Heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology is expected to enable hard disk drives with considerably larger capacities compared to HDDs available today. However, the first hard drives featuring HAMR will not offer any breakthroughs since they will largely be designed to evaluate the tech and learn about mass production of such …
Read More »Toshiba’s 16-die stacked NAND chips can enable 16TB SSDs
Toshiba Corp. on Thursday introduced the world’s first NAND flash memory packages, which stack eight or 16 dies of NAND flash memory devices and feature 128GB or 256GB capacities. The NAND flash memory chips are designed for various applications that require high density of NAND flash storage, including mobile products …
Read More »Toshiba, SanDisk unveil 256Gb 48-layer BiCS NAND flash memory chip
Toshiba Corp. and SanDisk Corp. have formally introduced their first vertically stacked triple-level-cell (TLC) NAND flash memory IC [integrated circuit] with 256Gb capacity. The new 3D BiCS [bit cost scalable] NAND flash memory will be mass produced next year. Toshiba’s new 256Gb (32GB) 48-layer BiCS flash device features 3-bit-per-cell TLC (triple-level cell) …
Read More »SanDisk is cautious about expanding NAND flash production capacities
In a bid not to create oversupply of NAND flash memory in the market, SanDisk Corp. will continue to cautiously expand its manufacturing capacities to sustain its profit margins. While even a minimal expansion of wafer capacities will be enough for SanDisk to fulfill demand for its products, it remains …
Read More »SanDisk, Toshiba begin to purchase equipment to make BiCS 3D NAND
SanDisk Corp. and Toshiba Corp. are on-track to start volume shipments of products based on their BiCS [bit cost scalable] 3D NAND flash memory in 2016. Recently the two companies began to purchase equipment needed to manufacture vertically stacked NAND chips and will initiate pilot production later in 2015. Moreover, …
Read More »SanDisk: SSDs will ‘rapidly replace HDDs in laptops and desktops’
Market analysts believe that 30 per cent of notebooks this year will use solid-state drives instead of hard disk drives. SanDisk, a major maker of SSDs, thinks that eventually NAND flash-based storage devices will replace HDDs in client PCs completely. “We expect SSDs will rapidly replace HDDs in laptops and …
Read More »SanDisk plans to release 6TB and 8TB SSDs in 2016
SanDisk introduced the world’s first datacentre-class 4TB solid-state drives back in April, 2014. While the SSDs are available, SanDisk ships them to only one major customer today because clients, who require such high-capacity SSDs and can afford them need to qualify drives before deployment. But while 4TB SSDs are yet …
Read More »Plextor officially introduces low-cost TLC NAND-based SSDs
Plextor, a leading maker of solid-state drives primarily known for high-end SSDs, this week officially introduced its M6V family of products that target customers in budget. The new M6V lineup features triple-level-cell (TLC) NAND flash memory and an inexpensive controller. Nonetheless, Plextor claims that the drives boast with the company’s …
Read More »Toshiba’s CEO may step down over accounting scandal
Several of Japanese electronics maker Toshiba's top executives, including its CEO, are set to step down from their roles in the next couple of months, due to accounting regularities, according to sources that are said to be “familiar with the matter.” The company has now hired on a third party …
Read More »Seagate cuts HDD sales forecast amid weak demand for PCs
Seagate Technology, the world’s second largest maker of hard disk drives, on Monday slashed its forecast of hard disk drives sales in the fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2015. Seagate expects shipments of its HDDs to hit a five-year low, a bad news for the whole high-tech industry. Seagate …
Read More »Seagate demos HAMR HDDs, vows to start shipments in 2017
Seagate Technology this week demonstrated a NAS packed with hard disk drives that use heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology. While the company claims that the NAS worked flawlessly, Seagate again reconsidered the launch timeframe for its HAMR HDDs and delayed them to 2017 – 2018. Nonetheless, the company is already …
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 »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 »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 »Shipments of hard disk drives hit multi-year low in Q1 2015
Shipments of hard disk drives tanked significantly in the first quarter of the year due to sharp declines of sales of both PC and non-PC HDDs. Western Digital Corp. retained its position as the largest supplier of hard drives, Seagate Technology came second and Toshiba Corp. was the distant third. …
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 »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 »Acer: We will not quit the PC market
Acer Group used to be one of the world’s top PC makers half a decade ago, but in the recent years the company’s market share dropped rather dramatically. Acer announced major reorganization efforts in 2013 and while all of them yet have to prove their viability, the company is confident …
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 »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 »Microsoft reportedly working on $149 laptops with Windows 10
In a bid to address emerging and educational markets with inexpensive laptops, Microsoft Corp. is reportedly working with two companies on ultra-cheap personal computers due this summer. The systems are projected to hit record-low $149 price-point per unit, which is on-par with low-end media tablets from renowned brands. The two …
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 »Toshiba reveals new modules for Project Ara
Google’s modular smartphone, currently dubbed ‘Project Ara’, is gaining more traction as Toshiba has announced new modules for the phone. The company was already working on two camera modules but has now developed a display module, a data transfer module and an audio port module. The first Project Ara devices …
Read More »Showa Denko to enable 10TB HDDs with eighth-generation PMR media
Showa Denko K.K., an independent producer of platters for hard disk drives, has announced its first eighth-generation perpendicular magnetic recording platters for HDDs. The first eighth-gen media is aimed at hard drives in 2.5” form-factor and has 750GB capacity. Toshiba will use such platters for its latest 3TB 2.5” HDDs. The …
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 »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 »Toshiba puts NFC in SD cards for previewing photos
Toshiba revealed that it is planning to release SD cards featuring Near Field Communication (NFC) technology that will enable you to see what photos are on the card by touching it to your phone. This could make it much easier to go through a large collection of unlabelled SD cards to find …
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 …
Read More »Toshiba launches largest-capacity 2.5-inch 3TB HDD
Toshiba Corp. has introduced the world’s highest-capacity 2.5” hard disk drive. The offering can hold 3TB of data and sets up a record, however, the drive may not be suitable for mainstream laptops. The Toshiba MQ03ABB300 hard disk drive with 3TB capacity is based on four perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) 750GB …
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