Micron Technology has announced that it will reduce shipments of its NAND flash memory to the spot market. While the move may have limited effects on the market initially, it could lead to consolidation of makers of NAND flash-based devices, including solid-state drives. In a bid to improve its profit …
Read More »OCZ Competition winner: final ARC 100 hits 695.5TB!
When OCZ challenged KitGuru back in December to kill five of its Arc 100 SSDs by writing and rewriting to them constantly for the foreseeable future, nobody could have predicted that four months and several hundred terabytes later we’d still be talking about it. However we need to really, since a …
Read More »SK Hynix preps MLC NAND with enhanced performance, reliability
SK Hynix is about to announce new multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chips that are expected to boost performance of solid-state drives in various applications. The new chips also promise better reliability than previous-generation NAND flash ICs [integrated circuits]. The world’s third largest producer of NAND flash memory is …
Read More »Toshiba’s 48-layer BiCS 3D NAND enables fast and reliable SSDs
Toshiba Corp. and SanDisk Corp. this week said that they have finished development of vertically-stacked 3D NAND memory devices. The BiCS [bit cost scalable] NAND flash memory from the two companies will be mass-produced in 2016 and will enable new solid-state storage devices with enhanced reliability and performance. Toshiba’s three-dimensional …
Read More »TLC NAND flash to account for 45% of flash memory output by late 2015
Triple-level cell (TLC) NAND flash memory is dramatically less durable than traditional multi-level cell (MLC) or single-level cell (SLC) NAND. However, it has one distinctive advantage over competing technologies: it is more affordable to manufacture. This single advantage drives its popularity among makers of various devices and by the end …
Read More »OCZ Vector 180 480GB and 960GB Review
Regular readers of KitGuru will know that OCZ have been making amends to repair their reputation with the enthusiast audience. They feel so confident in their latest technology that they asked us recently to kill 5 of their ARC 100 drives (latest update and links back HERE). Today it is …
Read More »Patriot Ignite 480GB SSD Review
Patriot. A name I haven't heard in quite some time. Years ago we reviewed a steady stream of their products, then they seemed to vanish from view to focus solely on mobile accessories. While the recent shift back may only be a cautious toe in the water today we look …
Read More »OCZ SSD competition update: last drive still going
When OCZ challenged KitGuru back in December to kill five of its Arc 100 SSDs by writing and rewriting to them constantly for the foreseeable future, nobody could have predicted that four months and several hundred terabytes later we'd still be talking about it. However we need to really, since a …
Read More »Apple to use Samsung’s ultra-fast 3D V-NAND SSDs in its laptops
In a bid to improve performance and reliability of solid-state drives inside its notebooks, Apple will use SSDs made by Samsung and powered by 3D V-NAND flash memory. This is a major win for Samsung as it gets a major PC maker as a client. The latest MacBook notebooks will …
Read More »Win OCZ ARC 100 240GB SSD: guess the final drive death!
If you've been a regular KitGuru reader for the past few months, then chances are you'll have spotted at least one of Leo's videos discussing the ongoing challenge from OCZ – to kill 5 ARC 100 SSD's by continually writing data to them, until they cave in. While the warranty …
Read More »OCZ Challenge update: 4th ARC 100 drive dies at 424TB
We hope by now that many of you have been following the ‘Kill x5 SSD Challenge' issued to us by OCZ – this started way back on December 10th last year. Today, the fourth drive has kicked the bucket with only one still ticking away. The warranty data transfer figure …
Read More »Samsung unveils ‘SSD’ for smartphones with up to 600MB/s bandwidth
Samsung Electronics this week said that it had started to mass produce a family of NAND flash memory devices for mobile applications that are compliant with the Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 2.0 standard. The new chips will be used for smartphones and tablets and will enable SSD-class performance on mobile …
Read More »27% of SSD owners experienced malfunction of SSDs – study
Kroll Ontrack, a leading provider of data recovery services, revealed this week that while there are a lot of people who already take advantage of solid-state drives, many of them also have experienced failures of such drives and data loss. Apparently, the amount of people, who suffered an SSD malfunction …
Read More »OCZ Challenge update: 3rd ARC 100 drive dies at 384TB
Given the nature of SSD technology, one sure fire way to check reliability is to run massive amounts of data through them – which is what we started to do with five OCZ ARC 100s back on December 10th. Here's the latest update from KitGuru Labs. The warranty term for this kind …
Read More »Plextor M6e Black Edition PCIe 256GB Review
Today we look at the Plextor M6e Black Edition. This SSD product supports PCI Express Gen 2 x 2 and potentially delivers more performance than a simple SATA 3 capable Solid State Drive. Rated sequential speeds of the Plextor M6e Black Edition are said to hit 770MB/s. It uses the …
Read More »OCZ Challenge update: 2nd ARC 100 drive dies at 352TB
