SanDisk today announced the SkyHawk and SkyHawk Ultra lines of enterprise SSDs. Built in the 12 mm-thick 2.5-inch form-factor, the drives feature PCI-Express 3.0 x4 interface over U.2 or SATA-Express connections. The drives incorporate high-endurance 15 nm MLC NAND flash memory. The SkyHawk series includes 1920 GB and 3840 GB variants, and offer transfer speeds of up to 1500 MB/s reads, with up to 1700 MB/s writes; up to 250,000 IOPS 4K random reads, and up to 47,000 IOPS 4K random writes. Its MTBF is rated at 2 million hours, and it is backed by a 5-year warranty.

The more premium SkyHawk Ultra series comes in 1600 GB and 3200 GB variants, with sequential transfer speeds of up to 1700 MB/s reads, and up to 1200 MB/s writes, up to 250,000 IOPS random reads, with up to 83,000 IOPS random writes. These drives offer nearly triple the durability of the SkyHawk (standard) series, with 1.7 DWPD (vs. 0.6 DWPD of the SkyHawk standard); although their MTBF are rated the same, at 2 million hours, and are backed by the same 5-year product warranties.

Adding to their SSD lineup, Mushkin, which makes some really interesting, good price-performance ratio products has recently announced the upcoming availability of their Helix line of M.2 2280 SSDs. Based on Silicon Motion's SM2260 controller paired with 3D MLC NAND, Mushkin positions the Helix line as a premium, high-performance offering for desktops and laptops alike. Models will vary from a 250 GB entry-level offering thorugh a 2 TB high-end SKU, with the 2 TB version offering sequential read performance at up to 2.5 GB/s and write performance at up to 1.1 GB/s, when Silicon Motion's pseudo-SLC caching technology is used to its best effect.

ADATA showed off its SX950 Gaming mid-range SSD. Built in the 7 mm-thick 2.5-inch form-factor, with SATA 6 Gb/s interface, the SX950 comes in capacities of up to 960 GB. It appears to be based on a Phison-made controller, wired to 3D MLC NAND flash memory. It offers sequential transfer speeds of up to 560 MB/s reads, with up to 530 MB/s writes. The drive features SLC caching, in which the controller treats a user-abstract portion of the MLC NAND area as fast SLC, by writing only one bit per cell, and juggling data in and out of this area based on its "heat." The drives are backed by 5-year warranties.

PNY announced the CS2030 line of high-performance SSDs in the M.2-2280 form-factor. The drives take advantage of PCI-Express 3.0 x4 (32 Gb/s M.2 slots), and the NVMe protocol, and are available in two capacities - 240 GB and 480 GB. Combining a Phison PS5007 controller with MLC NAND flash memory, the drives offer sequential transfer-rates of up to 2,750 MB/s reads, with up to 1,500 MB/s sequential writes. 4K random access performance is rated by the manufacturer at up to 210,000 IOPS reads, and up to 215,000 IOPS writes. Backed by 3-year warranties, the 240 GB variant is priced at US $179.99, and the 480 GB variant at $329.99.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of highperformance DRAM modules, NAND Flash products, and mobile accessories today launchedthe Ultimate SU900 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s SSD, which signals further expansion in 3D NAND Flash storage. The SU900 delivers high-grade 3D MLC NAND and uses the SMI 2258 controller. Most importantly, it offers up to 2TB capacity, reinforced by performance-boosting SLC Cache Buffer and DRAM Cache. For data integrity, the SU900 offers LDPC error correction, data shaping, wear leveling, and RAID Engine. It reaches 560MB/s read and 525MB/s write, and includes a 2.5mm spacer and 3.5" bracket in the box. ADATA provides a 5-year warranty with the drive.

The time has come for 3D NAND SSDs to realize their higher density potential, and so the SU900 lineup includes a 2TB model. However, consumers can choose 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB variants based on needs and budgets. Flash on the SU900 is high-grade 3D MLC (multi-level cell), ensuring improved reliability, longevity, and performance. The SSD employs an SMI 2258 controller, pushing 560MB/s read, 525MB/s write, and 85K/90K IOPS. Thanks to ADATA sorting and quality assurance, the SU900 has a TBW (total bytes written) of up to 800TB and an MTBF (mean time before failure) of 2,000,000 hours.

