Intel is readying a follow-on to its 600P series performance-segment PCIe solid-state drive (SSD) series, with the 610P series. Built in the M.2-2280 form-factor, with PCIe gen 3.0 x4 bus interface, and support for the NVMe protocol, the SSD 610P will be based on TLC 3D NAND flash by IMFlash Technology, the company's joint-venture with Micron Technology. The SSD 610P series will come in capacities of 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB.

The company is also working on a smaller M.2-1620 variant for notebooks and SFF desktops, which will feature a BGA version of the SSD. These are multi-chip modules of NAND flash stacks and SSD controllers bundled into single packages. The BGA variants will come in sizes of 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB. Not much else (performance figures) are known about these drives, except that Intel plans to release these towards Q4 2017 (after September).

On the heels of the recent Gen-Z interconnect announcement, an aggregate of some of the most recognizable names in the tech industry have once again banded together. This time, it's an effort towards the implementation of a fast, coherent and widely compatible interconnect technology that will pave the way towards tighter integration of ever-more heterogeneous systems.

Technology leaders AMD, Dell EMC, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM, Mellanox Technologies, Micron, NVIDIA and Xilinx announced the new open standard to appropriate fanfare, considering the promises of an up-to 10x performance uplift in datacenter server environments, thus accelerating big-data, machine learning, analytics, and other emerging workloads. The interconnect promises to provide a high-speed pathway towards tighter integration between different types of technology currently making up the heterogeneous server computing's needs, ranging through fixed-purpose accelerators, current and future system memory subsistems, and coherent storage and network controllers.

A group of leading technology companies today announced the Gen-Z Consortium, an industry alliance working to create and commercialize a new scalable computing interconnect and protocol. This flexible, high-performance memory semantic fabric provides a peer-to-peer interconnect that easily accesses large volumes of data while lowering costs and avoiding today's bottlenecks. The alliance members include AMD, ARM, Cavium Inc., Cray, Dell EMC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Huawei, IBM, IDT, Lenovo, Mellanox Technologies, Micron, Microsemi, Red Hat, Samsung, Seagate, SK hynix, Western Digital Corporation, and Xilinx.

Modern computer systems have been built around the assumption that storage is slow, persistent and reliable, while data in memory is fast but volatile. As new storage class memory technologies emerge that drive the convergence of storage and memory attributes, the programmatic and architectural assumptions that have worked in the past are no longer optimal. The challenges associated with explosive data growth, real-time application demands, the emergence of low latency storage class memory, and demand for rack scale resource pools require a new approach to data access.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Global PCle SSD Market 2016-2020" report to their offering. The report forecast the global peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) SSD market to grow at a CAGR of 33.24% during the period 2016-2020. The report has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.

According to the report, need for managed service data centers will be a key driver for market growth. It is advantageous for an enterprise to operate a colocation facility rather than to build a data center. Data center colocation allows enterprises to rent computing storage, servers, and network. It enables minimal utilization of power and bandwidth and enhances the security of enterprise IT equipment.

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.

Micron Technology, Inc., (Nasdaq:MU) today introduced the company's first 3D NAND memory technology optimized for mobile devices and its first products based on the Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 2.1 standard. Micron's initial mobile 3D NAND-based 32GB solution is targeted specifically for the high and mid-end smartphone segments which make up approximately 50 percent of worldwide smartphone volume[1]. As mobile devices bypass personal computers as consumers' primary computing device, user behaviors heavily impact the device's mobile memory and storage requirements. Micron's mobile 3D NAND addresses these concerns, enabling an unparalleled user experience that includes seamless high definition video streaming, higher bandwidth gameplay, faster boot up times, camera performance and file loading.

"Micron continues to advance NAND technology with our introduction of 3D NAND and UFS products for the mobile segment," said Mike Rayfield, vice president of Micron's mobile business unit. "The improved performance, higher capacity and enhanced reliability of 3D NAND will help our customers meet the ever-growing demand for mobile storage and will enable much more exciting end user experiences."

