Fusion-io bumps its ioFX super-SSD to 1.6TB, announces HP Workstation Z integration

Fusionio bumps its ioFX superSSD to 16TB, announces HP Workstation Z integration

We have a feeling graphics artists are going to be begging their studios for Fusion-io‘s latest ioFX super-SSD. After receiving critical acclaim for its 460GB version, the company has today introduced a massively-speced 1.6TB variant at NAB. Despite the space increase, the new unit is not bigger than its older sibling. In related news, HP has also signed on to integrate ioFX into its HP Z 420, 620 and 820 all-in-ones, and it’ll also give current workstation owners the option to simply add the card to their existing machines. Fusion won’t be releasing any details about pricing for the 1.6TB ioFX just yet — that’ll remain under wraps until its released this summer. For now, movie makers can net the 460GB one for $2K (about $500 less that its release price). Full press release after the break.

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Iron Man 3 Flash Drives Power Up

Comic book geeks are perhaps the single greatest consumer of themed flash drives. If you’re a fan of Iron Man and are looking forward to the third movie in the franchise hitting theaters this summer, it may be time to you to start stocking up on some collectible flash drives. Three Iron Man 3 flash drives are coming out just in time for the blockbuster flick to arrive.

ironmanflash

I happen to think the coolest of the three is Iron Man’s Repulsor hand. When the flash drive is plugged into the USB port, the light in the center of the hand that Iron Man uses as a weapon glows blue. Another cool drive in the trio looks like Tony Stark’s Arc Reactor, complete with a little animated light show when plugged in:

The third branded flash drive looks like the red, white and blue Iron Patriot head. All of the flash drives have retractable USB ports and are available with 8 GB or 16 GB of storage. While I haven’t found them in the U.S. yet, you can pre-order the Arc Reactor and the Repulsor Hand over at Australia’s Mighty Ape now.

[via EverythingUSB]

IBM turns metal oxides into non-volatile chips through liquid currents

IBM technique turns metal oxides into nonvolatile memory through liquids

IBM is worried that we’re reaching the end of the road for CMOS technology — that we need new materials beyond silicon to keep the power draw down in chips as their performance goes up. It may keep future circuitry extra-lean through a new technique that puts a metal oxide in silicon’s place and allows for non-volatile processors and memory. By running ionized liquid electrolytes in currents through the oxide, the company can switch that oxide from an insulator to a conductor (and vice versa) that can reliably maintain its state, even when there’s no power. The trick would let a logic gate or switch kick into action only when there’s an event, rather than needing constant jolts of electricity — and without the pressure or temperature changes that had ruled out metal oxides for chips in the past. We’re still far from replacing silicon with more efficient oxides given the early state of IBM’s work, but having a consistent method is an important first step.

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Source: IBM

French Macaron Flash Drives Look Good Enough to Eat, But Don’t Try.

If you’re ever in Las Vegas, New York, Beverly Hills, or Yountville, California you must stop by Bouchon Bakery and buy a batch of their French Macarons. They’re the tastiest damned thing you’ll ever eat. So when I saw that they were making flash drives that looked like these delectable pastries, I started drooling.

macaroon flash drives 1

Yes, I know that I cannot eat a flash drive, but it doesn’t make these brightly-colored pucks look any less appetizing. PQI’s Macaron USB Flash Drives look just like my favorite tasty treat, so I’m not sure that I could resist trying to take a byte out of my flash memory. While you definitely won’t want to dip these in your afternoon tea, they are water-resistant, dust-resistant and shock-resistant, so they might hold up to my stomach acids for at least 10 seconds before disintegrating.

macaron flash drive 2

No word on where you can buy these yet, but I suppose that’s a good thing, as I wouldn’t want to end up in the ER getting my stomach pumped anyhow.

[via Far East Gizmos]

Toshiba & Sanrio – HELLO KITTY Designed SDHC Memory Cards and USB Flash Drive

In collaboration with Sanrio Company, Ltd., Toshiba is going to release HELLO KITTY designed SDHC Memory Cards and a USB Flash Drive starting March 9 (see schedule below).
It uses the original HELLO KITTY sitting down with a red bow as the design. I think this will be really popular with HELLO KITTY fans and as a gift idea.
Toshiba and Sanrio are planning to produce new memory related items of other Sanrio characters together in the future.
SDHC Memory Card:
4GB – To be released on …

Toshiba mobile RAM uses prediction, adaptation to cut power use by up to 85 percent

