WD, a Western Digital company, and SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, today announced that the two companies are collaborating to introduce hybrid storage devices that feature best-in-class flash memory technology from SanDisk and best-in-class hard drive technology from WD.

SanDisk is supplying a SanDisk iSSD storage device for the WD Black solid state hybrid drive (SSHD), the world’s thinnest 2.5-inch SSHD solution, which utilizes both WD proprietary hybrid technology and industry standard SATA IO technology. The SanDisk iSSD brings an elegant balance of performance, low power consumption, cost, reliability, and a compact form factor to this SSHD, which will offer ample storage to meet consumers’ growing appetite for digital content as well as flash-enabled speed, data throughput and responsiveness – all within ultra-slim form factors.

“I am delighted for SanDisk to team up with WD on these exciting new hybrid products,” said Kevin Conley, senior vice president and general manager of client storage solutions at SanDisk. “By combining SanDisk’s unparalleled flash memory expertise and technology with the hard drive know-how of WD, WD Black SSHDs offer outstanding hard drive-like capacity, and the slim form factor and the level of performance that you will only get with flash memory solutions.”

Add a comment

Seagate Technology plc, a worldwide leader in storage solutions, today announced its new portfolio of flash-memory solutions. The company took the wraps off its first client solid state drive (SSD) and its next-generation enterprise SSDs. Featuring the Seagate 600 SSD, Seagate 600 Pro SSD, and the Seagate 1200 SSD, the new line of drives are engineered to deliver ultra-fast speed and high data integrity. Rounding out the portfolio, Seagate also announced the new Seagate X8 Accelerator, a storage class memory PCIe card powered by Virident enabling the company to offer all key interfaces including SATA and SAS solutions.

“We are pleased to announce these new flash memory products. With these new drives, Seagate solidifies its commitment to the flash-based storage market by delivering enterprise SSDs and server-side solutions as well as client solutions,” said Gary Gentry, senior vice president and general manager of Seagate’s solid state drive business. “By adding more SSDs to our family of hard disk and solid state hybrid drives, we now have the broadest portfolio of storage products in the industry, delivering one-stop shopping for our customers and partners. And we’re just getting started. Seagate is committed to becoming a premier supplier of both solid state drives and storage class memory products. We have put in place a winning strategy for developing multiple high value, flash based products and solutions for our customers.”

Seagate 600 SSD: Faster Performance with 6Gb/s SATA
The ultimate laptop upgrade, the Seagate 600 SSD delivers faster boot up speeds, shorter application load times, and improved system responsiveness for the ultimate performance. Laptop users can boot up nearly four times faster and load applications more than two times faster than with a standard hard drive, greatly reducing the amount of wait time to access content.

Add a comment

Buffalo Technology, a global leader in the design, development and manufacturing of wired and wireless networking and network and direct attached storage solutions, today announced that its DriveStation DDR, a high performance external USB 3.0 hard drive with 1 GB DDR3 RAM cache for accelerated transfer speeds, is available for purchase today at select retail partners. Ideal for a variety of users including tech enthusiasts, digital photographers and videographers and media buffs, DriveStation DDR offers extremely fast file transfers, comparable to SSD, with the high capacity and value of a traditional external HDD device.

The DriveStation DDR utilizes Buffalo's MegaCache Accelerator, a 1 GB DDR3 RAM cache system, to greatly accelerate file transfer rates, notably outperforming other USB 3.0 hard drives. Compared to a standard USB 3.0 hard drive, the 1 GB DRAM cache of the MegaCache system efficiently caches data as it's transferred to automatically boost performance for transfer speeds up to 408 MB/s, 2.3x faster than USB 3.0 hard drives and more than 10x faster than USB 2.0.

Add a comment

Mimoco, makers of the MIMOBOT line of designer USB flash drives, in collaboration with Lucasfilm and in honor of the Star Wars fan favorite holiday May the Fourth Be With You, announce the R2-A6 MIMOBOT. R2-A6, an astromech droid in the same family as R2-D2, is translated in the MIMOBOT’s stylistically illustrated flash drive form. Available in up to 128GB and USB 3.0 capabilities, the drive comes in a run of 1,000 limited edition hand-numbered units. The R2-A6 MIMOBOT drive also comes preloaded with bonus Mimory and the MimoDesk personalization suite of wallpapers, icons, and avatars.

R2-A6 is known as a good-luck charm to the Royal Naboo Security Forces and now, in MIMOBOT form and function, can be a positive omen for your data storage. The droid’s green and white color scheme is derivative in design and function of fellow mechanically-versed droid, R2-D2. Just as a proper astromech droid would be expected to perform, R2-A6 MIMOBOT allows documents, music, photos, and data to be shared, transported, and collected for its master. Just don’t expect it to repair a starfighter malfunction in our earthbound orbit!

Add a comment

Corsair, a worldwide designer and supplier of high-performance components, today announced two new solid-state drive (SSD) related products. The first, the SSD & Hard Disk Drive Cloning Kit, enables users to easily duplicate and transfer data between drives. The kit, which includes a cable and software, is ideal for users upgrading from traditional hard disk drives (HDD) to faster, more rugged Corsair SSDs. In addition, the company announced the Corsair SSD Toolbox, a free software utility which enables users to configure, optimize and monitor their Corsair SSDs.

The SSD & Hard Disk Drive Cloning Kit enables users to move data between a hard drive and SSD by simply selecting the source drive and destination drives and then clicking a button. Designed for users migrating their data to newly installed SSDs, the kit includes data migration software, a USB-to-SATA cable, and Quick Start Guide. The cable supports USB 3.0 and 2.0 delivering transfer rates up to 180MB/s with USB 3.0 ports, 4 times faster than USB 2.0.

Add a comment

Micron Technology, Inc.  today announced a new PCIe all-flash I/O accelerator to improve overall performance in enterprise servers, appliances and storage platforms. The new Micron P420m combines consistent performance with the inherent power efficiency of an all-flash system to deliver improved economics for enterprise data centers. The P420m accelerates performance of today's demanding data center applications, including online transaction processing (OLTP), data warehousing and virtualization.

Ultimately, Micron's P420m ends the wait game for digital data. It features ultra-low latency performance that enables fast and predictable response times to information frequently used in data center environments. When tested against competing PCIe solutions in a MySQL server running an OLTP benchmark, the P420m is the fastest and most consistent performer, delivering more than 3,200 web server requests per second. It handily manages online requests during peak traffic times, improving the overall end-user experience.

Add a comment

Other World Computing announced today the OWC Envoy Pro EX ultra-portable Solid State Drive solution. Elegantly designed in anodized aluminum to match modern Macs and PCs, the Envoy Pro EX fits easily into a coat pocket, backpack, or briefcase for rugged mobile high performance storage and/or backup capacity.

Inside the Envoy Pro EX resides a SandForce Driven OWC Aura Pro 6G SSD which offers real world sustained reads up to 436MB/s and writes up to 429MB/s. Besides offering blistering fast performance, the USB 3.0 interface can bus-power the Envoy Pro EX so an AC power adapter isn’t required.

Add a comment