The Open NAND Flash Interface (ONFI) Working Group, the organization dedicated to simplifying integration of NAND Flash memory into consumer electronic devices, computing platforms, and industrial systems, today published the new ONFI 3.0 standard. By using the non-volatile DDR2 (NV-DDR2) interface, the newly ratified standard reaches speeds of up to 400 megabytes (MB)/sec, doubling the current NAND interface transfer rates.

The ONFI 3.0 standard details the interface and infrastructure that ONFI's more than 100 members can employ to develop products that deliver the industry's fastest NAND interface. Improvements in ONFI 3.0's NAND interface speeds will also enable future NAND controllers to achieve similar performance with half the number of channels, providing both a cost and space savings, which are key requirements for solid-state drive (SSD) design. The ONFI 3.0 incorporates a sophisticated die selection feature that reduces the number of chip enable (CE) pins, which in turn lowers the number of controller pins making PCB routing more efficient. Reducing the number of CE pins is especially important for SSDs, providing a significant cost reduction and allowing the extra pins to be assigned to other applications within the system.

Transcend Information, Inc., a global leader in storage and multimedia products, today announced the launch of its upgraded 2.5" solid state drives (SSDs). Built on a faster and newer controller, the revamped SSDs provide random read speeds of up to 40MB/s, resulting in significantly faster system boot up and application launch performance.

The newly released SSDs are available in 32GB, 64GB, 128GB and 256GB capacities. Thanks to their use of the new advanced controller chip and 64MB of built-in DDR2 DRAM cache memory, the new SSDs feature sequential read and write speeds up to 260MB/s and 240MB/s, and random read/write speeds of 40MB/s and 27MB/s. This dramatically improved performance not only reduces average system boot times, but also offers stutter-free response and stability for netbooks, notebooks, high-end gaming PCs and industrial computers. Users can also take advantage of their cool, noiseless operation to enjoy the perks of silent and practical computing.

ZOTAC International, a leading innovator and the world's largest channel manufacturer of graphics cards, motherboards and mini-PCs, today introduces three new do-it-yourself friendly mini-ITX platforms - the new ZOTAC ION-ITX R, S and T-series. The new ZOTAC ION-ITX R, S and T series reinvigorates the ION-ITX series with an added boost of graphics power.

Next-Generation NVIDIA ION graphics and a dual-core Intel Atom D525 processor combine to deliver a perfect balance of performance and energy-efficiency in the new ZOTAC ION-ITX R, S and T series. High-definition video playback capabilities enable the ZOTAC ION-ITX R, S and T series to deliver a premium multimedia experience with hardware decode acceleration for smooth playback of high-definition Blu-ray 3D and streaming Internet video content.

In the view of the demand for an ultra mini size platform with fanless design strongly inquired from customers, MSI IPC announces the latest 3.5" small form factor, I3-945GSE-D, based on the Intel Atom N270 processor and the Intel 945GSE chipset which gives devices based on it enhanced graphics and power-saving capabilities.

MSI I3-945GSE-D is fanless and comes to meet the requirements of an ultra-low power platform, especially in power input design, MSI I3-945GSE-D support wide range DC 9V ~ 36V inputs, and it also supports for numerous display, includes VGA and LVDS.

Leading flash memory manufacturer, Silicon Power today unleashes their new 2.5" SATA solid state drive (SSD) ~ E20, a new prospect in computer storage! The new E20 challenges SSD limitations with uniquely developed technology to boost read speeds up to 250MB/s and write speeds up to 230MB/s, both data transfer rates surpass the major SSD on the market today. In addition, E20 also supports TRIM Command. It is specifically for Windows 7 users, allowing for swift tens of seconds OS startup time and instant application and software use. For users using other OS, E20 provides Garbage Collection Technology. It enhances SSD's already strong performances and prevents poor computer responses from long hours of continuous use. It is the ingredient to achieving twice the result with half the effort.

ZOTAC International, a leading innovator and the world's largest channel manufacturer of graphics cards, motherboards and mini-PCs, today reinvigorates the DVD-format with the new ZBOX DVD series mini-PCs powered by Next-Generation NVIDIA ION technology. The new ZOTAC ZBOX DVD series packs energy-efficiency, hardware high-definition streaming acceleration and advanced video processing capabilities into a slim chassis to create the perfect home theater PC for DVD aficionados.

A power-packed combination of Next-Generation NVIDIA ION graphics processor and dual-core Intel Atom D525 processor power the ZOTAC ZBOX DVD series for superior graphics performance, system responsiveness and energy-efficiency. The Next-Generation NVIDIA ION graphics processor is the heart of the ZBOX DVD series and delivers hardware decode acceleration and Adobe Flash acceleration for smooth playback of online and offline high-definition media.

