FirmTek, LLC, a pioneer and leader in Serial ATA (SATA) storage solutions is announcing that the SeriTek/Q6G 4-Port eSATA host adapter is now available. The high performance SeriTek/Q6G is Mac OS X Bootable, whether installed inside the Apple Mac Pro or a Thunderbolt PCIe expansion chassis, with and without SATA port-multiplication.

Performance
"Dynamic growth in the availability of SATA 6G SSD and HDD storage devices has increased the need for ultra-high performance 6-Gigabit/sec eSATA controllers with sufficient bandwidth to maximize performance. The SeriTek/Q6G was developed to meet this need. With real world storage performance results in excess of 500 MB/s per channel, the SeriTek/Q6G offers a new level of performance for professional customers", said Chi Kim Stanford Vice President of Business Development. "The SeriTek/Q6G is ideal for audio/video editing, photography, large media content libraries, storage expansion, backup and any other application where external, hot swap, high performance, data storage is desirable."

Following ASUS' venture into the consumer NAS segment as ASUStor, Gigabyte responded with its own. The company launched its Home NAS family with the GR-EZI04H, a 4-bay consumer NAS based on the Intel Atom platform. Pictured below, it uses a common desktop cube form-factor, with a main lockable door covering its four caddies.

Gigabyte used an interesting combination of hardware. It combined a current-generation Atom D2500 dual-core processor clocked at 1.80 GHz, with an old (yet effective) ICH10R southbridge, instead of the usual NM10 PCH. The ICH10R has been used on high-end Intel 4-series and 5-series platforms, and provides six SATA 3 Gb/s ports with RAID 0/5/10. The GR-EZI04H features two gigabit Ethernet ports, two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0/1.1 ports, and a VGA display output. Its OS, a choice between Windows Home Server 2011 and Embedded Linux, is stored on an mPCIe DOM. Gigabyte used a custom NAS management software that isn't extensively detailed, but features a standard feature-set. More details are awaited.

Sonnet today announced the Echo Express II, the newest member of the company's popular Echo family of Thunderbolt expansion chassis for PCIe cards. Featuring two PCIe slots, the new Thunderbolt-to-PCIe expansion chassis enables the use of a wide variety of high-performance PCI Express cards, originally designed for use in desktop computers, with any computer equipped with a Thunderbolt port.

The Echo Express II was designed for users needing a compact solution to connect two PCIe cards to their computers, and supports the majority of Thunderbolt-compatible PCIe cards. Based on the original Echo Express expansion chassis, the Echo Express II adds a second slot to support two half-length (up to 7.25 inches long), full-height, single-width PCIe 2.0 x16 cards. Like its siblings, the Echo Express II expansion chassis has dual Thunderbolt ports to support daisy chaining of devices.

PLX Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLXT), a leading global supplier of high-speed connectivity solutions enabling emerging data center architectures, today announced a live demonstration of its ExpressFabric technology at the SC12 supercomputing conference this week in Salt Lake City, UT. ExpressFabric is a PLX-initiated approach to extending the PCI Express (PCIe) standard from its current dominant presence inside servers, switches and storage appliances, to a central position as a fabric, uniting all hardware within the racks of data centers.

"Small to medium sized clusters -- for example, those with 20 to 1,000 CPU nodes, on one to eight racks -- are best suited for ExpressFabric technology," said Vijay Meduri, PLX vice president of engineering. "For applications that use clusters of that size, or are capable of using disaggregated clusters, ExpressFabric technology allows for complete elimination of bridges and other protocol fabrics to create the mini-clusters. The PCIe convergence model and ongoing software development that is being implemented is designed to be compatible and will co-exist with Ethernet, InfiniBand and other fabrics in the data center."

Scythe unveiled its new ultra-high capacity PSU, the Chouriki 2 Plug-in 1600W. Measuring a massive 240 x 150 x 86 mm WxDxH, the PSU uses a dual asymmetric 12V rail design, featuring a 110A rail, and a second 50A rail. It boasts of 80 Plus Silver, with high efficiency at low AC voltages such as 90~120VAC (although 220~250VAC is supported), and most modern PSU safeguards, governed by its secondary IC.