Toshiba uses prediction, adaptation to cut mobile RAM power by up to 85 percent

RAM remains one of the principal drains on a smartphone’s battery: it’s almost always in use, and it saps power even when its host device is idle in a pocket. Toshiba hasn’t eliminated that demand entirely, but its new SRAM (not yet pictured here) is intelligent enough to cut a lot of the waste. The memory can better predict what power it’s going to need while it’s active, and includes a smarter retention circuit that occasionally wakes up to tweak buffer size while it’s on standby. While these sound all too abstract, they should lead to some very tangible gains. Toshiba estimates that the SRAM chews up 27 percent less power when live, and 85 percent less when it’s just waiting for action. The company doesn’t yet know when the RAM will reach finished devices, but we’re hoping it’s soon when even mainstream phones like the Optimus F7 will ship with 2GB of RAM; that energy draw isn’t going down all by itself.

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Source: Toshiba

This Is What It Looks Like to Have a World-Class Memory

You probably juggle a phone number or two around in that skull of yours just out of necessity, but there are memorization experts out there who would put you to shame. At this year’s World Memory Championships, champion Johannes Mallow memorized a 2,245 digit number and the order of 1144 playing cards each in just an hour. He also memorized a string of 3954 binary digits in 30 minutes, and another competitor soaked up 269 random words in just 15. More »

Toshiba goes perpendicular to solve MRAM’s power issues, rethink cache memory

Toshiba goes perpendicular to solve MRAM's power issues, rethink mobile memory

As much of a breakthrough as magnetoresistive RAM might be for its ability to retain data while powered off, its susceptibility to leak currents while turned on has made it impractical as a replacement for cache-oriented memory like SRAM. Toshiba’s new approach could almost literally turn the situation on its head. By magnetizing spin torque MRAM (ST-MRAM) in a direction perpendicular to the magnetic layer, Toshiba cuts off the avenues for leaks without sacrificing speed. The switch away from in-plane magnetization is an upside for the memory as a whole — it shrinks normally large elements to below 30 nanometers and cuts the overall power draw of MRAM by about 90 percent. While there’s no timetable for when we’ll see such cache in a shipping product, Toshiba expects it to reach mobile processors, where even slight power savings can make a big difference. If our next smartphone or tablet survives that much longer on battery through memory we can’t even see, we’ll know who to thank.

Continue reading Toshiba goes perpendicular to solve MRAM’s power issues, rethink cache memory

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Via: MRAM-Info

Source: Toshiba

Paketta, King Jim new 8 or 16GB flash drive with Wireless Lan

Ah! here you are something that IS actually interesting, the Paketta from King Jim! This tiny (75x52x20mm and 40G) 8 or 16GB flash drive comes with a WiFi BGN module that once connected to a PC or powered by any USB compatible device will give you the possibility to access its contents wirelessly from any devices running a dedicated app that is so far only available for Windows XP, Vista 7 and iOS, Windows 8 and OSX software will be available Q1 2013 on King Jim support page.
Set to be sold in …

Macronix plans to heat up flash memory to keep it from burning out

Macronix plans to heat up flash memory to keep it from burning out

Despite the looming threat of being replaced by phase-change memory, contemporary memory modules aren’t quite ready to be shown the door — engineers at Macronix have found a way to revive spent NAND flash cells. Most flash modules fail after being written to and erased about 10,000 times, but Macronix found that the tired memory could be restored by baking it for extended periods of time. The team funneled the time consuming and cumbersome solution into a more practical package: a redesigned memory chip that packs onboard heaters. The new modules are designed to periodically heat focused groups of memory cells to 800 °C (1,472 °F) for a few milliseconds, effectively “healing” worn cells.

Researchers found that heated chips could tolerate more than 100 million write/erase cycles and erased faster at higher temperatures. The team said the power drain of the heaters shouldn’t effect battery life, either — chips don’t have to be heated often, and when they do, it can be done while prospective devices are recharging. Macronix will be presenting the technology at the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting next week, but project deputy director Hans-Ting Lue wouldn’t say when the company plans on taking the technology to market. Lue was willing to speculate on what might become of it, however. “This may evolve into a ‘thermally assisted’ mode of operation that gives both better performance — such as the faster erasing — and better endurance flash memory.” Faster, more reliable, super-heated memory. Sounds fine by us.

[Image credit: Emily Cooper, IEEE]

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Via: PhysOrg

Source: IEEE