ZOTAC International, a leading innovator and the world's largest channel manufacturer, today introduces the new ZBOX HD-ID40 series - a new mini-PC powered by Intel Atom and NVIDIA Next-Generation ION technologies. The new ZBOX HD-ID40 packs full HD video playback capabilities, enhanced performance and greater expansion capabilities into a miniature form factor that can fit virtually anywhere.

An Intel Atom D525 dual-core processor with Intel Hyper Threading technology provides smooth multi-tasking capabilities for quick responsiveness with everyday applications and computing tasks with the ZOTAC ZBOX HD-ID40 series. Next-Generation NVIDIA ION graphics processing equips the ZOTAC ZBOX HD-ID40 series with rich multimedia capabilities for playback of Blu-ray movies and streaming high-definition content.

Team Group Inc. has been receiving tremendous feedback and support from power users since its launch of the SSD products. Eyeing at the increasing demand for laptop Hard Drives upgrade to SSD, Team thus launches the third model of the Combo Family, Combo II Elite. It is equipped with SATA2 and USB2.0 dual interface that fulfills the consumer's demand for low power consumption and high-performance mobile storage. The Combo II Elite will absolutely be the perfect choice for laptop upgrade.

An improved version of the Combo II, the Combo II Elite is also equipped with built-in 64MB DDR2 memory. With the research & development, the input/output per second (IOPS) has been enhanced significantly. When compared with the 4K data block for reading and writing small files tailored for operating systems in general SSDs, the Combo II Elite has increased the writing speed up to 40% faster. Along with the extremely low lag time, users can immediately experience system startup at superb speed when installing the Combo II Elite as the system disk in any laptops. The same experience is also found when opening programs, and running image processing software with no presence of lag. Therefore, the Combo II Elite is a perfect partner that meets the demands of art designers and brings more perfect experience than any conventional hard disk drives.

After AMD's recent mass-release of Athlon II and Phenom II series processors that included the Phenom II X6 1070T Black Edition priced at around $250, AMD is working on a new flagship processor that's even faster than the Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition (the current flagship), given the model number Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition (surprise!), and as always, it's yet another speed-bump. This chip is based on the 45 nm Thuban die, and is clocked a whole 100 MHz faster, at 3.30 GHz, with a Turbo Core frequency of 3.70 GHz. Surprisingly, it retains its TDP rating of 125W. As with every other chip based on this die, it features six cores with 128 KB L1, 512 KB L2 dedicated caches, and 6 MB L3 shared cache, it comes in the AM3 package and is backwards compatible with AM2+, supporting dual-channel DDR3-1333 and DDR2-1066 memory standards.

The 1100T Black Edition isn't the only new Phenom II series member down the line, there's the Phenom II X6 1065T (2.90 GHz, non-BE, 3.40 GHz Turbo); the slower Phenom II X6 1045T (2.50 GHz, non-BE, 3.20 GHz Turbo), and the company's next fastest quad-core chip, the Phenom II X4 975 (3.60 GHz, Deneb). It's not known whether the X4-975 is a Black Edition SKU.

PhotoFast is working on yet another monster SSD, this time one that uses the PCI-Express x8 interface (fits inside x16 slots), the GMonster PowerDrive-LSI. As the name suggests, some of the drive's chippery (such as storage controller) is made by LSI, which runs an internal (abstract to OS) RAID a number of SSD modules. If 2 GT/s interface was any indication of the drive's speeds, then here goes: 1,400 MB/s read; 1,500 MB/s write. The controller has its own 512 MB of dedicated DDR2 memory. The GMonster PowerDrive-LSI comes in capacities of 240 GB, 480 GB, and 960 GB. It has a rated MTBF of 1.5 million hours. It is slated for next month. Once again, PhotoFast did not give out pricing.

ZOTAC International, a leading innovator and the world's largest channel manufacturer of graphics cards, motherboards and mini-PCs, today announces the new ZOTAC ZBOX Blu-ray series mini-PCs -- the world's first shipping mini-PCs with an integrated slot-load Blu-ray drive and slim and stylish design. The new ZOTAC ZBOX Blu-ray mini-PCs combine a powerful graphics processor with an energy-efficient system processor, premium integrated features and class-leading expansion capabilities to form mini-PCs capable of deliver premium high-definition video playback online and offline.

Next-Generation NVIDIA ION graphics technology with 16 unified shaders and 512MB of DDR3 memory enables the ZOTAC ZBOX Blu-ray series to deliver stunning high-definition Blu-ray video playback at resolutions up to 1080p. Hardware-accelerated Adobe Flash video support enables smooth playback of streaming high-definition content.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, announced today that it has expanded its 'Green Memory' initiative going beyond DRAM and solid state drives (SSDs) to include several memory products for PC and mobile application areas. At the seventh annual Samsung Mobile Solutions Forum being held here today, Samsung announced that its 'Green Memory' initiative will now include Samsung LPDDR2 and GDDR5 green memory as well as its GreenDDR3 and Green SSDs.

