Corsair launched a new affordable high-density DDR3-1600 MHz dual-channel memory kit, model: CMZ16GX3M2A1600C9. The kit consists of two 8 GB modules, which operate at 1600 MHz (PC3-12800), with timings of 9-9-9-24, and DRAM voltage of 1.5V. The modules pack an Intel XMP v1.3 profile that enables the advertised speeds. Apart from these, the kit is built in the conventional Corsair Vengeance module design. It is expected to be priced at US $135.

SK Hynix Inc., today announced a joint development agreement and a technology license agreement with IBM for the development of Phase Change Random Access Memory (or 'PCRAM') technology.

IBM brings years of research experience in phase change memory technology, as well as profound know-how in developing multi-level cell (MLC) technology. Last June, IBM researchers demonstrated a reliable multi-bit, phase-change memory technology that would allow computers and servers to boot instantaneously and significantly enhance the overall performance of IT systems. Combining IBM's expertise in such disciplines with SK Hynix's cutting-edge manufacturing process optimization and cost competitiveness will help to accelerate the commercialization of PCRAM technology.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash storage application products, today announced the launch of new Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) and Secure Digital Extended Capacity (SDXC) Ultra High Speed I (UHS-I) U1 memory cards.

These latest additions to the company's Flash storage lineup bring breakthrough performance in speed and capacity, and are expected to strengthen the company's already formidable Premier Pro memory solutions.

Century Japan started selling a [relatively] affordable 16 GB DDR3-1600 MHz (PC3-12800) ECC Registered DIMM. The module runs at 1600 MHz with timings of 11-11-11, and has been tested on EVGA SR-X platform to achieve 192 GB (12 x 16 GB), scraping the address-space limits of Windows 7 64-bit client operating systems. The 240-pin RDIMM uses 36 Hynix-made DRAM chips. In Japan, Century's new 16 GB RDIMM is priced at 25,000 JPY (US $314) a pop. For reference, DDR3-1066 MHz 16 GB RDIMMs are priced around $300.

Corsair, a worldwide designer and supplier of high-performance components to the PC gaming hardware market, today announced the Dominator Platinum range of DDR3 memory kits, the world's most technologically-advanced performance memory. The new design adds a customizable light bar to the list of exclusive features, which includes patented DHX cooling, Corsair Link support, and hand-screened, super-overclockable DRAM ICs.

The new Dominator Platinum will be available in dual and quad-channel kits with 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB capacities, and frequencies up to 2800MHz. Dominator Platinum DDR3 memory is designed to fully exploit the performance potential of the latest Intel and AMD platforms, including the "Ivy Bridge" 3rd generation Intel Core processor family. All Dominator Platinum kits support Intel's latest XMP 1.3 profiles for easy performance tuning.

Corsair is finally giving its high-end DRAM family some love, with the new Dominator Platinum family of high-speed DDR3 memory modules. With it, the company also came up with its newest DRAM module heatsink design. The new DHX heatsink uses a revamped design that extracts heat from the DRAM chips more efficiently. At its top portion, the module features a user-swappable "light bar", which is purely an aesthetic touch. Further, the modules support Corsair Link, which lets the user monitor temperatures and voltages of each module via software, in real-time. Pictured below is a DDR3-3000 MHz variant of the Dominator Platinum. The module packs an XMP 1.4 profile for 3000 MHz (1500 MHz actual), with CAS latency of 12T.

According to a stock market analyst with Seeking Alpha, Corsair is going public, with an initial public offering (IPO), in an effort to raise US $78 million, with a market capitalization of $223 million. Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., and RBC Capital Markets, will be underwriting it. Corsair will use the name "Corsair Components", and market symbol "CRSR" in its IPO.

Corsair has two main branches of products, memory products (DRAM and NAND flash products), and peripherals (power supply, cases, and gaming peripherals). Its income fluctuates with consumers' seasonal purchasing patterns. The company plans to net $42.5 million from its IPO, some of its proceeds go toward repaying a cumulative debt of $28 million, the rest of the proceeds go toward working capital and general corporate purposes. An estimated 4.1 million shares are expected to be sold by Corsair.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a global leader in advanced semiconductor technology solutions, announced today that it has begun producing the industry's first four gigabit (Gb), low power double-data-rate 2 (LPDDR2) memory using 20 nanometer (nm) class* technology. The mobile DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chip, which went into mass production last month, will help the market to deliver advanced devices that are faster, lighter and provide longer battery life than today's mobile devices.

