Micron Technology announced during its Q3 FY-2015 earnings call, that it began shipping GDDR5 memory chips based on its 20 nm-class node. The company is reportedly shipping 8 Gb (1 gigabyte) GDDR5 memory chips. The company was last reported to be acquiring Japanese DRAM major Elpida, which also supplies GDDR5 chips to graphics cards, notebooks, and game console makers. The GDDR5 memory space has been saturated by companies such as Samsung and SK Hynix. The memory standard itself is on the brink of becoming obsolete; with AMD implementing HBM on its new high-end GPU, and NVIDIA expected to implement HBM with its upcoming "Pascal" GPU family. There is still quite a few GDDR5-equipped graphics cards to be sold, before HBM takes over GPUs of all market segments.

Essencore Limited, a noteworthy newcomer in DRAM modules and NAND Flash application products including Gaming Memory Modules, Solid State Drives, USB Flash Drives and MicroSD cards, is pleased to announce the sales kick-off in European countries with its brand "KLEVV". In attempt to expand its global presence and to accelerate growth, Essencore hopes that this KLEVV product launch will help to efficiently deliver its premium products to its European customer.

As a young company founded in 2014 by CEO IU Kim, Essencore strives to become world's leading vendor of both DRAM modules and NAND Flash application products. To achieve this goal, Essencore has introduced its house brand "KLEVV" with the industry's first-rate quality and best performing products. In a conscious move to strengthen brand awareness and products at this early stage, KLEVV will focus on the three key consumer markets of U.S., Europe and China. Of all regions, Europe is deemed to have the highest potential, with its huge population of tech enthusiasts. Starting in Germany, UK, and Poland in summer 2015, KLEVV products will soon be available in all corners of Europe.

Crucial, a leading global brand of memory and storage upgrades, today announced Crucial Ballistix DDR4 16GB performance memory. Ideal for gamers and enthusiasts who deal with content creation, virtual machines, RAM drives, and memory-intensive applications, the new Ballistix modules leverage Micron's new 8Gb DDR4 component technology to offer up the highest density DDR4 memory to date.

Until now, only expensive server systems have been able to reach these memory densities, but with Ballistix DDR4 16GB modules, users can achieve greater densities on high-end desktop systems like the latest Intel X99 platforms. Available across Sport LT, Tactical, and Elite product lines, each module includes Intel XMP 2.0 profiles for easy setup and support.

Patriot, a leading manufacturer of computer memory, USB/flash memory, SSDs, and mobile accessories, today extended their Viper 4 series of DDR4 memory to include new 64GB and 128GB quad kits designed for the latest Intel X99 DDR4 platform and Haswell-E processor.

Patriot's latest addition to their Viper 4 DDR4 line of extreme performance memory built for the most demanding environments will include a 64GB (4 x 16GB) and a 128GB (8 X 16GB) kits for the ultimate PC build. Testing in at 14-16-16-31 the Viper 4 64GB and 128GB will start at 2400MHz 1.2V with higher speeds to be announced at a later date. Designed for the PC enthusiast builder or content creator the latest capacity of Viper 4 DDR4 will take any build to the ultimate level of speed.

JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, the global leader in standards development for the microelectronics industry, has announced that its JC-45 Committee has approved the first standards for support of "hybrid" DDR4 memory modules which are defined as modules that plug into standard dual in-line memory module (DIMM) sockets and appear like a DDR4 SDRAM to the system controller, yet contain non-volatile (NV) memories such as NAND Flash on the module. These hybrid module families are referred to as Non-Volatile DIMMs, or NVDIMMs, and they may share the memory channel with other standard DDR4 DIMMs. Publication is expected later this year.