Stepping up its efforts to increase worldwide interest in Green IT products and eco-friendly solutions, a new website has been launched to promote the expanded initiative to OEM customers and consumers. It provides detailed information on Samsung's green product strategies and green-focused partners, for all three market areas, as well as industry-wide green IT trends.

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced it latest Mini-ITX board, the VIA EPIA-M840, designed for a range of embedded device designs including advanced industrial and factory management applications.

The VIA EPIA-M840 packs the latest 64-bit VIA Nano E-Series processor, dual Gigabit LAN, eight COM ports and support for two dual channel 24-bit LVDS displays, creating the ideal backbone for a range of embedded applications including intelligent industrial automation applications that integrate remote network access, network management and other advanced application management scenarios.

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the new VIA EPIA-M830 Mini-ITX board. Designed specifically to meet the needs of next generation kiosk, POI and POS applications, the VIA EPIA-M830 places the latest 64-bit, high performance VIA Nano E-Series processor in a streamlined, application specific Mini-ITX form factor board.

Kiosk and POS systems will soon support an incredible array of increasingly complex human-machine interactions that reach beyond traditional ticketing or retail scenarios. The VIA EPIA-M830 is designed to take the kiosk to this next phase, providing the backbone of devices that offer cashless purchasing and self service infrastructures in supermarkets and gas stations as well as more secure and interactive, multimedia-rich POI, lotto and gaming machines.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced semiconductor technology solutions, today announced that it is ramping up 40-nm class production of high-density DDR3 memory chips to accommodate increased demand in server applications. The recent launch of Intel Corporation's Intel Xeon processor 5600 Series, as well as the introduction of Xeon 7500 processors support the growing industry demand for enhanced performance and low power platform solutions, especially when paired with DDR3 memory.

Samsung's DDR3 - the industry best-selling DDR3 - enables OEMs to use up to 192 gigabytes (GBs) on a Xeon 5500 platform (16GBx12) with at least a 73 percent improvement in power consumption at 1.35 volts, when accompanied by the Xeon 5600 processor. DDR3 has double the memory bandwidth of DDR2, with speeds up to 1333 Megabits per second (Mbps). With the new Xeon 7500 platform, OEMs can use up to 1 terabyte per 4-socket system and with more sockets, can easily scale to memory densities 2 TBs and higher. Later this year, Samsung's 4 Gigabit (Gb) DDR3 chips and modules also will be available for use with the latest Xeon platforms and processors.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced semiconductor technology solutions, today announced the industry's first multi-chip package (MCP) with PRAM - for use in mobile handsets beginning later this quarter.

The 512 megabit Samsung PRAM in the MCP is backward compatible with 40 nanometer-class* NOR flash memory in both its hardware and software functionality, allowing mobile handset designers the convenience of having multi-chip packaging fully compatible with past stand-alone PRAM chip technology. PRAM is expected to be widely embraced by next year as the successor to NOR flash in consumer electronics designs, to become a major memory technology.

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the VIA Nano E-Series processor, bringing native 64-bit software support, virtualization capabilities and extended longevity support to embedded markets.

The move to 64-bit software architecture is an essential transition for the future of the embedded industry. Forthcoming operating systems such as Windows Embedded Standard 7 will be able to leverage a 64-bit software eco system that provides up to double the amount of data a CPU can process per clock cycle. This translates in to greater ease in manipulating large data sets and an overall performance boost compared to non-native 64-bit architectures.

Patriot Memory, a global pioneer in high-performance memory, NAND flash and computer technology, today announced the addition of the Zephyr series to its family of solid-state-drives (SSDs). The Zephyr series of SSD offer improved system responsiveness with quicker boot times and shorter application loading times over traditional hard disk drive storage solutions.

Patriot's Zephyr series, available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB capacities, is designed around the latest generation controller from JMicron: JMF612. With a controller level cache of 64MB DDR2, the Zephyr series provide stutter-free performance and offer speeds of up to 240MB/s Read and 180MB/s Write. To maintain performance integrity over the life of the drive, the Zephyr series SSDs include native support for the TRIM command in Microsoft Windows 7.

A set of new slides by AMD to sections of the industry spills the beans on AMD's processor offer outlook for perhaps the rest of the year. It shows AMD to maintain focus on value-oriented models that etch away Intel's market share on grounds of price/performance, while the higher-end of the spectrum keeps up with the latest technologies including the industry-wide advent of the six-core processor era, as well as new power-state management technologies such as TurboCore, which steps up clock speeds of certain cores of the processors while powering down others, which the load is low or less-parallel.

