SSDs are wonderful things that take up next to no space and are incredibly fast to boot. But while most people understand the basics data security on HDDs, the same isn’t necessarily true of solid state storage.
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Sony has recently unveiled a new range of portable storage solutions which were specially designed for professionals who require high-speed, highly reliable data storage, for both back-up as well as transfer of content wherever they are. This new range would include a 256GB solid state drive (PSZ-SA25) as well as a pair of hard drive models which will feature capacities of 500GB and 1TB (PSZ-HA50 and PSZ-HA1T).
Regardless of which particular model that you settle for, each of these drives will come with a single USB 3.0 and a pair of FireWire 800 interfaces, which would then enable users to transfer video at up to 400MBps with the SSD model and 120MBps with the HDD models over USB 3.0. Just to give a better idea to the man on the street as to what these speeds mean for the end user, how does transferring around 30GB of video to the SSD drive in under one and a half minutes sound to you? All purchases will also feature a heavy silicon cover and protective case that allows it to withstand the rigors of field production and reduce shipping damage. Your data should stay safe thanks to integrated shock resistance which is capable of absorbing falls of up to 7.5 feet for SSD and up to 6.5 feet for HDD. [Press Release]
Sony Reveals New Portable Storage Solutions original content from Ubergizmo. 
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One of the great things about SSDs is that they’re pretty speedy when it comes to reading and writing data, and if you were in the market for a new SSD for your computer, Corsair has unveiled their new Force LS Series SSD that will arrive in three different storage capacities. The new SSDs by Corsair will come in a 2.5” form factor and will measure a pretty thin 7mm. It will utilize Toshiba’s 19nm NAND flash memory and will also use Phison SATA 6 Gb/s controllers instead of the LSI SandForce controllers, which had been previously used in Corsair’s lineup of SSDs.
The new SSDs offered by Corsair boast read and write speeds of 555 MB/s and 535MB/s respectively. It will also support TRIM, garbage collection, SMART functions, along with built-in dynamic and static wear-leveling algorithms. The LS series SSDs will come in three sizes as previously mentioned, which includes 60GB, 120GB, and 240GB. It is apparently ready for purchase via retailers and will be priced at $69.99, $109.99, and $199.99 respectively.
Corsair’s New Force LS SSDs Unveiled original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Well, that was quick. Samsung said it was producing the world’s first 3D vertical NAND memory just a week ago, and it has already started building the first SSDs based on that memory. Unfortunately, they’re not meant for the enthusiast crowd: the new 480GB and 960GB drives are instead designed for enterprise-class servers, where V-NAND’s blend of high capacity and reliability makes the most sense. Don’t be too forlorn, however. Samsung promises that the new memory will eventually reach PC-oriented SSDs, which could bring spacious flash storage to a much wider audience.
Source: Samsung
In September of last year, Sony threw in an interesting nugget when it shipped the third-generation PS3: there’d be a unique, more affordable 12GB flash-based unit exclusively for Europe and Hong Kong. Sure, it doesn’t do much good for those who boast huge game libraries or prefer to store odds and ends locally, but Sony clearly determined that there’d be a real market for such a product. Sony Computer Entertainment America VP of marketing, handhelds and home consoles John Koller sat down with us following the launches, and made a point to tell us the following:
“The smaller Flash drive isn’t coming to North America, and a lot of that reason is the digital consumer. We really want to make sure, out of the box, that there is an option for them to be able to download that content. That is really critical for us, very very important.”
180s happen quite frequently in the technology world, and it seems that we’re peering at another here. Canada’s own Future Shop has the 12GB PS3 listed right now as “In Stock” for $199.99, and a number of stock trackers are confirming that units are trickling into brick and mortar locations across various provinces. This all jibes nicely with a recent PlayStation Lifestyle rumor that suggests the system is coming to both Canada and the United States on August 18th, leaving us to assume that this particular store simply managed to get a jump on the competition. All that said, you can get a new 500GB PS3 with Grand Theft Auto V for just $70 more (or another, more sizable unit for even less on the secondhand market) — but hey, options!