"The introduction of hybrid memory modules into system platform architectures adds new levels of functionality to the computer memory hierarchy," said Mian Quddus, Chairman of JEDEC's JC-45 Committee for Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) Modules. He added, "Non-volatile memory may be used for data persistence, mass storage, and the door is now opened for innovative new applications using the high speed of the DRAM channel. NAND Flash is the first non-volatile memory to be incorporated into the channel; however, the industry is poised for other memory types to be included as well. The framework established by JEDEC is flexible enough to allow for a variety of memories to be included under the 'hybrid' umbrella."

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash application products, is honored to announce that its XPG Z2 DDR4 3400 computer memory is able to clock up to 4034MHz when used with an air-cooled msi X99A XPOWER AC motherboard. This creates a new overclocking world record for production line DDR4 computer memory.

In cooperation with motherboard manufacturers, ADATA strives to achieve the best performance in DDR4 memory compliant with the Intel X99 architecture. The XPG Z2 DDR4 3400 breaks the record with extremely high clock frequency of 4034MHz, impressing both gamers and standard CPU clock users alike with outstanding sustained performance, cooling and stability.

Intel's Core "Skylake" processor lineup, built on the company's swanky new 14 nanometer fab process, drew heads to its rather high 95W TDP for quad-core parts such as the Core i7-6700K and Core i5-6600K, even though their 22 nm predecessors, such as the i7-4770K and the i5-4670K run cooler, at 84W TDP. A new leaked slide explains the higher TDP. Apparently, Intel is going all-out with its integrated graphics implementation on Core "Skylake" chips, including onboard graphics that leverage eDRAM caches. The company is promising as much as 50% higher integrated graphics performance over "Haswell."

Although the chips have high rated TDP, the overall energy efficiency presents a different story. SoCs based on "Skylake" will draw as much as 60% lower power than "Haswell" based ones, translating into 35% longer HD video playback on portable devices running these chips. Intel's graphics performance push is driven by an almost sudden surge in display resolutions, with standards such as 4K (3840 x 2160) entering mainstream, and 5K (5120 x 2880) entering the enthusiast segment. Intel's design goal is to supply the market with a graphics solution that makes the two resolutions functional on desktop and video, if not gaming.

Major pre-built desktop manufacturers began listing products driven by 5th generation Core "Broadwell" processors, which are having a brief stint at the markets before being replaced by 6th generation Core "Skylake" processors in Q3-2015. The 5th Generation Core family is led by two parts, the Core i5-5675C, and the Core i7-5775C, both of which come with unlocked base-clock multipliers, are based on Intel's new 14 nanometer silicon fab process, and built in the LGA1150 package, compatible with existing Intel 9-series chipset based motherboards, with BIOS updates.

The Core i5-5675C and i7-5775C aren't exactly successors of the i5-4690K and i7-4790K. The i7-5775C is placed in a product tier Intel calls "P1+," while the i5-5675C is placed in one called "MS2+." The two aren't exactly in the same plane as P1K (eg: i7-4790K) or MS2K (eg: i5-4690K), respectively, and don't qualify as P1 (eg: i7-4790 non-K) or MS2 (eg: i5-4690 non-K). The two still feature unlocked multipliers. This places them somewhere between P1K/MS2K and P1/MS2. Both the i5-5675C and i7-5775C are quad-core chips, and physically feature just 6 MB of L3 cache. The i7-5775C has access to all 6 MB of it, while the i5-5675K features just 4 MB.

Micron Technology, Inc., today announced the availability of ultra reliable, ultra high-speed and ultra high-temperature parallel NOR Flash and low-power DDR4 (LPDDR4) DRAM to meet the increasing memory requirements for the automotive market segment. Micron's G18 NOR family offers the industry's highest-performance parallel NOR, while Micron's automotive-grade LPDDR4 solutions are an industry-first.