"Samsung began expanding the market for 4Gb DRAM last year with the first mass-produced 30nm-class DRAM, and now we are working on capturing most of the advanced memory market with our new 20nm-class 4Gb DRAM," said Wanhoon Hong, executive vice president, memory sales & marketing, Samsung Electronics. "In the second half of this year, we expect to strongly increase the portion of 20nm-class DRAM within our overall DRAM output to make the 4Gb DRAM line-up the mainstream product in DRAM production, and therefore keeping the leadership position in the premium market and strengthening our competitive edge."

Following a rapid turn of events, Micron Technology has emerged as a front-runner in the race to buy out ailing Japanese DRAM major Elpida. Elpida revealed Micron as the winner of the second round of bidding for the right to negotiate exclusively to buy it. DRAMeXchange predicts that Micron may offer up to 300 billion JPY (US $3.75 billion) for the deal, and the Micron+Elpida combine that emerges out of the deal, with its DRAM capacity, could bring about a revolutionary change in the industry.

The Elpida buyout, according to market analysts at TrendForce, will give Micron the capability to compete with Korean DRAM heavyweights SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, in high-volume DRAM manufacturing. Elpida has been known for investments in DRAM R&D, and isn't behind the two Korean companies in terms of volume manufacturing. Its 30 nm-class DRAM yield-rate is nearly mature, while the next-generation 25 nm process is in testing phase.

Japanese DRAM maker Elpida has been reporting chronic financial problems since the beginning of 2012. It soon filed for bankruptcy, driving interest in competitors Toshiba, Global Foundries, Micron and Hynix (SK Hynix), to acquire it. Hynix has now reportedly withdrawn from the Elpida takeover bid. The withdrawal is likely due to its own financial situation. Hynix is not the first to withdraw from the bid, the first to drop out was Toshiba. With the two gone, Micron Technology is next in line, with a bid of US $1.4 billion to buy out Elpida.

Green House Japan released a pair of new 8 GB DDR3-1333 MHz (PC3-10600) memory modules. These consist of the GH-DRT1333-8GB and GH-DVT1333-8GB, which are 240-pin standard DIMM, and differ by the former having lifetime warranty, while the latter has 5 year warranty; and GH-DNT1333 and GH-DWT1333, which are 204-pin SO-DIMM modules with lifetime and 5-year warranties, respectively. Both kinds of modules are JEDEC standards-compliant, and run at DDR3-1333 MHz speeds with CAS latency of 9T, and 1.50V DRAM voltage.

OCZ introduced a new high capacity variant of its Octane consumer SSD series, the OCT1-25SAT3-1T. Built in the 2.5-inch form-factor with SATA 6 Gb/s interface, the new Octane variant provides 1 TB of unformatted capacity. Based on the Indilinx Everest processor, the drive packs 25 nm MLC NAND flash, and utilizes 512 MB of DRAM cache. It is rated to provide sequential transfer speeds of up to 460 MB/s (reads), 330 MB/s (writes), with 4K read/write random access performance of up to 24,000 IOPS and 32,000 IOPS, respectively. All modern consumer SSD features are present, including TRIM, NCQ, ECC, and 256-bit AES data-encryption. Slated for mid-May, the Octane 1 TB by OCZ won't exactly be cheap.

Worldwide semiconductor revenues increased more than 3.7% year over year to $301 billion in 2011, according to the latest version of the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Semiconductor Applications Forecaster (SAF). The industry weathered the macroeconomic uncertainties in the U.S and Europe, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, China's slow down in the second half of the year, and floods in Thailand. Meanwhile, device applications, such as smartphones, media tablets and e-readers, automotive infotainment, notebook PCs, datacenter servers, and wireless and wired communication infrastructure drove robust consumption of semiconductors.

IDC's SAF tracks more than 100 semiconductor companies. Over 40 of these companies experienced year-over-year revenue growth greater than 5%, while about the same number of companies saw their revenue decline by more than 5%.

Embedded System Expo (ESEC) Japan 2012 will hold during May 9th to May 11th in Tokyo, and KINGMAX will demonstrate its series of industrial grade of FLASH storage products - SSD (Solid Sate Drive), memory cards, DRAM and embedded memory - on the booth WEST11-65. Leveraging more than 20 years of DRAM and FLASH expertise in R&D and manufacturing, KINGMAX will present a complete series of industrial solution which is not only at latest specification but also has been undergone strict reliability test and verification to ensure the most stable quality.