Crucial, a leading global brand of memory and storage upgrades, today announced additional capacities of the Crucial MX300 solid state drive (SSD). Built for speed and loaded with advanced features, the new drives deliver an immediate increase to system performance.

With read speeds up to 530 MB/s and write speeds up to 510 MB/s on all file types, the Crucial MX300 enables users to boot up almost instantly, load programs with ease, and accelerate demanding applications. The drive is engineered with Micron 3D NAND technology, resulting in an endurance rating of up to 220 TB total bytes written by leveraging larger NAND cells to deliver top-notch performance and prolong endurance.

Micron Technology, Inc., today announced its newest embedded SLC NAND Flash optimized for the next generation of Internet of Things (IoT) and automotive applications. Available with differing interfaces to accommodate design, Micron's second generation Serial (SPI) NAND and fifth generation parallel SLC NAND, offers the industry's best-in-class reliability1 and read and program performance, ease of design and advanced security features.

Gartner projects that the IoT endpoint hardware and services market will rise to a $3.5 trillion industry by 20202. As system designers seek embedded solutions to power the performance for the connected home, wearables and the connected car, the technical demands have raised the bar for the security and seamlessness for ingredient semiconductor suppliers. Micron's newest SLC NAND addresses these needs for high-performance storage technology to propel the market forward.

"Micron works closely with chipset partners and customers within the ecosystem to design tomorrow's products that meet the complex NAND requirements fueled by IoT and automotive," said Aravind Ramamoorthy, product line director of NAND flash for Micron's Embedded Business Unit. "The new SLC NAND Flash technology enable a new category of embedded applications that need reliable, high-performance, low pin count and secure4 memory for code and low density data storage."

Micron Technology, Inc., today hosted a groundbreaking ceremony with company and Singapore government officials to begin the expansion of its Singapore NAND flash memory fabrication facility.

Previously announced by the company in December, the approximate 255,000 square foot expansion will facilitate efficient implementation of 3D NAND production at the Singapore facility and give Micron the flexibility to gradually add incremental capacity in response to market requirements. In addition, the space will enable production of storage class and other memory technologies.

"Micron enjoys a strong relationship with Singapore where we employ more than 7,000 team members operating at four major facilities," said Micron President Mark Adams. "We're excited to expand our manufacturing footprint in Singapore, and we commend the government and Economic Development Board for fostering such a productive business environment."

ADATA is a launch partner for Maxiotek MK8115 processor, a new entrant to the consumer SSD scene, with the new SU700 series. These drives will be ADATA's most affordable, and targeted at buyers upgrading from hard drives. The MK8115 is mated to synchronous Micron-made DRAM-less 3D TLC NAND flash memory, in capacities ranging up to 1 TB. ADATA put out CDM performance numbers for the drive, which clocks in at 554 MB/s sequential reads, and 529 MB/s sequential writes.

Here are some of the first pictures of a Micron-made GDDR5X memory chip, up close. The picture reveals the 8-gigabit chip's package number "6HA77Z9TXT-2N3Y." The company's part number is "MT58K256M32." The GeForce GTX 1080 is the first production graphics card with GDDR5X memory, and Micron is the first to market with these chips. The GTX 1080 uses eight such 8-gigabit chips across its 256-bit wide memory interface, to make up its 8 GB standard memory amount. The reference-design GTX 1080 features a memory clock speed of 2.50 GHz (actual), or 10 Gbps (effective). The memory bandwidth for the GTX 1080 is a staggering 320 GB/s.

In its company blog post, Micron states: "Designed by our specialized team of Graphics memory engineers in Munich, GDDR5X provides NVIDIA with an unprecedented level of memory bandwidth for their new GeForce GTX 1080. The bandwidth delivered by Micron's GDDR5X memory is the result of thousands of hours of teamwork by some of the most brilliant minds in our two companies." Not only is GDDR5X faster, but also more energy-efficient than the 7 Gbps GDDR5 chips from the previous generation. This particular chip has a module voltage (VDDQ) of 1.35V, its package measures 14 mm x 10 mm x 1.1 mm (LxWxH).