Update: We’ve received an image (shown after the break) of the 12GB PlayStation 3 in a Kmart stockroom here in the United States. The “do not sell until” date is predictably labeled as August 18th, which means that Yanks should be able to get their hands on one of these without an impromptu road trip up north in just a few days.
[Thanks, Jean-Philippe]
Source: Future Shop
There’s no doubt that Serial ATA storage is hitting a wall when even mainstream PCs like the MacBook Air and VAIO Pro use the PCI Express interface to get around performance bottlenecks. It’s a good thing that SATA-IO just ratified the improved SATA 3.2 specification, then. The new standard centers on SATA Express, which lets SATA storage ride on the PCIe bus and more than doubles the available bandwidth to 16Gbps (2GB/s). Version 3.2 also brings support for the M.2 format, giving Ultrabooks and tablets access to SATA Express in a tiny form factor. We’re already getting a peek at what the new spec can do when M.2-based PCIe drives offer comparable performance, but SATA 3.2’s ratification should bring that kind of speed to many more PCs in the future.
Filed under: Storage
Source: SATA-IO
Samsung generated some buzz last month with its ATIV Book 9 Plus sporting a res-tacular 13.3-inch, 275 ppi touchscreen, but left people asking “when” and “how much?” Retailer B&H Photo-Video seems to have answered those questions, listing a $1,399 price and expected availability of August 20th (at the source). That sum will get you a 1.6GHz Haswell Core i5-4200U dual-core CPU, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 128GB SSD, Intel HD 4400 graphics, Windows 8, and of course, that 3,200 x 1,800 touchscreen. As we noted before, you’ll be able grab more RAM, a bigger SSD and a Core i7 processor for the light-ish 1.39kg (3.06 pound) device if you’re willing to pay more. Though those options aren’t listed yet, they’d likely price you into MacBook Pro Retina territory — but at least you’d get way more pixels.
[Thanks, Jason]
Source: B&H
These days, it’s fairly easy to find a PCI Express-based SSD to transform one’s desktop — Angelbird, Fusion-io, Micron and ASUS will sell you one, just to name a few. That said, the last of those three has just revealed a new entrant that will certainly catch the eye of many, as the RAIDR Express claims to be the first PCI-e SSD to be compatible with both legacy and UEFI BIOS. The so-called DuoMode feature is joined by 240GB of storage space, sequential 830MB/s read and 810MB/s write speeds and a reported 620,000 hours mean time between failure (MTBF).
You’ll also find the latest LSI SandForce controller, Toshiba-built 19nm MLC flash, and 100,000 4K read/write input/output operations per second (IOPS). The bundled RAMDisk utility allows users to dedicate up to 80 percent of a computer’s available RAM for use as a high-speed virtual drive, and if you needed any further proof that it’s fast, look no further than in the video after the break. Curiously, ASUS isn’t talking pricing just yet, but it should start shipping in the very near future.
Filed under: Gaming, Storage, ASUS
Via: PC Perspective, Engadget Japanese
Source: ASUS
If you think your SSD is speedy, think again: this new Samsung SSD is capable of reading data at a frankly obscene 3000MB/s.
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The ink has barely dried on Samsung’s last SSD announcement and the South Korean manufacturer has already made it obsolete by orders of magnitude. This 2.5-inch enterprise-class SSD isn’t for us regular Joes, but if you thought the company’s EVO 840’s 540 MB/s was zippy, hold on to your desk chair. The newly announced NVMe SSD XS1715 reads data at a mind-numbing 3,000 MB/s. Hitting these absurd numbers isn’t without a caveat, though, as this SSD won’t run on a SATA-6 port — it requires a PCIe hookup. When these speed demons do arrive, they’ll be available in 400GB, 800GB and 1.6TB sizes. Oh, and we want one. For business.
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