Regular readers will know of the challenge submitted to KitGuru by OCZ – to kill 5 of their ARC 100 Solid State Drives. If you need a recap, then head back to this original page posted on December 10th. The drives all passed the warranty figure of 300TB on 3rd …
Read More »Kingston increases investments in SSD controller developer
Kingston Technology, a leading manufacturer of memory modules, solid-state drives and other memory products, recently increased its stake in Phison, an independent designer of NAND flash controllers. The investment will help Phison to fund development of SSD controllers better suited for Kingston. Kingston will acquire 10.4 million shares of Phison …
Read More »Seagate and Micron ink strategic SSD pact
Micron Technology and Seagate Technology have signed a strategic partnership agreement. Under the terms of the pact, Seagate will build solid-state drives based on NAND flash memory produced by Micron, whereas the latter will be able to use the former’s enterprise storage IP, which will be beneficial for both companies. …
Read More »OCZ Challenge update: 1x ARC 100 dies at 322TB
Regular readers will know of the challenge submitted to KitGuru by OCZ – to kill 5 of their ARC 100 Solid State Drives. If you need a recap, then head back to this original page posted on December 10th. The drives all passed the warranty figure of 300TB on 3rd …
Read More »OCZ Challenge update: All 5 ARC 100 SSD’s hit 300TB mark
Regular readers will know of the challenge submitted to KitGuru by OCZ – to kill 5 of their ARC 100 Solid State Drives. If you need a recap, then head back to this original page posted on December 10th. The drives all passed the warranty figure of 200TB on 23rd …
Read More »Seagate: We will refresh entire HDD and SSD lineup this year
Seagate Technology, one of the top makers of hard disk drives, said this week that it would introduce an unprecedented amount of new products this calendar year. The company’s management naturally did not provide any details, but expect the manufacturer to release better solid-state drives as well as higher capacity hard …
Read More »Western Digital: More and more PCs use SSDs instead of HDDs
For years manufacturers of hard disk drives have been saying that SSDs were too expensive for mainstream PCs. However, at present chief executive officer of Western Digital Corp. has to admit that more and more personal computers utilize solid-state drives instead of HDDs. Moreover, this trend will strengthen this year …
Read More »Apacer: 256GB SSDs will cost less than $70 in the second half of 2015
General manager of Apacer Technology is confident that the price of 256GB solid-state drives will drop below $70 in the second half of the year. Other industry experts agree with the high-ranking executive and believe that low price of 256GB SSD will greatly help them to boost market share in …
Read More »OCZ Challenge update: All 5 ARC 100 SSD’s hit 200TB mark
Regular readers will know of the challenge submitted to KitGuru by OCZ – to kill 5 of their ARC 100 Solid State Drives. If you need a recap, then head back to this original page posted on December 10th. The drives all passed the warranty figure of 100TB on 10th …
Read More »Western Digital readies inexpensive SSDs featuring JMicron controllers
Western Digital Corp. still has not introduced a lineup of its own-brand solid-state drives for consumers, even though the company owns a lot of various SSD-related intellectual property and offers SSDs to corporate users. Nonetheless, the things may change this year as the company is working on solid-state storage devices …
Read More »SSD prices drop as new tech beckons
Recent discussions with memory manufacturers indicate that there will be more innovation in the Solid State Drive market place in the first half of 2015. None of us know exactly when those improvements will happen, but price drops are normally a good indicator – as older product is cleared from …
Read More »Micron M600 256GB SSD Review
After an exceptionally busy end of year work load we have been able to get a belated look at the Micron M600 Solid State Drive. Today we put it through its paces against many other leading drives on the market this year. The Micron M600 family spans multiple form factors …
Read More »OCZ Challenge update: All 5 ARC SSD drives hit 100TB mark
Regular readers will know of the challenge submitted to KitGuru by OCZ – to kill 5 of their ARC 100 Solid State Drives. If you need a recap, then head back to this original page posted on December 10th. The drives all passed the warranty figure of 22TB at the …
Read More »Samsung’s tiny M.2/PCIe SSD sports massive 2.15GB/s read speed
Samsung Electronics announced this week that it has begun mass production of its SM951 solid-state drive. The new SSD uses M.2 form-factor and PCI Express 3.0 interface to deliver massive performance improvement over the vast majority of consumer-grade solid-state drives available today. Unfortunately, it is unclear whether Samsung’s SM951 will …
Read More »Toshiba debut’s world’s first single-package PCIe SSD
Toshiba Corp. has introduced the industry’s first single-package solid-state drive with the PCI Express 3.0 interface. The tiny chip will enable considerably higher storage performance on embedded devices or a massive reduction of size and weight of PC storage. To take advantage of the new product, mobile application processors will …
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