At the 2015 Flash Memory Summit, Samsung announced the fruition of its swanky new 48-layer 3D V-NAND chips, the PM1633a. Built in the 2.5-inch form-factor, and featuring a SAS 12 Gb/s interface, this drive offers an unformatted capacity nearing 16 TB (15,360 GB to be precise). The drive relies on ten 48-layer stacks of 256 Gb 3-bit NAND flash dies, making up 15,360 GB of unformatted capacity. Samsung showed off a system with 48 of these drives, making up 720 TB of total storage.

Besides the largest SSD, Samsung also showed off the fastest. The PM1725 SSD, designed for servers with high-traffic databases, where throughput is the king, is built in the 2.5-inch form factor (up to 3.2 TB) and HHHL form-factor (up to 6.4 TB). It features a PCI-Express 3.0 host bus, and talks to the OS over the modern NVMe protocol. The two offer random access throughput of up to 1,000,000 IOPS.

Toshiba Corporation's Semiconductor & Storage Products Company today announced three distinct families of PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) solid state drive (SSD) products using NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) protocol, targeted for various applications including high performance notebooks; thin notebooks, 2-in-1/convertible notebooks and tablets; and server and storage applications. All three SSD product lines are optimized for high performance and low latency and utilize the PCIe interface, which provides point-to-point links with the processor, reducing system bottlenecks. Each SSD family is designed for its target segment with capacity, optimized form factor, and security capabilities. Samples of the Toshiba's newest lines of NVMe, PCIe SSDs will be available from the fourth quarter (Oct. to Dec.) of 2015.

High Performance Notebooks: The XG3 family of SSDs is the industry's highest capacity (1024GB) client NVMe SSD available in M.2 Type 2280 form factor and optimally designed for high performance notebooks, 2-in-1 PCs and all-in-one PCs. The XG3 in M.2 Type 2280 form factor supports up to four lanes of PCIe 3.1, which has a maximum interface bandwidth more than six times that of SATA 6 Gbits/s. XG3 is also the industry's first NVMe SSD available in 2.5-inch SATA express form factor. The XG3 SSD family is equipped with Toshiba's proprietary QSBC (Quadruple Swing-By Code) error-correction technology, a highly efficient error correction code (ECC), which helps protect customer data from corruption, improves reliability, and extends the life of Toshiba SSDs. Engineered for power efficiency, the XG3 series also features lower power state modes and is the first Toshiba product, along with the BG1 SSD family, to support the Trusted Computing Group specification, Pyrite (TCG Pyrite).

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation, a global leader in designing and marketing NAND flash controllers for solid-state storage devices, today announced it will be presenting at the upcoming Flash Memory Summit in Santa Clara, CA from August 11th to 13th and will be showcasing an array of SSD solutions at booth #313, including the award winning SM2246EN SATA 6Gb/s SSD solutions, the new products using SM2256, the world's first turnkey SSD controller supporting TLC NAND and the new SM2260 PCIe 3.0 SSD controller.

Intel announced its first 6th generation Core processors, codenamed "Skylake." Built on Intel's swanky new 14 nanometer silicon fab process, and in the new LGA1151 package, these processors bring DDR4 memory to the mainstream, and offer IPC improvements over the previous-generation Core "Haswell" and "Broadwell" processors. Making its debut at Gamescom, Intel is starting its lineup off with two chips that are predominantly targeted at the DIY gaming PC crowd, the Core i7-6700K and the Core i5-6600K quad-core processors. More models in the series will be launched towards the end of this month. The company also announced the Z170 Express chipset.

The Core i7-6700K features a nominal clock speed of 4.00 GHz, with a Turbo Boost frequency of 4.20 GHz. It features 8 MB of L3 cache, and HyperThreading. Its integrated Intel HD 530 graphics ticks at 350 MHz, with 1200 MHz Boost. The Core i5-6600K, on the other hand, features clock speeds of 3.50 GHz, with 3.90 GHz Turbo Boost. It features 6 MB of L3 cache, and lacks HyperThreading. It features the same integrated graphics solution as its bigger sibling. The TDP of both chips are rated at 91W. Both chips feature integrated memory controllers with support for DDR3L-1600 and DDR4-2133. The Core i7-6700K is priced around $350, and the i5-6600K around $243, in 1000-unit tray quantities. The retail packages of both chips will lack a stock cooling solution. The LGA1151 cooler mount will be identical to that of the outgoing LGA1150, so you shouldn't have any problems using your older cooler.