KINGMAX Group is the world first memory module manufacturer owning IC packaging and testing facilities, and has long been committed to the innovation of the best memory module solutions. Leveraging years of R&D and manufacturing competency, KINGMAX first-launched Industrial products include three categories: Industrial Storage, Industrial Memory and Embedded Memory. First, KINGMAX will exhibit a series of industrial SSD, including SATA III and SATA II SSD-both withstand wide operation temperature(-40℃~ 85 ℃. KINGMAX will also release mSATA SSD and Half-Slim SSD for Ultrabook and small form factor embedded systems.

The versatile new MI-HM65T Mini ITX motherboard from Giada is at home in all environments, including the factory floor, tough monitoring and control applications, embedded computing, office desks, and the home. Built around Intel's HM65 chipset and the Sandy Bridge platform, this motherboard brings users high performance and almost unlimited connectivity, with economical power consumption. It offers all the industry-standard features of a desktop PC in a tiny package, to support a wide range of applications.

Powered by Intel's fast Core i7, i5, i3 or Celeron 867 CPUs, supported by up to 4GB of memory, with onboard integrated graphics and video support, the Giada MI-HM65T can easily take care of almost any task you throw at it. This tough but tiny powerhouse handles industrial control, monitoring and automation applications as well as office and productivity, or home entertainment.

Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a global innovation leader in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications, today announced the industry's first 100 Gbps full duplex network processor unit (NPU). Enabling the next wave of 100GbE optimized switches and routers for service provider networks, the fully programmable BCM88030 family features 64 custom processors running at 1GHz, delivering more than 2X the throughput of any NPU on the market. With the industry's highest level of integration, the BCM88030 solution eliminates costly external components, dramatically reducing system cost and power by up to 80 percent per 10 GbE port.

In 2012, the number of connected devices is set to exceed the world's population with an estimated 7 billion devices connected to the network(1). By 2015, 90 percent of content viewed on mobile devices will be streaming video and application downloads are expected to reach 47 billion per year(1). To satisfy this overwhelming appetite for bandwidth, service providers around the globe are racing to transform their networks by adopting higher bandwidth links. Analysts estimate a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 170 percent from 2011 to 2016 for 100G Ethernet ports as service providers rush to meet this demand(2).

BOXX Technologies, the leading authority on dedicated rendering and innovator in high-performance computing systems for product design, visualization, engineering, visual effects, and more, today introduced the 3DBOXX 4925, the industry's first single Intel Xeon processor workstation with support for up to four GPUs. The latest addition to the BOXX 4900 series workstation line, 4925 enables users of Autodesk Revit, Autodesk 3ds Max, SolidWorks, CATIA, and other professional software applications, to simultaneously design and render without bogging down the processes.

An anonymous overclocker cracked a staggering DRAM speed (for dual-channel), using Intel Core i7-3770K processor (engineering sample) and ASUS Maximus V Gene motherboard, at DDR3-3256 MHz. The overclocker started off at DDR3-3153 (~1576 MHz actual) on boot, and carefully notched it up to DDR3-3256 (1628 MHz actual) in Windows. 16 GB of memory of an unknown make, was used.

What makes the feat impressive is that such DRAM clock speeds are difficult for dual-channel/multiple-module setups, and reserved only for single-module feats. Ahead of the launch of the 3rd Generation Core "Ivy Bridge" platform, every motherboard vendor is covertly showing off similar overclocking feats.A video recording of the feat follows.

G.Skill unveiled its newest line of memory for extreme overclocking, the Trident X. Its launch is timed to follow that of Intel's Core "Ivy Bridge" processor family, and is optimized for 7-series chipset motherboards (due to their support of latest Intel XMP 1.3 specification). Pictured below is what Trident X series modules look like: a black PCB with a slightly long black metal heatsink, which has a detachable crown heatsink (red). One can notice a slot for heat pipes in the juncture between the crown heatsink and the module's main heatsink.

Aesthetically, the Trident X series modules don a black+red color scheme, which goes well with the black+red motherboard in the background (in the press-shot). Pictured below are the DDR3-2400 MHz (PC3-19200) modules in dual-channel configuration. The XMP profile runs the module at its 2400 MHz DDR (1200 MHz real) speed, with timings of 10-12-12-31T, and DRAM voltage of 1.65V. The modules will be available in various other speed/timing configurations, and in densities of 4 GB and 8 GB, making up for 8 GB and 16 GB dual-channel kits, for the new "Ivy Bridge" platform; 16 GB and 32 GB quad-channel kits for the Sandy Bridge-E platform. The older Sandy Bridge LGA1155 platform might not be 100% compatible, since it lacks XMP 1.3 support. G.Skill Trident X will be formally announced on May 4.