These new products meet the needs of automotive applications that require ultra high speed. The G18 family's high performance (266 MB/s)enables faster boot and code execution for higher-density applications, while LPDDR4 enables 33 percent higher peak bandwidth than DDR4. Additionally, Micron's new solutions deliver long-lasting reliability and meet ISO/TS certification requirements-with the G18 family enabling three times faster throughput over quad SPI NOR, and the LPDDR4 products undergoing additional package-level burn-in testing. Furthermore, Micron's G18 NOR products have options that meet the industrial temperature (IT) range of -40 to 85°C and the automotive-grade automotive temperature (AAT) range of -40 to 105°C. The LPDDR4 products have options that meet the automotive-grade industrial temperature (AIT) range of -40 to 95°C, as well as some future options that will meet the automotive-grade ultra temperature (AUT) range of -40C to 125°C, which is the highest operating temperature range in the industry, expected to be available in 2016.

Boutique memory modules designer Avexir unveiled its flagship DDR3 memory module, the RAIDEN. This double-height module features a plasma tube on its top, which lights up with a blue lightning-effect, which could look awesome in cyberpunk case-mods. The module could pair particularly well with ASUS Z97 Sabertooth Mark S, ASUS X99 series, and MSI Krait series motherboards.

Form aside, the module has some pretty formidable specs - an 8-layer main PCB, XMP profiles of up to DDR3-2400 MHz, a machined aluminium heatsink drawing heat away from the DRAM chips, and hand-binned DRAM chips for the best overclocked performance. The RAIDEN comes in speeds of DDR3-1866 and DDR3-2400, densities of 4 GB and 8 GB, and in dual- and quad-channel kits that are combinations of the two top-level specs. Avexir didn't reveal pricing or availability.

With 4K-ready media center PCs upon us, Intel decided to equip one of its next-gen NUC (next unit of computing) desktops with one of its most powerful integrated graphics solutions, which can either accelerate 4K video, 1080p to 4K upscaling GPU algorithms (think MadVR), or make for a reasonably fast 720p or 900p gaming machine. The NUC5i7RYH from Intel features a Core i5-5557U processor, which integrates Iris 6100 Graphics. Based on the "Broadwell-GT3" silicon, Iris 6100 offers 48 execution units, between 300 and 1100 MHz GPU core frequency, and an L4 eDRAM cache. A passive cooling solution deals with this 28W TDP chip. Other specs include two DDR3-1866 SO-DIMM slots, supporting up to 16 GB of memory, HDMI 1.4a and DisplayPort 1.2 display-outputs, four USB 3.0 ports, including one high-current port.

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.

ATP, the leading industrial Flash storage and DRAM memory solution provider, will be showing its industrial-grade M.2 and the latest SATA III interface products (SlimSATA, mSATA, and CFast) and ATP Testing Capabilities at the upcoming Embedded World 2015 at the Messe Nuremberg International Center Germany from 24th to 26th of February. ATP will be located at Hall 1, Booth #651.

ATP's brand-new industrial-grade SATAIII M.2 type 2242 and 2260, targets industrial embedded applications, which demand Solid State Storage with high performance and proven reliability in thin/limited spaces and extreme temperature conditions. In addition to the built-in features, such as BCH ECC checking, S.M.A.R.T monitor, TRIM and Advanced Wear-Leveling, ATP M.2 has its Power Cycling Protection (PowerProtector) and Data Integrity Protection (AutoRefresh) to ensure it outperforms other similar solutions in the market.

Transcend Information, Inc. (Transcend), a leading manufacturer of industrial-grade products, is proud to announce the launch of the DDR4 memory module series. The series includes DDR4 2133 MHz UDIMMs, RDIMMs, ECC-DIMMs and ECC SO-DIMMs, which are fully compatible with the latest Intel Xeon E5-2600 v3 server family processor, Haswell-E CPU with X99 chipset and micro servers. Transcend's DDR4 series boasts superior performance, 1.2V ultra-low power consumption, and increased reliability. All these features make it perfect for cloud computing, virtualization, and high-performance computing technologies.