MSI, world leading in motherboard technology, announces the most powerful X99 gaming solution, the X99A GODLIKE GAMING motherboard. Featuring Killer DoubleShot-X3 Pro, Turbo M.2 connectivity, 2X Faster USB 3.1 Type-A and Type-C and a whole new gaming oriented LED feature, MYSTIC LIGHT, the X99A GODLIKE GAMING is the most powerful motherboard to serve you in battle.

The X99A GODLIKE GAMING is world's first RGB LED motherboard, supporting more than 2000 colors and many style presets such as breathing, flashing and waving. Make your build look on fire or cold as ice. You are in control. Simply select any of the colors from the palette to suit the systems' design. Just change it to another one using the easy to use Mystic Light APP available on PC, phone and tablet, and make your PC look & feel brand new! With 2048 different colors and 7 different LED modes, the Mystic Light provides infinite possibilities for gamers to personalize their gaming rig.

EVGA is giving finishing touches to the X99 Micro2, is latest socket LGA2011v3 motherboard, in the micro-ATX form-factor. The board is characterized by support for two USB 3.1 ports, including a type-C port. Most of the feature-set from the original X99 Micro, is carried over. This includes a 10-phase CPU VRM, three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (full-time x16/x16/x8), a 32 Gb/s M.2 slot, with NVMe BIOS support, making up its expansion area. The board supports up to 64 GB of quad-channel DDR4 memory. Storage connectivity on the X99 Micro2 includes ten SATA 6 Gb/s ports, apart from the 32 Gb/s M.2 slot. Other modern connectivity includes two USB 3.1 ports (at least one of which is type-C), six USB 3.0 ports (four on the rear panel, two by header), 8-channel HD audio with ground-layer isolation, and a headphones amp; and gigabit Ethernet. EVGA didn't announce pricing or availability.

Team Group showed off its flagship M.2 PCIe SSD at Computex, the TM8FP7 series. Available in 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB sizes, the drive takes advantage of PCI-Express 3.0 x4 (32 Gb/s), and offers up to 2,300 MB/s reads with up to 380 MB/s writes on its smallest variant, and up to 2,500 MB/s reads with up to 720 MB/s writes on its biggest one. The drive uses MLC NAND flash, supports DevSleep and TRIM, although there's no word on whether its controller supports NVMe.

OCZ Storage Solutions -- a Toshiba Group Company and the most awarded solid state drive (SSD) brand of all time, today announced plans to showcase the all-new Trion 100 series, a new SSD based on Triple-Level Cell (TLC) NAND flash, at this year's Computex in Taipei, Taiwan held June 2 - 6. As OCZ's new value-oriented option, Trion 100 SSDs are built to provide an easy and affordable way for entry-level users to optimize their mobile or desktop systems.

Leveraging Toshiba's Alishan SSD controller and premium A19 TLC flash memory technology, the Trion 100 series was designed to deliver a superior balance of performance, reliability, and value and will be available this summer. Running live in OCZ's Computex booth, Trion 100's preliminary performance ratings include up to 550MB/s of bandwidth and up to 91,000 random read IOPS, making the Trion 100 series a competitive upgrade solution that will transform any notebook or PC.

"Computex is the ideal venue for us to unveil our upcoming TLC NAND-based Trion 100 SSDs," said Alex Mei, CMO and GM of the Client Business at OCZ Storage Solutions. "By leveraging controller and TLC NAND technology from Toshiba, we are pleased to be able to bring to market the exciting new Trion 100 SSD Series which will offer end-users an optimal mix of performance, features, and value, making it easier than ever for value-conscious consumers to leverage the benefits of a high quality yet affordable SSD that delivers improved desktop and mobile computing experiences."

OCZ Storage Solutions -- a Toshiba Group Company and leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced its Z-Drive 6000 SSD Series that combines PCI Express (PCIe) Gen 3 and Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) technologies with an extensive enterprise feature-set and robust endurance and reliability. The NVMe-compliant Z-Drive 6000 Series is available in multiple configurations supporting a variety of form factors, capacity points, and endurance ratings.

The NVMe specification extends traditional PCIe flash storage to new levels and was architected from the ground up to enable specific benefits of non-volatile memory-based solid-state storage. It features a streamlined memory interface, command set and queue design that delivers faster access to critical data and highly resilient storage capabilities. This enables both system builders and storage vendors alike to develop different parts of a storage ecosystem to a standard specification with broad interoperability support between storage devices, host platforms and software. NVMe is expected to open new opportunities for faster, better and stronger flash-based storage applications while significantly improving PCIe SSD deployments over the next five years.