A new picture of NVIDIA GP104 "Pascal" ASIC surrounded with GDDR5X memory chips hints at the possibility of NVIDIA reserving the new fast memory standard for the GTX 1080, and older GDDR5 for the more affordable GTX 1070. The picture reveals a GP104 chip with the ASIC code "GP104-400-A1," surrounded by eight Micron-made GDDR5X memory chips. We know from an older article that this ASIC code denotes the top-tier GTX 1080. A second picture (recently posted) reveals a "GP104-200-A1" ASIC surrounded by conventional GDDR5 memory chips. This ASIC corresponds to the second-fastest GTX 1070.

GDDR5 and GDDR5X are nearly identical electrically, and it's quite conceivable that the GP104 chip features a memory controller that supports both standards. GDDR5 can be had at speeds of up to 8 Gbps, while GDDR5X chips can range between 10 Gbps thru 12 Gbps initially, with 14 Gbps chips planned for a little later. Besides memory, CUDA core count could be another factor that sets the two SKUs apart. NVIDIA is planning to launch a total of three SKUs based on the GP104 silicon, in June 2016, beginning with the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 in early-June (probably along the sidelines of Computex 2016), and a third SKU in mid-June.

Micron Technology, Inc. today announced a new portfolio of PCIe solid state drives (SSDs) that leverage the high-performance NVMe protocol. The new Micron 9100 and 7100 PCIe SSDs provide data center customers with purpose-built storage products for implementing an agile, scale-out IT infrastructure. These new drives extend Micron's rich portfolio of SATA and SAS SSDs that enable customers to extend and improve their legacy data center infrastructure with proven flash products.

Customers are disaggregating storage from Storage Area Networks (SANs) and frame-based arrays, moving toward server-based storage as a solution because of today's changing computing landscape, which is largely driven by the influx of data being created, accessed and stored from the proliferation of mobile devices and cloud computing. Many of today's leading hyperscale companies, who have taken advantage of server-based storage, have deployed Micron memory and storage in their data centers, giving them consistent, accelerated access to the world's data wherever they are, whenever they want and from any device.

DRAM and NAND flash giant Micron Technology has begun sampling its next-generation GDDR5X memory chips to customers. The company is ready with chips in the 8 Gb (1 GB) and 16 Gb (2 GB) densities, making it possible for GPU makers to build graphics cards with 8 GB and 16 GB total onboard memory, respectively, over a 256-bit wide memory bus, by using just one chip per 32-bit channel.

Apart from 8 Gb and 16 Gb densities, Micron's GDDR5X chips offer GPU makers a transition from GDDR5 with minimal engineering, since the standard has similar electricals to its predecessor, and a similar BOM structure; while offering up to double the clock speeds to GDDR5, and running at a lower voltage of 1.35V. Both AMD and NVIDIA have reportedly expressed interest in building graphics cards with GDDR5X.

Crucial, a leading global brand of memory and storage upgrades, today announced the new Crucial BX200 solid state drive (SSD), which offers substantial yet affordable performance gains compared to a standard hard drive. The drive, designed for consumers and SMBs, allows users to load applications in seconds, boot up almost instantly, and accelerate every day applications.

The new BX200 provides sequential read and write speeds up to 540 MB/s and 490 MB/s respectively on all types of data, as well as random read and write speeds up to 66k and 78k IOPS respectively. Additionally, when compared to a typical hard drive, the new BX200 is more than 13 times faster and 40 times more energy efficient for almost instantaneous access to data, resulting in longer battery life and a cooler, quieter system. The new drive utilises a Silicon Motion SM2256 Controller and is coupled with Micron verified firmware, allowing users to upgrade their existing infrastructure at an affordable price, which is a great alternative to buying a whole new system.

There's still a little bit of fight left in the GDDR5 ecosystem against the faster and more energy-efficient HBM standard, which has a vast and unexplored performance growth curve. The new GDDR5X standard offers double the bandwidth per-pin compared to current generation GDDR5, without any major design or electrical changes, letting GPU makers make a seamless and cost-effective transition to it.