Business. Business never changes. Whether you're for Keynes or Hayek, some truths just can't be escaped: and the one based on the market tending to equilibrium between the forces of supply and demand is oft times almost akin to a law of physics - other times, not so much. This time, it appears as if the market forces are steering NAND prices through the roof. The causes? Varied, though you probably carry one of them in your pocket most of the time. We earlier reported surging prices in the DRAM market, spurred by the Note 7 fiasco and increased production of that smartphone's competitors (and Samsung's own products) to fill the gaping hole left by its forcible market removal. But not only by DRAM are smartphones powered - they also make use of NAND flash.

SMART High Reliability Solutions ("SMART HRS"), a provider of current and next-generation solid-state storage solutions specializing in ruggedized, high-performance and high-capacity solid-state drives ("SSDs") for defense, aerospace and industrial markets, today announced its HRS-M1 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s SSD. The M1 has been successfully sampled with key customers and is now available in volume quantities to qualified customers.

Emphasizing the company's exclusive focus on highly ruggedized, reliable and secure solid-state storage solutions, the HRS-M1 is packaged in a high strength, industrial designed enclosure to protect it from harsh elements. The M1 is designed and tested per MIL-STD-810 to operate in high shock and vibration applications at industrial operating temperatures of -40°C to +85°C. The HRS-M1 is also certified for operation at altitudes up to 80,000 ft.
"Our engineering teams have worked closely with our customers to identify their application requirements. We've then pushed the limits of design with solutions that exceed expectations. Whether it is performance, security or environmental based requirements, our products must always function at the highest level," said Michael Guzzo, General Manager of SMART HRS.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash products, today launched theXPG SX8000 SSD, which uses an M.2 form factor loaded with 3D MLC NAND Flash and an SMI 2260controller. The SX8000 meets NVMe 1.2 specifications and connects directly to motherboards via PCI Express 3.0 x4 (PCIe 3x4) to deliver 2.4GB/s read and 1GB/s write, with 100K/140K IOPS. The SX8000 arrives in diverse capacities (128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB), ensuring a new generation of SSD performance is available to more users. A slightly faster version fitted with an attractive XPG heatsink will release by the end of October, promising an aesthetic bonus for case modding enthusiasts.

The XPG SX8000 connects to desktop and notebook PCs via low profile M.2 2280 and channels data through PCI Express 3.0 x4 (four lane). The low latency and big bandwidth of PCIe enable up to 2.4GB/s read and 1GB/s write - four times the read and twice the write performance of average SATA 6Gb/s SSDs. Random 4K IOPS figures are 100K read and 140K write, also significantly more than SATA-based drives.The SX8000 features full NVMe 1.2 compatibility, powering a large performance boost that means users notice gains in real world scenarios, especially loading times within games that require heavy asset streaming and in professional applications such as graphics and audio rendering.

Toshiba company OCZ today announced the new VX500 line of performance SSDs in the 2.5-inch form-factor, featuring SATA 6 Gb/s interface. The drives are based on a new-generation platform by OCZ's parent company Toshiba. The drives combine Toshiba TC358790 controller with 15 nm MLC NAND flash memory chips by Toshiba. The drives come in capacities of 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB, and offer price/GB comparable to TLC NAND flash-based drives; yet with performance comparable to high-end MLC NAND flash drives.

All four variants offer up to 550 MB/s sequential reads. The 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB variants offer up to 485 MB/s, 510 MB/s, 515 MB/s, and 515 MB/s of sequential writes, respectively. Random access performance is rated around 90,000 IOPS reads, with up to 65,000 IOPS writes. The 128 GB variant is priced at US $63.99, the 256 GB variant at $92.79, the 512 GB variant at $152.52, and the 1 TB variant at $337.06. The drives are backed by 5-year warranty. Acronis TrueImage disk cloning software comes included.Read our review of the VX500 512GB here.

Crucial today, in a statement to TechPowerUp stated that it has canceled the Ballistix TX3 PCIe solid-state drive launch. The company canceled the product on the basis of "prioritization of company resources and investments." The company however stated that it will continue to develop SSD products that target the gamer-enthusiast market that the Ballistix TX3 PCIe was intended for. "We are, however, continuing to explore potential opportunities for future gaming products and will provide an update as new plans are formalized," the company stated.