MSI, world leading in motherboard design, debuts the world's first USB 3.1 featured AMD GAMING motherboard, the 990FXA GAMING. Delivering blazing fast USB performance, up to 2 times faster than USB 3.0, the new 990FXA GAMING motherboard offers two USB 3.1 ports, which are fully backwards compatible with USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 devices.

Inheriting the outstanding DNA of MSI's award winning GAMING family, the new MSI AM3+ 990FXA GAMING motherboard features Killer LAN for the best online GAMING experience, Audio Boost 2 powered by Creative Sound Blaster Cinema 2 for astonishing sound quality that gives you the upper hand on the battlefield, USB Audio Power and a completely new hardware and software design for enhanced gaming performance. Get ready for high-end AMD GAMING with MSI.

ASUS today announced that it is the world's first motherboard brand to support all NVM Express (NVMe) storage devices via a simple UEFI BIOS update and optional ASUS Hyper Kit expansion card.

The free UEFI BIOS update enable all ASUS X99 and Z97 motherboards to be compatible with the latest NVMe storage devices, including those with PCI Express (PCIe) and M.2 (PCIe) interfaces. All ASUS X99 motherboards are also compatible with the latest 2.5-inch NVMe SFF-8639 solid-state drives (SSDs), via the exclusive ASUS Hyper Kit expansion card - for ultimate data-transfer bandwidth up to 32 Gbit/s.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, announced today that it has started mass production of the industry's first NVMe PCIe solid state drive (SSD) which has an M.2 form factor for use in PCs and workstations. Samsung is also the first in the industry to announce that it has begun shipping NVMe SSDs to OEMs for the PC market. The new SM951-NVMe features the industry's most advanced performance figures, exceptionally low power use in standby mode and the most compact size of any NVMe SSD.

"Our new NVMe SSD will allow for faster, ultra-slim notebook PCs with extended battery use, while accelerating the adoption of NVMe SSDs within the consumer marketplace," said Jeeho Baek, Senior Vice President of Memory Marketing at Samsung Electronics. "Samsung will continue to stay a critical step ahead of others in the industry in introducing a diversity of next-generation SSDs, that contribute to an enhanced user experience through rapid popularization of ultra-fast, highly energy-efficient, compact SSDs."

HP today introduced technology advancements designed to help artists, creatives and developers more quickly and efficiently bring designs and products to life. "As the leader in the workstation industry, we continue to develop customer inspired innovative solutions that solve real-world business needs," said Jeff Wood, vice president of product management, Workstation & Thin Client Business, HP. "Solving the storage bottleneck, delivering a light full-performance mobile workstation and allowing creative professional advanced visual solutions will bolster customer design workflows."

Helping the world harness the power of data, HGST, a Western Digital company, today announced it is shipping its NVMe compliant Ultrastar SN100 Series PCIe SSDs - the industry's highest-performing NVMe compliant SSDs. Ideally suited for mission-critical data center workloads, including scale-out databases powering today's largest online and cloud services, the HGST SN100 series enables businesses to achieve a better return on their data center infrastructure investments by realizing gains such as more database transactions per second, lower access latency and easier application scaling.

The new HGST PCIe SSDs are a key building block for delivering HGST server-side Flash solutions. In these solutions, the Ultrastar SN100 Series SSDs are combined with HGST server software - specifically, the HGST Flash Software Suite and HGST Device Manager. This powerful combination creates a server-side Flash platform solution with superior TCO that delivers clustering, scalability, high availability and manageability for performance applications. For MySQL, HGST's server-side Flash solutions have delivered up to 40 percent server consolidation with up to 60 percent performance improvement while maintaining existing MySQL architectures.

Intel today unveiled the Intel Solid-State Drive (SSD) 750 Series, its highest performing SSD for use in client PC storage devices and workstations. The 750 series delivers greater than four times the performance of SATA-based SSDs by utilizing four lanes of PCIe 3.0 and the NVM Express (NVMe) standard.

For added flexibility, it is available as both an add-in card for systems with an accessible PCIe 3.0 slot and as a 2.5 inch small form factor solution. Intel also announced the availability of the Intel SSD 535 Series which offers the ideal balance of cost and performance for mainstream client PC storage devices.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, is proud to announce its complete lineup of motherboards build around the Intel X99 and 9 Series chipsets is compatible with the recently released 750 Series PCIe SSD drive from Intel. The new drives will be available in 400GB and 1.2TB capacities and are expected to deliver performance of up to 2.5/1.2 GB/s sequential read/write speeds and up to 440/290k random IOPs, thus making them the highest performing Intel Client SSD. GIGABYTE's X99 and 9 Series motherboards are able to take full advantage of the fast transfer speeds of this exciting new storage solution from Intel.

