CDRLabs has taken an in depth look at Seagate's 600 SSD. Available in both 7mm and 5mm z-heights, the 600 SSD is the ultimate laptop upgrade for road warriors, power users, executives and gamers. With no moving or mechanical parts, this drive is more rugged and shock-resistant than standard hard drives. The 600 SSD also combines Link A Media Devices' (LAMD) LM87800 controller with Toshiba's 19nm Toggle mode MLC NAND flash to deliver faster boot up speeds, shorter application load times and improved system responsiveness.

Corsair, a worldwide designer of high-performance components to the PC hardware market, today announced the release of the Force Series LS solid-state drive (SSD) line. Available in 240GB, 120GB, and 60GB capacities, Force Series LS SSDs provide consumers a cost-effective way to upgrade their notebook or desktop PCs to faster, more reliable solid-state storage.

The 7mm-high Force Series LS SSDs can be installed into most desktop or notebook PC with a standard 2.5” or 3.5” drive bay (3.5” bays require optional adapter). The drives feature SATA 3 6GB/s support for optimal performance with the latest systems, and are backward compatible with SATA revision 1.0 and 2.0 for maximum compatibility. A copy of the powerful Corsair SSD Toolbox software utility is included as a free download.

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ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash storage application products, today announced the launch of the Premier Pro SP310 mSATA solid state drive. Targeting consumers who are looking for a cost-effective upgrade to the SATA III specification, the SP310 supports Intel Smart Response Technology (SRT), which permits for the use of an mSATA SSD as a cache drive in conjunction with a traditional hard disk. This hybrid configuration delivers speeds comparable to systems with SSDs as primary drive.

The Premier Pro SP310 offers read and write speeds up to 410 and 180 MB/sec respectively, with maximum 4K random write of 45,000 IOPS. Capacities of, 32, 64, and 128 gigabytes provide greater flexibility for system builders, in that the SP310 can be either a cache drive in a hybrid configuration, or primary storage (boot drive). In either setup, the improvements in booting and file loading speed are remarkable for such a low investment.

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Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, today introduced the first solid state drive (SSD) based on its industry-leading 3D V-NAND technology. Samsung announced its new SSD, designed for use in enterprise servers and data centers, during a keynote at the Flash Memory Summit 2013 here.

"By applying our 3D V-NAND - which has overcome the formidable hurdle of scaling beyond the 10-nanometer (nm) class, Samsung is providing its global customers with high density and exceptional reliability, as well as an over 20 percent performance increase and an over 40 percent improvement in power consumption," said E.S. Jung, executive vice president, semiconductor R&D center at Samsung Electronics and a keynote speaker at the Flash Memory Summit. "As we pioneer a new era of memory technology, we will continue to introduce differentiated green memory products and solutions for the server, mobile and PC markets to help reduce energy waste and to create greater shared value in the enterprise and for consumers."

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SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, today announced the company is enhancing its solid state drive (SSD) line-up for businesses with the addition of the nimble and power-efficient SanDisk X210 SSD. The SATA-based X210 SSD is an ideal solution for IT decision-makers looking to maximize data center performance or enhance the responsiveness of PCs and notebooks. The new SSD is available now through SanDisk’s SSD hardware and software sales channel, the SanDisk Commercial Business Channel.

“Since launching SanDisk’s commercial SSD channel earlier this year, we have received a tremendous response from businesses that have seen significant advantages from incorporating SanDisk solid-state technology into their data center and workplace PCs and notebooks,” said Tarun Loomba, vice president of Storage Solutions marketing at SanDisk. “Leveraging SanDisk’s most advanced flash memory technology and smart power-saving capabilities, the X210 SSD is an exceptionally fast and cost-effective storage solution for this growing market, and a great addition to our SanDisk SSD portfolio.”

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Plextor, leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance digital storage devices, is slated to give a sneak preview of their new M6 SSD at the Flash Memory Summit and Exhibition to be held August 13-15 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.

The M6 features the next generation of Plextor’s proprietary TrueSpeed technology that works in tandem with the Marvell 88SS9187 controller for enhanced performance and reliability. The new drive will also feature the latest generation of A19 Toggle NAND flash from Toshiba and an ultra-slim 5mm casing.  Additional product specifications and a formal release date are expected to be announced in the coming months.

In addition to the M6, Plextor will be displaying its complete lineup of storage solutions. Included are Plextor’s flagship M5 Pro Extreme and M5S series, the critically acclaimed M5M mSATA drive, and their much-anticipated M.2 form-factor drive. The M.2 (formerly New Generation Form Factor or NGFF) is the new industry standard form factor and is slated to replace drives such as the mPCIe, mSATA, and other versions of the blade SSD.

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Today, CDRLabs takes a look at StarTech's new PCIe SATA III RAID controller cards. Based on Marvell's 88SE9230, the PEXSAT34RH and PEXSAT34SFF are fully compliant with the SATA 3.0 specifications and support hardware RAID 0, 1, and 1+0 modes. Port Multiplier FIS-based and Command-based switching is also supported on all ports, enabling multiple SATA drives to be connected using a single cable, for a total of 7 drives. The cards also feature support for Marvell's HyperDuo SSD auto-tiering technology, which balances the performance advantages of SSD storage with the cost-effectiveness and large capacity of standard hard drives. The technology uses intelligent algorithms to automatically migrate hot data to SSDs, while enabling all data to be safely stored on larger capacity hard drives.