Crucial first unveiled the Ballistix TX3 at the 2016 Computex Expo, where it demonstrated its M.2 variants. The drives combined Silicon Motion's new SMI2260H processor with Micron-made 3D MLC NAND flash memory. The drive took advantage of 32 Gb/s PCIe and the new NVMe protocol to offer transfer rates up to four times higher than current performance-segment SATA 6 Gb/s SSDs.

CORSAIR, a world leader in enthusiast memory, PC hardware and components today announced the launch of its latest range of solid state drives, the Neutron Series XTi. With a blisteringly quick quad-core Phison controller and performance MLC NAND, Neutron Series XTi offers SATA 6Gbps-saturating transfer speeds of up to 560 MB/sec and excellent sustained performance consistency with even the most demanding of workloads.

Available initially in capacities of 240 GB, 480 GB and 960 GB, Neutron Series XTi will also become CORSAIR's first 1920 GB SSD in the near future, combining SSD performance with HDD capacity. With top-tier performance, reliability and consistency, the CORSAIR Neutron Series XTi meets the high-performance storage needs of the most discerning PC gaming enthusiasts and content creation professionals alike.

Plextor also unveiled the M8Pe lines of SSDs that take advantage of the 32 Gb/s PCIe interface. These include the M.2-2280 form-factor M8PeG series, and the PCI-Express add-on card form-factor M8PeY series. Both drives come in sizes of 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB; and are driven by Marvell 88SS1093 series processors, wired to Toshiba-made MLC NAND flash memory.

The 128 GB variants of both drives offer up to 1,600 MB/s reads, with up to 500 MB/s writes, with up to 120,000/130,000 IOPS R/W 4K random access; the 256 GB variants offer up to 2,000 MB/s reads with up to 900 MB/s writes, and 210,000/230,000 IOPS random access; the 512 GB variants offer up to 2,300 MB/s reads with up to 1,300 MB/s writes, and 260,000/250,000 IOPS random access; while the 1 TB variants lead the pack with up to 2,500 MB/s reads, up to 1,400 MB/s writes, and 280,000/240,000 IOPS random access.

Plextor unveiled the EP2 line of SSDs that take advantage of 32 Gb/s PCIe, and come in two form-factors, M.2-22110 and U.2 2.5-inch. Both drives combine a Marvell-made processor with up to 1 GB of DDR3 DRAM caches, and Toshiba-made 15 nm MLC NAND flash. Both drives support the ATA protocol. The M.2-22110 drive comes in 960 GB capacity, and offers sequential transfer rates of up to 2,200 MB/s reads, with up to 800 MB/s writes, up to 270,000 IOPS 4K random reads, and up to 150,000 IOPS 4K random writes. The company didn't put out performance numbers for the U.2 variant. We did manage to get some up-close pics of its PCB, though, revealing a rich array of capacitors that could amount to power-outage protection.

Patriot Memory unveiled its flagship Hellfire line of SSDs, which take advantage of 32 Gb/s PCIe host interface, and the NVMe protocol, to belt out transfer rates that are 5-6 times those of SATA 6 Gb/s drives. The drives come in M.2-2280 and PCIe add-on card form-factors. Both drives combine Phison 5007 PCIe SSD processors with MLC NAND flash memory. The drives take advantage of the latest NVMe 1.2 protocol.

The add-on card variant comes in capacities of 480 GB and 960 GB, while the M.2-2280 variant comes in 240 GB, 480 GB, and 960 GB. Both drives feature 512 MB DDR3 DRAM caches. The add-on card variant offers sequential speeds of up to 3,000 MB/s reads with up to 2,200 MB/s writes, with up to 150,000 IOPS 4K random-reads, with up to 230,000 IOPS 4K random writes. The M.2-2280 variant offers the same sequential speeds, but with up to 116,000 IOPS 4K random reads, and up to 210,000 IOPS 4K random writes.

Crucial is ready with a high-performance SSD in the M.2 form-factor, which leverages 32 Gb/s PCI-Express, and the NVMe protocol to belt out four to five times the read/write performance of SATA 6 Gb/s SSDs. The new Crucial Ballistix TX3 line of M.2 SSDs features the Silicon Motion SMI2260H processor, mated to Crucial-made 3D (stacked) MLC NAND flash, cushioned by a large DRAM cache. A similar setup is found on the ADATA SX8000NP, and the sequential speeds of that drive are rated at up to 2,000 MB/s reads, with up to 800 MB/s writes.

