Hasta La Gadget!

Hitachi-LG outed most of the major details for its forthcoming HyDrive last week, but the company just officially took the wraps off the world’s first SSD-equipped laptop optical drive. Frankly, it’s sort of astounding it took this long for such an obvious idea to come to fruition, but now that we’re here, we fully expect other outfits to follow suit. Put simply, the HyDrive is a standard form factor optical drive (DVD burner or Blu-ray will be available), but there’s a 32GB or 64GB SSD (not just a strip of NAND, we’re told) tucked below. When this gets stuffed within a laptop, you’re immediately able to access an optical drive, an SSD (for your operating system and critical launch applications) and a spacious HDD for storing music, media, etc. Previously, this type of three-drive arrangement was only available in beastly Clevo‘s and the like, but this solution is obviously tailor made for even ODD-equipped ultraportables. Another plus to the HyDrive is the integrated Defect Management technology, which essentially caches information from scratched discs (DVDs, namely) in order to play the content back sans jitters.

More after the break…

Continue reading Hitachi-LG goes official with HyDrive: SSD-equipped optical drives landing in August

Hitachi-LG goes official with HyDrive: SSD-equipped optical drives landing in August originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 May 2010 00:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

While it’s not surprising that a Korean electronics firm would let Korean natives get the first crack at their latest line of wares, it’s not without some small jealousy that we tell you the Samsung HMX-S16 camcorder is shipping in South Korea today. After all, it’s not every day we see a sexy black number like this sporting solid state storage and streaming video over WiFi. Still, we’ll only have time to be envious for a couple more sunrises. Amazon is already taking preorders for the flagship 64GB model, which it says will ship May 28th for $1,200, and you can get the very same 10 megapixel CMOS chip, 1080/60i recording and 3.5-inch touchscreen LCD in a cheaper $1,000, 32GB package — the HMX-S15 — if you can manage to hold off until June 4th.

Samsung HMX-S16 WiFi SSD camcorder shipping in Korea, due stateside any minute originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 May 2010 12:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Akihabara News  |  Samsung  | Email this | Comments

Just as we surmised, Seagate is taking the wraps off its new hybrid drive, with OEM shipments of the Momentus XT starting today. Hailed as the fastest 2.5-inch laptop drive on the planet, this here device marries a 7200RPM hard drive (250/320/500GB) with 4GB of SLC NAND flash memory and 32MB of cache, and the company’s Adaptive Memory technology allows it to store frequently used information on the latter for ultra-speedy access. It can boot up to 100 percent faster than a conventional 5400RPM hard drive, and thankfully for us all, it utilizes a standard 9.5mm-high form factor that the vast majority of laptops use. Seagate also affirms that the drive “operates independently of the operating system and the motherboard chipset,” but we’re going to hold tight until we see the first real benchmarks (it’ll soon be an option in ASUS’ ROG G73Jh gaming laptop) before getting all hyped up. In related news, the outfit also announced the world’s highest capacity 7200RPM drive at 750GB, with the Momentus 750GB boasting SATA 3Gbps support, an NCQ interface, 16MB of cache and “silent acoustics.” No price is mentioned, but you can bet a hefty premium will placed on something this capacious. The full presser, another image and a specs sheet awaits you beyond the break.

Update: The reviews are already pouring in, and at just $155 for the 500 gigger, it’s receiving a fair amount of praise.

Continue reading Seagate pairs 7200RPM HDD with 4GB of NAND in 2.5-inch Momentus XT hybrid drive

Seagate pairs 7200RPM HDD with 4GB of NAND in 2.5-inch Momentus XT hybrid drive originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 May 2010 08:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Seagate  | Email this | Comments

Corsair stirred up something fierce when it dropped in a pair of SSDs to get the newfound Force series going, but obviously, just having a 100GB and 200GB model isn’t exactly catering to every possible market. In order to remedy said quandary, the company is today expanding the Force family by three, with the 60GB F60, 120GB F120 and 240GB F240 joining the herd. All three are based around the well-received SandForce SF-1200 controller, and Corsair states that each supports a maximum throughput of 285MB/sec (read) and 275MB/sec (write). Per usual, the company’s keeping quiet on the pricing front, but all that should be brought out into the open once they ship next month.

Continue reading Corsair expands SandForce SF-1200-based SSD family with 60GB, 120GB and 240GB options

Corsair expands SandForce SF-1200-based SSD family with 60GB, 120GB and 240GB options originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 May 2010 18:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Hot Hardware  |   | Email this | Comments

That controversial SandForce SF-1200 controller sure has been poking its head out an awful lot lately, and yet again we’re watching it steal the show in another new SSD. Mushkin, a mainstay in the high-end RAM industry, has just outed a new solid state drive meant to compete with those already splashing down from Intel, Corsair and OCZ Technology, and if the claims prove true, the Callisto could indeed be a serious contender. The outfit claims that users will see read speeds of up to 285MB/s and write speeds of up to 275MB/s, and the three-year warranty is definitely assuring. It’s available to order today in 60GB, 120GB and 240GB capacities, with prices set at $219, $370 and $666 in order of mention. Go on — you know that devil on your right shoulder was coaxing you into buying the biggest one, anyway.

Mushkin serves up its own SandForce SF-1200 controlled SSD: Callisto originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 May 2010 09:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Hot Hardware  |  Mushkin  | Email this | Comments