Transcend's DDR4 memory modules are constructed with top-quality DRAM chips that deliver stable performance and durability. With advanced DDR4 technologies, Transcend's DDR4 memory modules utilize higher density components, allowing capacity options ranging from 4GB to 32GB. Offering high speed transmission of 2133MHz and up to 17GB/s of memory bandwidth, Transcend's DDR4 DIMMs comprehensively promote the system performance.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, announced today that it is now mass producing the industry's first ePoP (embedded package on package) memory - a single memory package consisting of 3GB LPDDR3 DRAM, 32GB eMMC (embedded multi-media card) and a controller. For use in high-end smartphones, the extremely thin ePoP combines all essential memory components into a single package that can be stacked directly on top of the mobile processor, without taking any additional space - a distinct improvement over existing two-package eMCP memory solutions.

"By offering our new high-density ePoP memory for flagship smartphones, Samsung expects to provide its customers with significant design benefits, while enabling faster and longer operation of multi-tasking features," Jeeho Baek, Senior Vice President of Memory Marketing at Samsung Electronics. "We plan to expand our line-up of ePoP memory with packages involving enhancements in performance and density over the next few years, to further add to the growth of premium mobile market."

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, announced today that it has begun mass producing the industry's first 8 gigabit (Gb) GDDR5 DRAM, based on the company's leading-edge 20-nanometer (nm) process technology. GDDR5 is the most widely used discrete graphics memory in the world.

Designed for use in graphics cards for PCs and supercomputing applications, and on-board graphics memory for game consoles and notebook PCs, discrete graphics DRAM provides an extensive amount of bandwidth to process large high quality graphically-oriented data streams. With the rising popularity of 3-D games and UHD video content soon to be widespread, the need for high-performance, high-bandwidth graphics memory has begun to rapidly increase.

Kingston showed off its newest DDR4 memory modules, the HyperX Predator DDR4, and the HyperX Fury DDR4. Having first made its debut at PAX Prime, last August, the HyperX Predator DDR4 will be Kingston's flagship desktop memory module, with its tall compound aluminium heatsinks, chunky 10-layer PCBs with thick heat-dissipating copper layers, and some of the tightest memory timings, to go with some of the highest DRAM clock profiles, packed into their XMP profiles.

The HyperX Fury, on the other hand, will be Kingston's performance-value kit, coming in several sub-3000 MHz points. With a heatspreader that doesn't stick up beyond a standard module height, the HyperX Fury is targeted at high-end gaming PC builds, while the HyperX Predator targets enthusiasts and overclockers. Kingston set up a demo rig with a Core i7 "Haswell-E" processor, eight HyperX Predator modules running at DDR4-3000 speeds with around 64 GB/s of reads, 48 GB/s writes, and 67 GB/s mem-copy speeds, measured using AIDA64, with timings of 15-16-16-39-CR2T, and under stress from an FHD video playback.

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.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash application products, today launches the Gold Edition of its XPG Z1 DDR4 overclocking memory, clocking in at the outrageously high speeds of 3000/3200/3300/3333MHz. Besides supporting the latest Intel Haswell-E platform, ADATA's XPG Z1 Gold Edition DDR4 also provides ultimate performance for gamers, overclockers and PC enthusiasts, and also features higher power efficiency.

DDR4 memory surpasses legacy DDR3 with improved performance and lower power consumption. The operating voltage of XPG Z1 has decreased from 1.5V to 1.35V, a 10% reduction of power that helps your system operate at a lower temperature for more stable operation. With speeds of up to 3333MHz, CL16-16-16 timings and a transfer bandwidth reaching 26.6GB/s, the XPG Z1 Gold Edition provides unparalleled data transfer efficiency. In addition, the built-in Intel XMP 2.0 Serial Presence Detect (SPD) allows quick and easy installation without changing BIOS settings, all while facilitating full system usage and enhanced stability. This adds up to a true game-winner for overclockers seeking an extra edge.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, announced today that it has started mass producing the industry's first 8 gigabit (Gb), low power double data rate 4 (LPDDR4) mobile DRAM based on the company's leading-edge 20-nanometer (nm) process technology. LPDDR memories are the most widely used "working memory" for mobile devices worldwide.

