PC gaming is increasingly immersive, with richer and more intense visual content than ever before, and gamers are faced with making technology choices to maximize their experience. To push leading-edge performance, lower power consumption and extended durability for PC gaming systems, Western Digital Corporation today introduced a high-performance Western Digital Black 3D NVMe SSD featuring the company’s own SSD architecture and controller. The drive accelerates data for PC applications to enable users to quickly, access, engage and capture today’s high-resolution video, audio and gaming content.

With growing demand for rich content, PCs must have the capability to run intensive applications and enable the 4K/Ultra HD graphics and video content experiences. To move this immense amount of data quickly and seamlessly, Western Digital developed a new breed of SSDs to help remove the traditional storage bottleneck. This M.2 drive features a new NVMe architecture and controller, which optimally integrates with Western Digital 3D NAND. Western Digital’s new vertically integrated SSD platform was engineered from the ground up, specifically architected to help maximize performance for NVMe SSDs, with advanced power management, durability and endurance for the growing range of applications benefiting from NVMe technology.

Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., a world leader in memory products and technology solutions, today announced A1000 PCIe NVMe SSD. The M.2 drive is Kingston’s first entry-level consumer-grade PCIe NVMe SSD utilizing 3D NAND. A1000 delivers twice the performance of SATA at near SATA pricing.

The single-sided M.2 2280 (22mm x 80mm) form factor makes A1000 ideal for notebooks and systems with limited space. The PCIe NVMe drive features a Gen 3.0 x2 interface, 4-channel Phison 5008 controller, and 3D NAND Flash. It delivers 2x the performance of SATA SSDs with read/write speeds1 up to 1500MB/s and 1000MB/s giving it exceptional responsiveness and ultra-low latency.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash products, today launched the XPG GAMMIX S11 (S11), its fastest gaming SSD to date. It arrives in a compact M.2 2280 form factor, is equipped with a unique heatsink to maintain optimal temperatures and sports the ultra-fast PCIe3x4 interface to deliver up to 3200MB/s read and 1700MB/s write – which is ideal for performance seekers, including gamers, PC DIY enthusiasts and graphics professionals. S11 employs the latest 2nd generation 64-layer 3D NAND Flash for improved reliability and ships in capacities of 240GB, 480GB, and 960GB.

Faster than ever – Made for professionals
Leveraging the ultra-fast PCIe Gen3x4 interface and the NVMe 1.3 protocol, the S11 offers a tremendous improvement in read/write performance. It implements a 32bit DRAM data bus, Intelligent SLC Caching, and a DRAM cache buffer, accelerating sequential and 4K random read/write speeds. It can reach speeds of up to 3200MB/s for reads and 1700MB/s for writes and 310K/280K IOPS random 4K read/writes for faster boot, shorter game loads, and system response time. In addition, XPG’s custom-designed heatsink ensures temperatures are at least 10 degrees Celsius lower than non-shielded M.2 SSDs, providing enhanced stability and longevity.

Synology Inc. today launched RackStation RS2418+/RS2418RP+, a 2U, 12-bay rackmount NAS providing easy-to-scale storage capacity with affordable total cost of ownership (TCO) for small- and medium-sized businesses.

RS2418+/RS2418RP+ supports up to 144TB raw capacity in a single 2U chassis. The storage capacity can be further expanded up to 288TB when connected to one RX1217/RX1217RP, providing on-the-fly volume expansion.

"RS2418+/RS2418RP+ is designed to solve common IT challenges for small- and medium- sized businesses: budgets are tight, data volume is increasing rapidly, and IT staff is limited." said Jason Fan, Product Manager at Synology Inc. "RS2418+/RS2418RP+ is designed to solve these challenges. It offers scalable storage capacity with affordable TCO, at the same time providing versatile software applications which make it ideal to serve as a file server, a centralized backup target, or a hub-and-spoke backup target for distributed businesses."

Consumers' video expectations are being shaped by the brilliant images promised by 4K Ultra High Definition (UHD) video and beyond. However, the technical-based hurdles and data demands of higher quality video mean that the majority of users only have access to full HD or lower video technology. For nearly three years, the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) has been working in lock-step with its members, the world's best-known leaders in video, to develop a better quality internet video technology that benefits all consumers. Today, the Alliance is proud to announce the public release of the AOMedia Video Codec 1.0 (AV1) specification, which delivers cross-platform, 4K UHD or higher online video, royalty-free – all while lowering data usage.

Whether watching live sports, video chatting with loved ones, or binging on a favorite show, online video is becoming a bigger part of consumers’ daily lives. In fact, video is so important to users that by 2021, 82 percent of all the world's internet traffic will be video, according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index™, 2016–2021. To remove many of the hurdles required by older, optical disc-era, video technologies, AOMedia developed AV1 specifically for the internet video-era, paving the way for companies to make more of the royalty-free, 4K UHD and higher video devices, products, and services that consumers love.

CDRLabs has taken an in depth look at Plextor's latest SATA SSD, the M8V. This entry-level device is powered by Silicon Motion's SM2258 controller and is available with up to 512GB of Toshiba's 64-layer BiCS3 3D TLC NAND flash. To compensate for the slow write speeds typically associated with TLC NAND, the M8V is equipped with Plextor's PlexNitro cache acceleration technology, which optimizes performance without taking up any space on the drive. The M8V also features built in LDPC technology as well as a RAID engine and data shaping for enhanced data transfer stability. To top it all off, the drive supports Plextor exclusive applications like PlexTurbo, PlexCompressor and PlexVault.

Transcend Information, Inc. (Transcend), a leading manufacturer of storage and multimedia products, announced today the release of the 500S and 300S series of SD and microSD cards. These memory cards, produced in capacities of up to 512GB and featuring transfer speeds of up to 95 MB/s, are a ready-made solution for the storage needs of today’s users. The gold 500S series, constructed of durable MLC flash, is ideal for action cameras and drones, while the silver 300S series SD cards are offered in capacities up to 512GB, and the microSD cards have been crafted with the smartphone market in mind.

Meeting A1 performance specifications
Transcend’s 128GB 300S microSD cards meet the SD Association’s latest Application Performance Class 1 (A1) standards for responsiveness, which call for performing 1,500 IOPS on random read operations and 500 IOPS on random write operations, and sequential speeds of at least 10 MB/s. The 300S series tops out at 95 MB/s read and 45 MB/s write speeds, making it ideal for storing and running mobile apps.