The Chouriki 2 Plug-in is partially modular, with its 24-pin ATX and two 8-pin EPS connectors being fixed; while sixteen 6+2 pin PCIe, sixteen SATA power, eight Molex and two Berg connectors are detachable. The unit is cooled by a temperature-controlled 135 mm fan, with manual fan overrides. Slated for November 21, and backed by a 5-year warranty, the Chouriki 2 Plug-in 1600W is priced at 26,980 JPY (US $340).

Apricorn today announced the latest addition and now the fastest of its popular Velocity Solo Desktop SSD Upgrade line, the Velocity Solo X2. It's the first PCIe 2.0 x2 lane card available that is capable of delivering speeds upwards of 550 MBs when used with a single super fast SATA III (6 Gb/s) 2.5" SSD.

Taking advantage of two PCIe 2.0 lanes and using a Marvell 9182 chipset, the Velocity Solo X2 will enable desktop PCs and Macs to take advantage of the ever increasing speeds in the SSD market. Designed to fit into a PCIe 2.0 x2 slot or larger (typical installation will use a x4 slot), the Velocity Solo X2 enables users to easily add an SSD to their desktop system. Connection of the Velocity Solo PCIe 2.0 card to the SSD is via a super fast SATA III (6 Gb/s) connection. The Velocity Solo X2 also provides an additional SATA III data connection that can be used to connect to another SSD or HDD to provide expanded high speed storage.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, will display its enterprise storage solutions at the Gartner Symposium/ITXpo, Booth #1044, Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort, Lake Buena Vista, Florida, from October 21st through October 25th. The Gartner Symposium/ITXpo is an annual gathering of CIOs and senior IT executives seeking the latest tools, technologies, and information to improve IT capabilities and data center effectiveness.

For SAN acceleration of I/O intensive workloads, OCZ will present its leading Z-Drive R4 PCIe SSDs supporting both full-height (FH) and half-height (HH) configurations, enabling the CPU with direct access (zero-latency storage) and instant boot capabilities. The FH (3/4 length) RM88 model enables an industry best 2.8GB/s of sequential throughput, 410K of random IOPS performance, and usable MLC NAND flash capacities from 800GB to 3.2TB. The HH (half-length) RM84 model is also a performance leader enabling 2GB/s of sequential throughput, 250K of random IOPS performance and usable capacities from 300GB to 1.2TB.

ZOTAC unveiled a new bells and whistles-laden GeForce GTX 650 graphics card in the Greater China region, the GTX 650 Destroyer TSI (twin, silent, intelligent). The card combines a custom-design PCB with a sporty high-performance cooling solution. The PCB packs a strong (relative to this GPU) 3+1 phase VRM to power the factory-overclocked GPU.

The GPU is clocked at 1071 MHz, and the memory at 5.00 GHz. The card packs 2 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 128-bit wide memory interface. It relies on a 6-pin PCIe connector for power. Display outputs include two DVI, and one each of HDMI and DisplayPort. Moving on, the TSI cooling solution appears use a large monolithic aluminum heatsink ventilated by a pair of 70 mm fans, and a sporty cooler shroud that keeps up with the color scheme of its Extreme Edition cousins, which lends it a high-end feel. Pricing and availability is under the wraps, although this one is most likely meant only for Greater China.

Tacens announced the sixth-generation of its Radix series power supplies. The series includes 550W, 650W, 750W, and 850W models; all of which feature single +12V rail designs, and over 85% efficiency (according to the company), making them 80 Plus Bronze eligible. The 550W variant features a single 6+2 pin PCIe power connector, the 650W and 750W models feature two, and the 850W model features four. All four are cooled by 140 mm Aura Pro fans. In addition to the four standard Radix ATX v2.3 PSUs, Tacens also introduced two Radix Eco series PSU models, 500W and 400W. The Radix Eco 500W sticks to the standard ATX form-factor, while the 400W model is built in the SFF ATX form-factor. Both Eco models lack PCIe power connectors.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, will showcase its enterprise solid state virtualization solutions at this year's VMworld Barcelona 2012, Exhibit B414, located at the Fira Barcelona Gran Via -- North Entrance, Barcelona, Spain, from October 9th through October 11th.

