SSDs
Samsung Electronics has started mass production of its 9th generation of V-NAND memory. The first dies based on their latest NAND tech come in a 1 Tb capacity using a triple-level cell (TLC) architecture, with data transfer rates as high as 3.2 GT/s. The new 3D TLC NAND memory will initially be used to build high-capacity and high-performance SSDs, which will help to solidify Samsung's position in the storage market. Diving right in, Samsung is conspicuously avoiding to list the number of layers in their latest generation NAND, which is the principle driving factor in increasing capacity generation-on-generation. The company's current 8th gen V-NAND is 236 layers – similar to its major competitors – and word on the street is that 9th gen V-NAND ups...
Fusion-io Launches ioScale for Hyperscale Market
We haven't even had time to cover everything we saw at CES last week, but there are already more product announcements coming in. Fusion-io launched their new ioScale product...
15 by Kristian Vättö on 1/17/2013New from Buffalo Technology - Updated AC1750 802.11ac router, MiniStation Thunderbolt with SSD, and Thunderbolt Duo
Ganesh and I dropped by Buffalo Technology at CES 2013 to get a look at their upcoming products. I'll leave most of the MiniStation NAS news to him as...
6 by Brian Klug on 1/12/2013ADATA Shows Off Enterprise SSDs, RAM, NAND, etc.
ADATA invited us to their suite to show us some of their latest and greatest offerings. Most of the items on display have been previously launched, but they did...
5 by Jarred Walton on 1/11/2013Micron/Crucial Announces M500 SSD Line of SSDs
Micron/Crucial briefed us on their new M500 line of SSDs, which upgrades the controller to the Marvell 88SS9187-BLD2 along with moving to 20nm Micron MLC NAND. Along with the...
25 by Jarred Walton on 1/10/2013Mushkin's High Performance Ventura Ultra SF-2281 USB 3.0 Stick
All of the memory makers seem to have embraced the selling of flash memory devices--be they USB sticks, SSDs, SD flash for cameras, etc. Typically, USB sticks have settled...
10 by Jarred Walton on 1/9/2013Mushkin Unveils Enterprise ProSpec SSD Line
Like many memory companies, Mushkin has also added a selection of flash memory and SSD products to their portfolio. Their current Chronos and Chronos Deluxe lines cater to the...
0 by Jarred Walton on 1/9/2013Mushkin Announces 960GB 2.5" Chronos SSD
Continuing our CES coverage, Mushkin has announced a 960GB model of their popular Chronos SSD. Details are very scarce at this point but I was able to find out...
4 by Kristian Vättö on 1/9/2013Plextor/LiteOn Enters the eMMC Market
This is an unusual move but one that makes a lot of sense. Plextor is currently qualifing its first eMMC solution built around a Marvell controller. These integrated eMMC...
5 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 1/8/2013Plextor's Dabbles in TLC NAND
Following in Samsung's footsteps, Plextor will be bringing a TLC version of its M5 series of SSDs to market towards the middle of the year. Despite the move to...
2 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 1/8/2013Plextor's M5M mSATA SSD
In addition to the 2.5" SATA M5 Pro Xtreme, Plextor is bringing an mSATA version of the drive to market in the first half of this year as the...
4 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 1/8/2013Hands On with Plextor's NGFF SSDs
The Next Generation Form Factor for SSDs is designed to bring standardization to the wild west of Ultrabook SSD form factors. We reported on the standard at IDF, but...
8 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 1/8/2013Plextor Introduces M5 Pro Xtreme SSD
Shipping at the end of this month is Plextor's new M5 Pro Extreme SSD, an update to the M5 Pro that we reviewed not too long ago. The M5...
10 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 1/8/2013SanDisk Ultra Plus SSD Review (256GB)
SanDisk is a household name as far as NAND storage is concerned. You can’t walk into an electronics retailer and not be bombarded with SanDisk made CompactFlash and SD...
38 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 1/7/2013Corsair Neutron & Neutron GTX: All Capacities Tested
Corsair surprised us all at Computex this year when they announced their Neutron and Neutron GTX SSDs based on a so-far relatively unknown Link A Media Devices (LAMD) controller...
44 by Kristian Vättö on 12/19/2012Samsung Acquires SSD Caching Company NVELO
This came out of the blue. Samsung announced their intent to acquire NVELO, known for their Dataplex SSD caching software. Price or specific timeframe of the acquisition have not...
16 by Kristian Vättö on 12/16/2012Plextor Updates The Firmware on M5 Pro: Promises Increased Performance, We Test It
Plextor released their M5 Pro SSD in August, which we reviewed shortly after the release. Now nearly four months later, Plextor has released an updated firmware (v1.02) for the...
46 by Kristian Vättö on 12/10/2012Samsung Explains The Firmware Bug Causing The Failures of SSD 840/840 Pro
We've been covering the issues surrounding Samsung's SSD 840/840 Pro lately. The issue was first discovered when Anand's pre-production review sample died during testing and we also noted that...
56 by Kristian Vättö on 12/7/2012Mushkin Announces First 480GB mSATA SSD
We're seeing a true shift in the mobile market to including SSDs in more of the market spectrum. What was once the domain of $1500+ laptops is now being...
27 by Jarred Walton on 12/6/2012Exploring the Relationship Between Spare Area and Performance Consistency in Modern SSDs
When we reviewed Intel's SSD DC S3700 I started looking at consistency of IO latency, an area that Intel's latest controller specifically targeted for significant improvement. In our review...
134 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 12/4/2012Update on Samsung SSD 840/840 Pro Failures
In our review of Samsung's SSD 840 Pro I noted that my drive died shortly after I completed testing. Samsung sent me a replacement, which also stopped working (although...
45 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/28/2012