Front-line processor lineups include the Phenom II X6, and Phenom II X4, including a new T X4 series that includes TurboCore support. AMD's transition towards these chips from the existing Deneb-based quad-core ones starts within this quarter lasting throughout Q2 and part of Q3 2010. It includes Phenom II X4 960T, a 3.00 GHz (3.40 GHz turbo) chip based on the Zosma die. It goes up with the Phenom II X6 1035T, a six-core chip clocked at 2.60 GHz (3.10 GHz turbo). A notch higher up is the Phenom II X6 1055T, clocked at 2.80 GHz (3.30 GHz turbo), which comes in 95W and 125W variants. At the top is the Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition, an overclocker-friendly chip that runs at 3.20 GHz (3.60 GHz turbo). A little later in Q3, AMD will add in the Phenom II X6 1075T, clocked at 3.00 GHz (3.50 GHz turbo).

SPARKLE Computer Co., Ltd., the professional VGA card manufacturer and supplier, today announced the SPARKLE GeForce 210 1GB Graphics Card with 128-bit video memory design, bringing impressive graphics processing power to your PC at an incredible value.

Based on NVIDIA's next generation G210 architecture, the SPARKLE GeForce 210 1GB Graphics Card adopts innovative unified architecture, dynamically allocates processing power to geometry, vertex, physics, or pixel shading operations, delivering up to 2x the gaming performance of prior generation GPUs. Built upon technologies such as NVIDIA Lumenex Engine, providing support for DirectX 10.1 Shader Model 4.0, NVIDIA Quantum Effects technology for physics computation and GigaThread Technology for extreme processing efficiency in advanced, next generation shader programs.

SPARKLE Computer Co., Ltd., the professional VGA card manufacturer and supplier, today unveils the SPARKLE GeForce 210/GT220/GT240 Low Profile Silent Series Graphics Cards with low profile design, addressing, fulfilling and exceeding the HTPC users' demand on silent working, power consumption and HD video in small HTPC cases.

The SPARKLE GeForce 210/GT220/GT240 Silent Series Graphics Cards are a half-height video cards suitable for small form-factor, book size and home theatre PCs users that desperately want a dedicated HDMI jack on the cheap.The SPARKLE GeForce 210/GT220/GT240 Silent Series Graphics Cards can be easily installed in narrow space HTPC chassis. So the SPARKLE GeForce 210/GT220/GT240 Silent Series Graphics Cards not only can easily meet the HD video playback and DX10.1 gaming demand from HTPC users, but also can easily satisfy the requirements from SSF, mini-chassis and industry PCs which demand compact and practical graphics cards.

In ASUS' latest entry into its EeeBox series of nettops, the company adds support for USB 3.0, with the unit featuring two SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports. The EeeBox EB1501U is about the shape and size of any variant in its series. It uses first-generation NVIDIA ION platform, with Intel Atom 330 dual-core processor, 2 GB of DDR2 memory, GeForce 9400M graphics, 320 GB hard drive, slot-in DVD writer, gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, and a USB 3.0 controller. Other connectivity features include eSATA, USB 2.0, and display connectivity including HDMI and D-Sub.

Mushkin Enhanced, a global leader in high-performance computer products, announced today the release of 'Ridgeback', a new heatsink designed for the gaming and enthusiast communities. The initial series of Ridgeback kits will offer DDR3-1600 performance for Intel's LGA1366 and LGA1156 platforms at two different latency levels, as well as a DDR2-1066 solution. In the near future, kits for AMD's AM3+ and other platforms will be available.

"The Ridgeback Project has been an exciting project for both myself and our marketing department. We've worked hard to develop this world-class memory cooling solution. Ridgeback will help ensure that modules work well in intense, high-labor scenarios and will also look elegant in many types of installations," said Brian Flood, director of product development.

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the VIA ART-3000, a complete, fanless and ruggedized embedded box system based on the unique I/O-rich Em-ITX form factor, offering the ideal solution for a variety of industrial applications.

Available as a complete system including drives and memory, the fanless VIA ART-3000 combines a number of unique features including diskless booting, excellent vibration and shock resistance, dual Gigabit networking and dual LVDS video support. Ruthlessly low power consumption means the VIA ART-3000 can also support fanless configurations with no moving parts making it ideal for ultra stable, mission critical implementations.

ASUS' Eee Box EB1501 nettop released late last year got a Blu-ray variant with the EB1501-B0367. This variant has a slot-in Blu-ray drive, and is geared to be an aesthetic HTPC companion when paired with an external HDD. The Eee Box EB1501 is based on the NVIDIA ION platform, it which makes use of an Intel Atom 330 dual-core processor along with NVIDIA ION chipset. The chipset embeds GeForce 9400M graphics, which accelerates HD video, and can handle Blu-ray playback, and 1080p displays. Other specifications include 320 GB of storage, 2 GB of DDR2 memory, HDMI and D-Sub for display connectivity, WiFi, and Windows 7 Home Premium OS. It is expected to be priced at $620.