Built for enthusiast gamers and workstations, the new 750 Series SSDs are the first consumer oriented PCIe drives by Intel. Using PCIe Gen3 x 4 lanes with the latest and fastest NVMe controller interface, Intel's storage solution features a level of performance never achieved by regular SSDs, which are limited by their SATA connection and old AHCI protocol. Compared to the SATA 3 interface which can technically reach up to 6Gb/s, the PCIe Gen 3 interface is considerably faster as it provides up to 8Gb/s per lane, thereby allowing 32Gb/s of total available bandwidth for the x4 PCIe SSDs.

SMART Modular Technologies, Inc., a leading designer, manufacturer and supplier of specialty memory and storage solutions, including memory modules, flash memory cards and other memory and solid state storage products, today announced the expansion of its NVDIMM product line with its new 8GB and 16GB DDR4 NVDIMMs available in a single rank, four bit configuration. SMART's full lineup of DDR4 NVDIMMs now include two configurations; a single rank eight bit configuration in 4GB and 8GB densities, and the new 8GB and 16GB options. The new NVDIMMs are targeted for server and storage applications to improve performance.

NVDIMMs transform main DRAM memory into persistent memory resulting in higher performing servers by allowing big data, transaction logs, and other latency and performance-sensitive data to be accessed at DRAM speeds without the risk of data loss. Rather than reading and writing big data or transaction logs to traditional storage media such as SATA SSDs, PCIe NVMe SSDs, or HDDs, they can be written to and read from main memory without the risk of data being lost due to any sudden power loss (SPL) event. Server performance in terms of lower latency, higher IOPS, and greater endurance all increase dramatically with the use of SMART's NVDIMMs.

MSI, world leading in motherboards, is the world's first motherboard brand to fully support the next generation in storage control, NVM Express. All MSI motherboards sporting Intel 9 series chipsets including X99, Z97 and H97 are now supported. MSI has prepared BIOS updates which are now available for download. NVM Express is the next generation PCI Express storage standard introducing lower latency and lower power consumption but increased transfer speeds compared to the legacy AHCI controller.

MSI's R&D fine-tuned the BIOS to fully unleash all the power NVMe has to offer while supporting the majority of devices available on the market without any hassle. With the latest BIOS, MSI X99/Z97/H97 motherboards can support NVMe devices as primary storage under Windows 7 64-bit and Windows 8.1 64-bit and fully support NVMe booting. The BIOS updates can now be downloaded from the company website. The table below describes all supported models and BIOS version.

In a bid to stay current, with the advent of M.2, PCI-Express, and NVMe, OCZ announced its newest homebrew SSD controller. Called JetExpress, this controller has the potential to be the industry's fastest, rivaled only by Samsung, and its SM951 drives. The controller features a PCI-Express 3.0 x4 host interface, with 4 GB/s of bandwidth per direction, 8 GB/s in total. The controller supports 8-16 ONFI channels, 1-2 GB of DDR3 DRAM cache, and power loss protection circuits. It supports three popular form-factors, including M.2, 2.5-inch (likely SATA-Express), and SFF-8639. M.2 PCIe prototypes were put up for our lenses. The company plans to make both PC enthusiast and enterprise products using this controller.

Plextor launched its flagship SSD for PC enthusiasts, the M6e Black Edition. Clearly intended for enthusiast PC builds, miles away from an enterprise environment, this drive features a focus on product design, with its matte black PCB, full-length metal shroud, and a racy red aluminium heatsink popping out from a cutout in that shroud. This heatsink cools the controller and NAND flash chips. The drive comes in three capacities - 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB.

Under the hood, the M6e Black Edition is essentially an M.2 riser with PCI-Express 2.0 x4 wiring. The drive sitting on its M.2 slot is driven by a Marvell 88SS9183 controller, wired to Toshiba-made 19 nm Toggle NAND flash, and 1 GB of DRAM cache. The drive offers sequential transfer rates of up to 770 MB/s reads, with up to 625 MB/s writes; with up to 105,000 IOPS 4K random reads, and up to 100,000 IOPS 4K random writes. In addition to PCIe bus power, the drive requires power from a SATA power connector. Features include PlexTurbo 2.0 technology that shuttles hot data to system memory, TRIM, NCQ, and NVMe. The drive is bootable.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, announced today that it has begun mass producing a high-performance, low-powered PCIe solid state drive (SSD), the SM951, for use in ultra-slim notebook PCs and workstations. "We are helping to accelerate growth of the ultra-slim notebook PC market with the introduction of this energy-efficient, high-speed PCIe SSD," said Jeeho Baek, Senior Vice President of Memory Marketing at Samsung Electronics. He added that, "We will continue to introduce next-generation high-density SSDs with improved performance and increased differentiation, as we further strengthen our business competitiveness in global SSD market."