With over-production, swelling-inventories, and cutthroat competition that doesn't allow even subtle price-increases, DDR3 is a lost-cause for DRAM makers such as Samsung. It is hence hedging its bets on the early arrival of DDR4, and the only company that can make that happen is Intel. Samsung is not only a major supplier of DRAM memory, but also a big player in server memory. It had its first DDR4 UDIMM ready as early as in January 2011. Reports of Intel slating DDR4-equipped platforms in 2013 has Samsung perturbed. Samsung and Hynix are the only two DRAM majors with developed DDR4 products. According to DigiTimes' analysis, DRAM vendors see DDR4 as the only way they can pull themselves out of their ailing situation.

Toshiba Corporation today announced the development of NPEngine, the world's first hardware engine for streaming servers that directly delivers video content from SSD to IP networks, without accessing the server's CPU or memory resources. NPEngine can simultaneously deliver up to 64,000 high quality video streams at a rate of 40Gigabit per sec, far surpassing the performance of a typical server, and reducing power consumption, the number of servers and the space required.

Toshiba will showcase a server integrating the NPEngine at the NAB show in Las Vegas, from April 16 to 19. Server products running NPEngine will be available this year.

Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC)*, a committed leader that collaborates with technology companies to create breakthrough designs, today announced that it has reached a milestone -- 2012 marks the 25th anniversary of Toshiba's invention of NAND flash memory.

Much has changed since 1987 -- the NAND flash market has grown rapidly, with flash memory shipping almost 8X more gigabytes (GB) in 2011 than DRAM. NAND flash has become the high density silicon storage of choice. NAND flash memory is used in a variety of memory cards and USB drives, and is found in many consumer, industrial and enterprise cloud applications. Toshiba's innovation has carved out a path to a new era in which consumers are able to carry videos, music, books and data with them wherever they go. Designed with a very small cell size to enable a low cost-per-bit of stored data,Toshiba's NAND flash technology is unleashing the mobility of content, thus fueling innovation in the development of products for everyone from consumers to enterprise.

Micron Technology, Inc., announced today that it reached an agreement with Oracle America Inc. to settle a lawsuit filed by Oracle against Micron in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

The lawsuit alleged a conspiracy to increase DRAM prices and other violations of federal and state antitrust and unfair competition laws based on purported conduct for the period from Aug. 1, 1998, through at least June 15, 2002, and sought joint and several damages, trebled, as well as restitution, disgorgement, attorneys' fees, costs and injunctive relief. Pursuant to the settlement agreement, the parties agreed to a settlement and release of all claims and a dismissal with prejudice of the litigation.

Micron Technology, Inc., today announced results of operations for its second quarter of fiscal 2012, which ended March 1, 2012. For the second quarter, the company had a net loss attributable to Micron shareholders of $224 million, or $0.23 per diluted share, on net sales of $2.1 billion. The results for the second quarter of fiscal 2012 compare to a net loss of $187 million, or $0.19 per diluted share, on net sales of $2.1 billion for the first quarter of fiscal 2012, and net income of $72 million, or $0.07 per diluted share, on net sales of $2.3 billion for the second quarter of fiscal 2011.

Transcend Information, Inc. (Transcend), a worldwide leader in storage and multimedia products, is proud to announce its launch of 16 GB DDR3-1600 Registered DIMM (RDIMM) and 8GB DDR3L-1333 Low Voltage RDIMM modules. Fully compatible with the latest generation of Intel Xeon and Core i7 processors, the cost-effective DDR3 memory modules provide increased memory density and higher performance, while significantly reducing power consumption.

As Transcend's highest density DDR3 module, the 16GB DDR3-1600 RDIMM is constructed with top quality 4 Gb DDR3 1 Gbx4 35nm DRAM chips that deliver stable performance and durability. A single 16 GB memory module can lower power consumption by a staggering 75% compared with using four 4 GB modules, thereby saving energy and costs. The 16GB DDR3 module is rated at 1600 MHz with low latency of 11-11-11-28 and an operating voltage of a mere 1.5V. Offering memory bandwidth up to 12.8 GB/s and the flexibility to expand maximum capacity to 96 GB (per processor), the 16GB DDR3-1600 RDIMM module allows administrators to create a robust infrastructure that runs memory-intensive applications such as virtualization and cloud computing with ease.