"By initiating production of 20nm 8Gb LPDDR4, which is even faster than the DRAM for PCs and servers and consumes much less energy, we are contributing to the timely launch of UHD, large-screen flagship mobile devices," said Joo Sun Choi, Executive Vice President of Memory Sales and Marketing at Samsung Electronics. "As this major advancement in mobile memory demonstrates, we will continue to closely collaborate with global mobile device manufacturers to optimize DRAM solutions, making them suitable for next-generation mobile OS environments."

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."

The shrinking NAND Flash production costs resulting from the NAND Flash industry's improving technology are expected to boost demand for various end products, including SSDs and eMMCs, according to DRAMeXchange, a research division of TrendForce. NAND Flash industry value is expected to rise consistently in 2015, reaching as high as US$ 27.6 billion on annual growth of 12%.

Based on the tendency for new hardware devices to be released in the third and fourth quarters of each year and the likelihood of demand being restrained in the first two quarters, Sean Yang, an assistant vice president of DRAMeXchange, believes the NAND Flash market will thrive mostly during the second half of 2015 rather than during the first half. Increased NAND Flash demand in both the third and fourth quarters is expected to benefit the NAND Flash industry tremendously by easing any potential oversupply that occurs in the two preceding quarters and allowing the market to reach a potential balance. By the end of 2015, the NAND Flash industry has a good chance of remaining healthy and growth is expected to continue.

Cogent Computer Systems, a USA based provider of embedded ARM and x86 SOMs (System on Modules), introduces a new addition to the popular CSB17xx Product Family. The CSB1790 is a tiny System-on-Module built around AMD GX-420CA 2.0GHz quad-core SoC with a built in high-performance Radeon HD8400E GPU. Dual-Core and true Extended Temperature offerings provide unparalleled flexibility for all types of embedded x86 applications.

The CSB1790 uses Cogent's own MXM-2 based form factor which allows for full access to all of the CPU's functionality with no restrictions.The on-board SODIMM Memory socket allows up to 16GB DDR3L-1600 with ECC. With an on-board SSD socket the CSB1790 is highly optimized for SWaP (Size, Weight and Power) sensitive requirements.

Samsung Electronics announced that it is mass producing the industry's most advanced 8-gigabit (Gb) DDR4 memory and 32-gigabyte (GB) module, both of which will be manufactured based on a new 20-nanometer (nm) process technology, for use in enterprise servers.

"Our new 20 nm 8 Gb DDR4 DRAM more than meets the high performance, high density and energy efficiency needs that are driving the proliferation of next-generation enterprise servers," said Jeeho Baek, Vice President of Memory Marketing at Samsung Electronics. "By expanding the production of our 20 nm DRAM line-ups, we will provide premium, high-density DRAM products, while handling increasing demand from customers in the global premium enterprise market."

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash application products, today launches the Choice HC500 2.5" Hard Drive with TV recording support features. The HC500 external storage hard drive attaches to your smart television or PC via a super-fast USB 3.0 cable, and sports a sandblasted titanium or gold casing. Available in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities, the Choice HC500 Hard Drive comes with smart backup software that allows you back up data, and then set up your very own personal data cloud using a PC or smartphone.

Flawlessly crafted in either titanium or gold matte, the HC500 Hard Drive offers both the easy connectivity of directly attached personal data and TV media storage. For those who require direct connectivity, simply plug the hard drive into your PC or smart TV. Store and manage any kind of personal media via super-fast USB 3.0 on your PC, and then connect the HC500 to your smart TV to enjoy full-featured video capabilities such as playback, rewind and fast-forward. Too busy to enjoy your favorite TV programs? Just leave your Choice HC500 Hard Drive plugged into your television and record hours of movies and programs to enjoy later.