Solid-state drives have higher performance compared to hard disk drives, but when it comes to storage capacities HDDs are unrivalled. High-capacity SSDs are usually very expensive and are not considered as replacement for hard drives. However, Samsung on Monday introduced its new 850 Evo and 850 Pro solid-state drive that …
Read More »Micron: 50% of our SSDs will be based on TLC NAND in 2016
Micron Technology has been rather cautious about using triple-level-cell (TLC) NAND flash in solid-state drives and for a long time only used such memory for various removable storage applications. However, it appears that the company has finally solved all the challenges with such cheap NAND and plans to introduce an …
Read More »Intel to aggressively increase shipments of solid-state drives
Intel Corp. produces very advanced solid-state drives for various applications, but its market share is below 10 per cent. A media report claims that Intel plans to significantly boost shipments of its SSDs in the future and will significantly increase market share next year. According to TrendFocus, Samsung Electronics controlled …
Read More »30% of notebooks to use SSDs in 2015 as prices drop – research
Nearly one third of modern notebooks are set to use solid-state drives as their primary storage systems in 2015, according to a new research. Thanks to major decreases of NAND flash memory pricing in the recent years, SSDs are now more affordable than ever, which means that mobile PCs will …
Read More »Zotac quietly enters the SSD market
Zotac, a leading maker of graphics cards that belongs to PCPartner, has been gradually expanding its business for several years now. In addition to Nvidia GeForce-based graphics adapters, the company also offers mainboards, tablets as well as small form-factor PCs. This week the company quietly started to sell solid-state drives under …
Read More »Plextor readies cost-efficient SSD based on TLC NAND memory
Plextor produces one of the best solid-state drives available today. However, Plextor’s drives are pretty expensive and are designed for premium market segment. Apparently, Plextor is working on an inexpensive SSD based on cost-effective triple-level-cell NAND flash memory, which will be available later this year. Not a lot is known …
Read More »Chillblast slashes prices of Samsung 850 Evo and 850 Pro SSDs
Chillblast, a well-known maker of enthusiast-class personal computers from the U.K., offers rather substantial discounts on Samsung Electronics’ 850 Evo and 850 Pro solid-state drives for a limited time. For less than two weeks, Samsung’s latest family of solid-state drives will be available with £10 – £50 discounts at Chillblast. …
Read More »Samsung remains No. 1 SSD supplier as sales of solid-state drives grow
Shipments of solid-state drives increased in the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter of the year, according to analysts from TrendFocus. Samsung Electronics remained the world’s largest supplier of SSDs, followed by Micron Technology and SanDisk. In the first quarter of 2015 sales of solid-state drives for client PCs …
Read More »OCZ readies its first TLC NAND-based Trion SSDs
OCZ Storage Solutions, a maker of solid-state drives controlled by Toshiba Corp., is working on a new family of client SSDs powered by triple-level cell (TLC) NAND flash memory. The new solid-state storage devices will be aimed at inexpensive PCs, they will provide performance comparable to that of advanced SATA-6Gb/s …
Read More »JEDEC finalizes standard for ‘hybrid’ DDR4 NAND memory modules
JEDEC, a leading stanard setting organization, this week announced the first standards for support of “hybrid” memory modules that fit into DDR4 DRAM memory slots, but contain NAND flash memory. Such non-volatile dual in-line memory modules (NVDIMMs) will be used for ultra-high-performance storage devices as well as for ultra-secure DRAM …
Read More »OCZ unveils Z-Drive 6000/6300: up to 6.4TB, 2.9GB/s, NVMe 1.1b
OCZ Storage Solutions has officially announced its new Z-Drive 6000- and 6300-series solid-state drives for high-performance computing systems, such as servers, workstations and ultra-high-end desktops. The drives offer various capacity points, different performance and PCI Express x4 3.0 interface. The new SSDs fully support non-volatile memory express (NVMe) 1.1b protocol …
Read More »End of planar NAND flash nears as Samsung to focus on 3D V-NAND
Samsung Electronics plans to concentrate on expansion of production capacities used to make its 3D V-NAND memory going forward. A media report claims that the South Korean conglomerate no longer plans to build new manufacturing facilities for production of traditional planar NAND flash. NAND flash was invented by Toshiba Corp. …
Read More »SanDisk – ‘excellent takeover candidate’ for Seagate, WD, says analyst
SanDisk is one of the leading producers of NAND flash-based devices, could be an excellent acquisition target for Seagate and Western Digital, according to a financial analyst. While at present the takeover of SanDisk is a hypothetical thing, HDD makers may be very interested in acquiring a company with NAND …
Read More »Intel 750-series SSD for consumers: up to 1.2TB capacity, up to 2.40GB/s transfer rates
Intel Corp. announced its new 750-series solid-state drives this week. The new SSDs are designed for high-performance desktops and the manufacturer calls the drives its “highest-performing client SSDs”. With read speeds up to 2.40GB/s and capacities up to 1.2TB, the Intel 750-series SSD is a dream of any performance enthusiast. …
Read More »Phison to greatly expand its SSD controller business operations this year
Phison, once an underdog on the market of controllers for solid-state drives, today is one of the leading independent designers of SSD controllers. In a bid to further strengthen its positions on the market, Phison plans to spend up to $320 million on mergers and acquisitions, build a research and …
Read More »Micron to consolidate NAND flash market: cuts-down IC supply, increases prices
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 »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 »Samsung unveils 128GB storage for budget mobile devices
Samsung Electronics has introduced a new NAND flash device that could enable low-cost smartphones and tablets with up to 128GB of storage space. The new eMMC memory chip is based on triple-level cell (TLC) NAND flash technology and is cheaper to make than multi-level cell (MLC) solutions of similar capacity. …
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 »Micron begins to build new $4 billion NAND flash fab in Singapore
Micron Technology on Monday began the expansion of its Singapore NAND flash memory fabrication facility. The company started to build a new fab that will cost $4 billion and will start production in fiscal 2017. The new fab is expected to produce innovative 3D NAND flash (co-developed with Intel) as …
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 »Samsung’s eMMC 5.1 chips boost performance of mobile storage
Samsung Electronics this week introduced the world’s first NAND flash storage chips that comply with the eMMC 5.1 specification. The new solutions will significantly improve performance of embedded storage inside mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. The eMMC 5.1 storage devices from Samsung are offered in 16GB, 32GB and …
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 »Toshiba and SK Hynix to jointly develop nanoimprint lithography
Toshiba Corp. and SK Hynix on Thursday signed a formal agreement under which the two companies will jointly develop a nanoimprint lithography (NIL) process technology. The two producers of chips and computer memory plan to start using NIL technology in 2017. The companies believe that the tech will allow them …
Read More »Samsung integrates LPDDR3 and NAND flash into one chip
Samsung Electronics on Wednesday introduced the industry’s first memory solution that integrates dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and NAND flash into one package. The new package will help Samsung and its customers to make smartphones thinner and more cost efficient. The new ePoP (embedded package on package) memory package consists …
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 …
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