A new entrant to the client SSD space, Maxiotek showed off its first controllers for SATA client drives. The first two controllers launched include the Maxiotek MK8113, designed for drives with DRAM caches, and the MK8115, designed for cost-effective DRAM-less NAND flash drives. The MK8113 support 2D and 3D (stacked) MLC, and 2D SLC NAND flash, with capacities of up to 2 TB. The MK8115, on the other hand, supports 3D (stacked) TLC NAND flash in addition to 2D SLC, 2D and 3D MLC, with capacities of up to 1 TB. Both controllers support the latest native encryption standards, including 256-bit AES, SM4, SED, and TCG-OPAL. Exclusive features include AgileECC (an efficient ECC method), WriteBooster (garbage collection and TRIM), Frequency Throttling (power management), and VPR (virtual parity recovery). ADATA is one of the launch partners, and already has an MK8115-based drive.

ADATA also unveiled its SR1030 SSD targeted at workstation/enterprise builds. The drive ticks on a Seagate (ex-SandForce) SF-3514 processor, wired to 3D MLC NAND flash, and comes in capacities ranging between 128 GB to 1 TB, with sequential read/write performance rated at up to 560 MB/s reads, with up to 530 MB/s writes. You get a lot of SandForce-made features such as DuraWrite (garbage collection enhancement), Shield and RAISE (protection).

ADATA showed off its flagship M.2 PCIe SSD lineup, the SX8000NP. These drives will target a price-performance sweetspot between the fastest SATA drives, and the enthusiast M.2 ones. They're driven by a Silicon Motion SMI2260H processor, wired to 3D (stacked) MLC NAND flash memory. This drive takes advantage of PCI-Express 3.0 x4, and the new NVMe protocol, to serve up sequential transfer rates of up to 2,000 MB/s reads, with up to 800 MB/s writes. ADATA put up its own CDM performance numbers for a 480 GB variant of this drive.

OCZ is refining its popular consumer SSD brands to reach out to more buyers. As part of the integration with Toshiba, they rebranded their consumer SSD lines, to VT180, and the TR150, which more closely aligns with Toshiba's SSD model naming. Besides the naming, both drives are identical to the Vector 180 and Trion 150. The VT180 comes in capacities ranging from 120 GB to 960 GB, and is powered by Toshiba-made MLC NAND flash. These drives offer sequential transfer rates of up to 550 MB/s reads, with up to 530 MB/s writes, and 96,000 IOPS 4K random reads, with 90,000 IOPS 4K random writes. The TR150, on the other hand, runs TLC NAND flash memory, and although its maximum sequential speeds are rated the same as the VT180 series, their 4K random access numbers are different - 87,000 IOPS reads, and 83,000 IOPS writes.

Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc., a committed technology leader, today announces the Toshiba OCZ RD400 Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) solid state drive (SSD) series. Designed for cutting-edge notebooks and PCs, the Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) RD400 series provides improved storage bandwidth and enhanced latency resulting in a fast and responsive computing experience.

Unlike Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) based SSDs utilizing the legacy Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) protocol, NVMe is the first storage protocol designed with SSDs in mind making the RD400 series one of Toshiba's fastest consumer SSDs to date. Additionally, the RD400's PCIe Gen3 x4 lane interface shatters the traditional SATA bottleneck by delivering over four times the performance of SATA SSDs. The RD400 series features sequential read/write speeds of up to 2,600 MB/s and 1,600 MB/s and random read/write performance of up to 210,000 and 140,000 4KiB input/output operations per second (IOPS).

Transcend Information, Inc., a leading manufacturer of industrial-grade flash and DRAM products, is proud to announce the release of its industrial-grade SuperMLC microSD cards. Positioned between its SLC and MLC NAND flash offerings, Transcend's exclusive SuperMLC technology features a cost-effective solution that offers performance close to that of SLC NAND flash. The newly-released SuperMLC microSD cards boast high-performance, exceptional endurance, and wide temperature tolerance (-40°C to 85°C) at affordable prices, ideal for industrial applications such as medical devices, surveillance systems, and POS terminals.

