDs, these new NVMe drives meet the insatiable need for performance, scalability, endurance and low total cost of ownership (TCO) for public and private cloud deployments, hyperscale cloud environments, and next-generation workloads at the edge.

IT managers face challenges such as managing multiple workload types, scaling at optimal TCO, and controlling server sprawl. Due to its inherent scalability and performance benefits, NVMe is quickly becoming the de facto standard for everything from traditional scale-up database applications to emerging edge computing architectures.

As consumer demand for high-quality content continues to rise, Western Digital Corp. is enabling a bigger, faster experience with new industry-leading solutions that give consumers the best combination of performance and capacity so they can do more with the rich content they capture. At Mobile World Congress, the company is showcasing the world’s fastest 1TB UHS-I microSD flash memory card, the 1TB SanDisk Extreme UHS-I microSDXC card. The new card features higher speed and capacity for capturing and moving massive amounts of high-quality photos and videos on smartphones, drones and action cameras. These impressive levels of capacity and speed give consumers the ability to create all the content they want without worrying about space limitations or long transfer times.

Today’s smartphones and cameras allow consumers to create high-quality content in the palm of their hands, thanks to features like multi-lenses, burst mode capabilities and the 4K resolution. Western Digital continues to deliver the most advanced solutions to ensure consumers can reliably capture and share a special moment or create video content for personal or professional use.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules, NAND Flash products, and mobile accessories today launched its ADATA Ultimate SU750 2.5” SATA 6Gb/s solid-state drives (SSD). With next-generation TLC (Triple-Level Cell) 3D NAND Flash and a host of other features, SU750 SSDs deliver terrific value, great performance, and superb reliability to offer users an excellent option for their next upgrade.

Implementing 3D NAND Flash, Ultimate SU750 SSDs features higher storage capacities of 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB. With SLC Caching, the drives can achieve read/write speeds of up to 550/520MB per second to accelerate PC performance. Users will revel in not having to wait around to access files and for programs to load. What’s more, with no mechanical components, SU750 SSDs are more resilient than HDDs. They are more resistant to shock and vibration (1500G/0.5ms), therefore providing better protection of data. Also, SSDs also run silently and consume less power than HDDs.

Plugable, the leading developer of USB, Thunderbolt, Bluetooth and power-related devices, launches the 10Gb USB-C (USB 3.1 Gen 2) NVMe SSD Enclosure, the first high performance NVMe enclosure to feature a completely tool-free, spring-loaded design for inserting and removing a compatible SSD, along with advanced thermal management to maximize performance and device lifespan.

With a sleek and slim profile, a rugged aluminum body for improved heat dissipation, and USB Type-A and Type-C host compatibility, the Plugable USB-C NVMe Enclosure is an optimal solution for safeguarding SSDs when moving from the workplace to the home office and achieving maximum transfer performance speeds on PCs, Macs and Linux devices.

Today, CDRLabs brings you a review of ADATA's new NVMe SSD, the XPG SX8200 Pro. Designed for avid PC enthusiasts, gamers and overclockers, this M.2 form factor drive is powered by Silicon Motion's new SM2262EN controller and is available with up to 1TB of Micron's 64-layer 3D TLC NAND flash. The SX8200 Pro is also equipped with an ultra-fast PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe 1.3 interface and is capable of 3,500 MB/s read and 3,000 MB/s write speeds and a maximum of 380,000 random write IOPS.

Pioneer Japan sent out a press release today, announcing its new portable, slot-loading Blu-ray Disc writer, the BDR-XS07B-UHD. This USB Type-C equipped drive measures only 135 × 135 x 18 mm and weighs in at a mere 280g. The BDR-XS07B-UHD is capable of 6x BD-R, 6x 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 6x. It also writes to triple- (100GB) and quad-layer (128GB) BD-R media at 4x and triple-layer (100GB) BD-RE media at 2x.

What makes the BDR-XS07B-UHD truly special is its ability to play back Ultra HD Blu-ray content. When installed in a Windows 10 PC with the included PowerDVD software and an i7 or i5 Kaby Lake processor, users can watch movies at 4K resolutions. The drive also ships with authoring software from CyberLink and is equipped with Pioneer's PureRead4+ technology, which greatly improves the reading performance of scratched and dirty discs. The BDR-XS07B-UHD is expected to hit stores in mid February for about 25,000 Yen ($227US).