Featured solutions include OCZ's fourth generation Z-Drive R4 PCI Express (PCIe) SSD and VXL cache and virtualization software that delivers industry-leading flash data caching into VMware virtualized server platforms. This VMware Ready solution distributes flash caching resources on-demand across virtual machines (VMs) to maximize performance, and distributes the flash between VMs based on need, making sure that no VM inefficiently occupies flash when it can be better used elsewhere in the environment. The end result is optimal utilization of flash cache regardless of how many VMs are running concurrently.

PLX Technology, Inc., a leading global supplier of high-speed connectivity solutions enabling emerging data center architectures, is welcoming attendees of the Intel Developers Forum (IDF), held this week in San Francisco at the Moscone West Convention Center, to witness a live demonstration of how PCI Express (PCIe) Gen3 performance is poised to challenge, replace or enhance all other interconnect technologies in the data center, including SAS, RapidIO, InfiniBand and Ethernet.

The first demonstration utilizes PLX PCIe Gen3 switches to showcase plug-and-play, box-to-box connectivity using cost-effective optical modules, connectors and cables -- without any special hardware or software -- can achieve the high performance required of new data center designs. The demonstration's highlights include a x4 PCIe configuration achieving 32 Gbps throughput via economical mini-SAS HD or dual-optical USB. The demonstration will also prove how "independent SSC" operation can be achieved without spread-spectrum clocking (SSC) isolation, showing that neither clock management, additional clock chips/buffers, nor protocol translations are needed, resulting in simple scalability and connectivity, lower connection costs and higher density.

Zalman introduced the ZM-LE series of entry-level PSUs for gaming PCs. Available in 400W and 500W variants, the ATX 2.3-compliant PSUs feature dual 12V rail design and twin forward switching topology, with secondary protection IC that protects against a variety of conditions, such as over/under voltage/load and short-circuit. The PSUs meet ErP 2010 Lot 6 energy-efficiency guidelines.

Featuring fixed and sleeved cabling the ZM-LE variants provide enough connectivity for an entry-mainstream gaming PC with a single graphics card. The 400W variant features a single 6-pin PCIe connector, while the 500W ups that with 6-pin + 8-pin. The units are cooled by a 120 mm temperature-controlled fan. According to the source, the ZM-LE series is originally manufactured by Fortron. The ZM-LE 400W sells for US $36, while the ZM-LE 500W can be had for $46.

Integrated Device Technology, Inc. (IDT), the Analog and Digital Company delivering essential mixed-signal semiconductor solutions, today announced the industry's first NVM Express (NVMe) enterprise non-volatile DRAM (NV-DRAM) controller with native support for PCIe Gen 3. The new NVMe NV-DRAM controller expands upon IDT's previously announced NVMe flash controller family to provide standards-based, high-density, high-performance PCIe-attached NV-DRAM solutions built around a combination of DRAM and NAND flash devices.

The IDT 89HF08P08AG3 NV-DRAM controller supports up to 32 GB of DDR3 SDRAM and 8 channels of NAND flash, with a PCIe x8 Gen 3 host interface. The controller is designed to fully comply with the NVMe standard - a standard that defines an optimized register interface, command set, and feature set for PCIe-based solid-state drives (SSDs). IDT's new PCIe NV-DRAM controller enables unparalleled read and write random performance with extremely low latency and high endurance, making it ideal for storage-intensive enterprise-class applications. The programmable controller provides OEMs the flexibility to quickly develop and deploy NV-DRAM solutions that use standard NVM Express drivers.

Other World Computing (OWC) www.macsales.com, a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, today introduced the OWC Mercury AccelsiorM, a Mac and PC-bootable, fully supported PCIe controller card that accepts any standard 50 mm mSATA Solid State Drive. By utilizing the fastest data interface available in a Mac Pro or PC-the PCIe slot-the Mercury AccelsiorM can offer data transfer speeds that exceed 3 Gb/s SSDs….up to 380 MB/s.

User-Friendly, Yet Robust for Demanding Uses
As easy to install as a memory module, yet robust enough to handle the rigors of professional multimedia production environments, the half-height AccelsiorM card is the clear choice for Mac Pro and PC owners who desire the maximum performance from their 3G data bus-based machines. Waiting for I/O-intensive apps like Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, or Avid Pro Tools to render, capture or process will become a distant memory; business critical applications are given an instant boost; and game level loading, object streaming, and save times can be reduced for more play time and less waiting.