Combining the benefits of both Single-Level Cell (SLC) and Multi-Level Cell (MLC) NAND flash, Transcend has successfully developed SuperMLC technology by reprogramming the two bits per cell of MLC into one bit per cell, greatly boosting its performance. The transfer speed of Transcend's new UHS-I Class 1 SuperMLC microSD cards can reach up to 95MB/s, double the speed of MLC flash chips. Although total capacity is reduced, SuperMLC offers a good balance for industrial applications that demand quality that is comparable to SLC NAND flash at a cost-effective price.

Recently, Shenzhen Renice Technology Co., Ltd., a Shenzhen-based high-end solid state drive manufacturer, announced that the company will release its 2TB R-SATA interface-based solid state drive in early April of 2016. R-SATA, or Rugged SATA in short, is the unique interface that has been designed specifically to address vibration and the shock problem during application. It can efficiently resolve the undesirable intermittent contact or potential signal spikes resulting from vibration and shock in the SATA gold finger connector.

The release of Renice X9 R-SATA SSDs shall bring a new highly reliable and big-capacity solution for its long-time industrial users. The X9 R-SATA SSDs have abundant highlights. They actually use Renice's own SATA3 controller RS3502-IT that not only assures the independence or controllability but also provides a product lifespan of 2-3 times similar products in the market with its unique NAND flash control algorithm.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, announced today that it is now shipping the industry's largest solid state drive (SSD) - the "PM1633a," a 15.36 terabyte (TB) drive. First revealed at the 2015 Flash Memory Summit in August, the 15.36TB SSD is based on a 12Gb/s Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) interface, for use in enterprise storage systems. Because the PM1633a comes in a 2.5-inch form factor, enterprise storage managers can fit twice as many of the drives in a standard 19-inch, 2U rack, compared to an equivalent 3.5-inch storage drive

"To satisfy an increasing market need for ultra-high-capacity SAS SSDs from leading enterprise storage system manufacturers, we are directing our best efforts toward meeting our customers' SSD requests," said Jung-bae Lee, Senior Vice President, Memory Product Planning and Application Engineering Team, Samsung Electronics. "We will continue to lead the industry with next-generation SSDs, using our advanced 3D V-NAND memory technology, in order to accelerate the growth of the premium memory market while delivering greater performance and efficiency to our customers."

A FAST '16 paper titled "Flash Reliability in Production: The Expected and the Unexpected," by Professor Bianca Schroeder of the University of Toronto, and Raghav Lagisetty and Arif Merchant of Google, studied the reliability data from millions of SSD drive-days over a period of 6 years, to come up with some very interesting conclusions on SSD reliability. One of the study's biggest findings is that high-end (read: enterprise) SSDs with single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash memory are no more reliable than cheaper multi-level cell (MLC) drives. Besides millions of drive-hours, the group also studied 10 different models of enterprise and consumer SSDs, from three different memory types - MLC NAND, SLC NAND, and eMLC NAND.

The study also shows that RBER (raw bit error rate) is a more dependable measure of reliability than UBER (uncorrectable bit error rate) mentioned in drive specs or datasheets. RBER increases slower than expected from wearout, and isn't correlated with UBER. However, the measured/real-world UBER is higher for SSDs than HDDs. This means that while SSDs are less likely to "fail" than HDDs, they're more likely to lose portions of their data. Keep your SSDs regularly imaged. Age, rather than usage, affects reliability of SSDs. A disturbing 30-80% of SSDs in the study developed at least one bad-block, and 2-7% of the SSDs developed at least one bad chip, within the first 4 years of deployment.

Transcend Information, Inc., a leading manufacturer of storage and multimedia products, is proud to announce the availability of 1 Terabyte M.2 Solid State Drive coming with 2280 form factor for ultra-thin computing devices, such as Ultrabook, tablet computers and laptops. Transcend's MTS800 M.2 SSD is equipped with high-quality MLC NAND flash to remain its excellent stability, and is exclusively built in protective technologies, such as Global Wear-leveling, Advanced Garbage Collection, and Device Sleep mode.

By utilizing the next-generation SATA III 6Gb/s interface, Transcend's MTS800 is capable of delivering sequential read/write performance of up to 560MB/s and 460MB/s respectively. The newly released spacious 1TB supplies the MTS800's capacity to its full scale ranging from 32GB to 1TB, which is determined to satisfy the needs of various market fields and individual consumer with personal budget plans.