The SM951 boasts outstanding performance, supporting both PCIe 3.0 and PCIe 2.0 interfaces. For use in the latest ultra-slim notebooks, it can read and write sequentially at 1,600 MB/s (megabytes per second) and 1,350 MB/s respectively based on PCIe 2.0. This performance level is approximately three times faster than that of the latest SSD with a SATA interface and about 30 percent faster than that of the Samsung XP941, its predecessor. In addition, the new SSD's random read and write speeds reach up to 130,000 and 85,000 IOPS (inputs/outputs per second) respectively.

OCZ Storage Solutions, a Toshiba Group Company and the most awarded solid state drive (SSD) brand of all time, today announced plans to showcase the highly anticipated JetExpress SSD controller at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada to be held January 6 - 9, 2015.

Designed and developed in-house, JetExpress will be the heart and soul of OCZ's future product line. JetExpress silicon is native SATA and PCIe/NVMe and will support multiple form factors including M.2, 2.5-inch SATA, and SFF-8639 which enables PCI Express speeds in a compact 2.5-inch form factor. The flexible and advanced architecture of JetExpress is designed to offer superior flash endurance empowering SSDs to continue down the path to ubiquity in both mainstream notebooks and hyperscale data centers.

Marvell, a worldwide leader in providing complete silicon solutions from mobile communications to storage, Internet of Things (IoT), cloud infrastructure, digital entertainment and in-home content delivery and Kinoma software enabling the "Smart Life and Smart Lifestyle," today announced the world's first DRAM-less NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) solid state drive (SSD) controller for mass market mobile computing solutions with industry-leading NANDEdge low-density parity check (LDPC) technology supporting triple-level cell (TLC) and 3D NAND. Marvell's 88NV1140 and 88NV1120 enable small form factor SSD solutions with unparalleled performance for integration into low-z-height tablets, Chrome devices and the upcoming wave of new 2-in-1 hybrid/detachable mobile PC platforms.

"As mobile computing and cloud-based services become an integral part of our daily lives, fast, secure, reliable and cost effective storage solutions with a small form factor are the key to bringing the benefit of technology to the mass market. I believe our latest game-changing SSD controller will drive the fast deployment of a new wave of small form factor SSD solutions for the mass market mobile computing platforms," said Weili Dai, President and Co-Founder of Marvell. "I am very pleased to see Marvell's leadership and our long track record of invention and innovation including the world's first DRAM-less NVMe SSD controller and the industry's most advanced LDPC technology enabling the latest TLC and 3D NAND flash memory. I am very thankful for our global engineering teams who continuously raise the technology bar to move our industry forward faster."

PMC-Sierra, Inc. (PMC), the semiconductor and software solutions innovator transforming networks that connect, move and store big data, today announced that Memblaze Technology Co. Ltd, a leading provider of flash storage solutions, is utilizing PMC's Flashtec NVM Express (NVMe) controllers in its next-generation PCI Express (PCIe) flash accelerators.

The Flashtec-based Memblaze PBlaze4 products are targeted at hyperscale and Open Compute Project deployments. They provide ultra-low latency and the lowest CPU load in the industry, with read and write capabilities of up to 850,000 I/Os per second (IOPS) for random read and 265,000 IOPS for random write and 3.2 GB/s sequential read, 2.5 GB/s sequential write performance. Memblaze products enable its customers to define and alter key settings to ensure optimum performance in specific applications and platforms.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has started mass producing 3.2-terabyte (TB) NVMe* PCIe solid state drives (SSDs) based on its 3D V-NAND (Vertical NAND) flash memory technology, for use in high-end enterprise server systems. The new NVMe PCIe SSD, SM1715, utilizes Samsung's proprietary 3D V-NAND in an HHHL (half-height, half-length) card-type form factor, to offer 3.2TB of storage capacity -- doubling Samsung's previous highest NVMe SSD density of 1.6TB.

"Beginning with mass production of this new V-NAND-based NVMe SSD, which delivers the highest level of performance and density available today, we expect to greatly expand the high-density SSD market," said Jeeho Baek, Vice President, Memory Marketing, Samsung Electronics. "Samsung plans to actively introduce V-NAND-based SSDs with even higher performance, density and reliability in the future, to keep its global customers ahead of their competition."