DIGISTOR, a trusted provider of solid state drives, optical drives, and Blu-ray recordable media, has announced the release of their 4th generation external optical drive now with USB 3.0 connectivity. Designed to deliver tireless performance and reliability, DIGISTOR’s newest addition to their range of optical drives promises to be the most compatible external DVD and Blu-ray drives on the market.

The newly released external optical drives are self-powered with a single USB cable, offering energy efficiency and a simple setup. Thanks to the unique power efficient USB design the DIGISTOR drives are built to take advantage of the fast USB 3.0 bus as well as be fully backwards compatible with USB 2.0 connections making it the industry’s most compatible Blu-ray and DVD drive. The drive supports both USB 3.0 as well as USB 2.0 applications while still offering a single cable solution, no wall adapter needed.

Other World Computing (OWC), a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, today at CES announced the Viper Pro Thunderbolt SSD external drive with Thunderbolt 2 technology. OWC Viper Pro Thunderbolt SSD features dual Thunderbolt 2 ports, offering extreme performance with phenomenal sustained speeds up to 1400MB/s, ideal for bandwidth-intensive workflows like professional content creation.

The Viper Pro Thunderbolt SSD will be offered in two models, the Viper Pro Thunderbolt SSD and Viper Pro Thunderbolt SSD RAID 4 Edition, with capacities up to 8TB. The RAID 4 Edition is powered by the SoftRAID engine preconfigured in RAID 4 for an optimized combination of speed and redundancy. RAID 4 provides the data integrity benefits of RAID 5 without sacrificing the incredible performance of SSD technology.

Toshiba Corporation’s Semiconductor & Storage Products Company announced it will showcase a reference display of the world’s first PCI Express (PCIe) single package SSD, integrating up to 256 GB in a single BGA package, at the 2015 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), to be held from January 6 to January 9 in Las Vegas, U.S.A.

The “BG Series” SSDs on reference display will be products under development. Utilizing Toshiba’s cutting-edge packaging technology applied in products like e・MMCTM, it is the world’s first PCI Express single package SSD, available in capacities up to 256 GB in a 16 mm x 20 mm x 1.65 mm BGA package. Also to be showcased will be a reference display of the world’s smallest removable module type SSD, which integrates the BGA single package SSD on a single-sided form factor.

Other World Computing (OWC), a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, announced the OWC Envoy Pro mini, a new ultra-portable SSD that delivers desktop-class performance in a tiny thumb drive form-factor. Envoy Pro mini will be unveiled today at CES 2015 and will be featured for a first-look, hands-on demonstration throughout CES at OWC's booth #30572. The OWC Envoy Pro mini has already received acclaim at CES 2015, winning the Storage Visions 2015 Visionary Product Award for Mobile Consumer storage.

Envoy Pro mini is available in 120GB and 240GB capacities (480GB coming soon). The Envoy Pro mini features a beautifully crafted aluminum enclosure and is ideal for storing, transferring, and backing up any Mac or PC. With SuperSpeed USB 3.0 performance, the Envoy Pro mini achieves sustained transfer speeds up to 433MB/s, making it the perfect portable storage solution for demanding creative production workflows, IT professionals, students and home users alike.

Toshiba Corporation’s Semiconductor & Storage Products Company announced the launch of its new solid state hybrid drive (SSHD) series, which is equipped with Toshiba's 19nm second-generation NAND flash memory. The new “MQ02ABD100H” SSHD offers 1TB capacity in a drive 9.5mm high, while the “MQ02ABF050H” offers a capacity of 500GB in a 7 mm high form factor. Sample shipments will begin from February.

SSHDs deliver better performance compared to traditional hard disk drives (HDD), because the drives feature NAND that is used as the secondary cache during operation. This means users see improvement to the drive’s performance compared to traditional HDDs, while still maintaining the equivalent capacities of traditional HDDs.

One of the biggest announcements to come out of CES so far is Plextor's new M7e PCIe SSD. While the press release was a bit short on details, the drive was on display in Plextor's suite at the ARIA Resort and Casino. Looking at the images below, you can see that, like the M6e, the new M7e is designed to fit in a motherboard's M.2 PCIe slot. At this time, its unknown whether or not the drive will be available with a half-height, half-length (HHHL) adapter.

Visitors to Plextor's suite are able to view live demos of the M7e and compare its performance to SSDs from other manufacturers. The image below shows how the M7e (on the left) compares to a drive from Samsung (on the right). With sequential read and write speeds in excess of 1000 MB/s, the M7e is more than twice as fast as your average SATA SSD.

Lexar, a leading global brand of flash memory products, today announced the new Lexar Professional 1000x microSDHC and microSDXC UHS-II cards, offering read transfer speeds up to 150MB per second. Designed for sports camcorders, tablets, and smartphones, the new microSD cards leverage Ultra High Speed II (U3) to provide faster capture, play back, and transfer of photo and video files. The cards are also an excellent choice for photographers needing multiple memory cards for extended use to capture aerial content with a quadcopter.

Available in 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB capacities, Professional 1000x microSD UHS-II cards can quickly capture, play back, and transfer extended lengths of the highest quality 1080p full-HD, 3D, and 4K video, making it easy to preserve more than 15 hours of your greatest moments and then relive the action. As with all Lexar Professional cards, a lifetime copy of Image Rescue® software is included to recover any lost or deleted files, and each card is backed by a limited lifetime warranty.