In a presentation by a DRAM maker leaked to the web, GDDR5X is touted as offering double the data-rate per memory access, at 64 byte/access, compared to 32 byte/access by today's fastest GDDR5 standard, which is currently saturating its clock/voltage curve at 7 Gbps. GDDR5X breathes a new lease of live to the ageing DRAM standard, offering 10-12 Gbps initially, with a goal of 16 Gbps in the long term. GDDR5X chips will have identical pin layouts to their predecessors, and hence it should cost GPU makers barely any R&D to implement them.

Micron Technology, Inc., today announced XTRMFlash memory, a faster NOR flash solution designed to revolutionize the way the electronics industry develops systems to meet the demand for "instant-on" performance and fast system responsiveness in automotive, industrial and consumer applications. Utilizing its new, low pin count interface that uses as little as 11 active signals, Micron's XTRMFlash memory outperforms other industry NOR Flash while also significantly reducing pin counts by as much as 75 percent from those found in Parallel NOR flash available in the market today. XTRMFlash memory provides system designers the ideal and fastest possible direct code execution NOR flash memory solution available to enable high-performance, yet small form-factor designs.

"Micron is committed to continued innovation in NOR flash memory," said Richard De Caro, director of NOR Flash for Micron's Embedded Business Unit. "We worked closely with our ecosystem partners and customers to understand their next-generation requirements for high-performance memory, and we have developed XTRMFlash memory as a result. XTRMFlash memory and the XTRMFlash interface have the potential to dramatically change the paradigm of the existing memory landscape by enabling a new category of high-performance and low pin count memory devices that can also extend beyond NOR Flash."

Intel plans to launch the first consumer SSD based on its new 3D Xpoint memory technology, a successor to NAND flash which promises exponential gains in performance and capacity, some time in 2016. The Intel-branded drive will be called Intel Optane, will come in modern form-factors such as M.2/NGFF, SATA-Express, PCI-Express (add-on card), and will take advantage of the new NVMe protocol.

Early prototypes of Optane demoed at IDF already offer up to 5.5 times the throughput of NAND flash-based DC P3700 series SSDs, and we're only talking about single-queue performance. Compared to the queue depth of just 32 commands for AHCI, NVMe offers command queue depth of a staggering 65,535 commands. Since Micron Technology is the co-developer of 3D Xpoint, it's likely that we'll also see Micron/Crucial branded drives based on this tech.

Seagate Technology plc, a world leader in storage solutions, today announced the availability of the 1200.2 Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) Solid State Drive (SSD). The Seagate 1200.2 SAS SSD is the first product to result from a strategic alliance between Seagate and Micron Technology, Inc., announced in February 2015.

"Enterprise and cloud users face record growing storage demands challenging the performance of their IT systems to churn through mass amounts of data, while being restricted by opex/capex expenditure limits," said Brett Pemble, vice president of flash products, Seagate cloud systems and electronics solutions. "As our partners and customers depend on Seagate flash technologies to meet these challenges, we are leveraging our collaboration and innovation with Micron to exceed their expectations."

The framework established between Seagate and Micron has led to the development and production of this next-generation, high-capacity SAS SSD platform. It is the first 12 gigabits-per-second (Gb/s) SAS device to optimize dual channel throughput with up to 1800 megabytes-per-second (MB/s) sequential reads and offer multiple endurance choices within a single hardware and firmware design. These advantages engineered for the 1200.2 SAS SSD ensure it will deliver ultra-fast performance to match the needs of specific enterprise applications and workloads.

Intel Corporation and Micron Technology, Inc. today unveiled 3D XPoint technology, a non-volatile memory that has the potential to revolutionize any device, application or service that benefits from fast access to large sets of data. Now in production, 3D XPoint technology is a major breakthrough in memory process technology and the first new memory category since the introduction of NAND flash in 1989.

The explosion of connected devices and digital services is generating massive amounts of new data. To make this data useful, it must be stored and analyzed very quickly, creating challenges for service providers and system builders who must balance cost, power and performance trade-offs when they design memory and storage solutions. 3D XPoint technology combines the performance, density, power, non-volatility and cost advantages of all available memory technologies on the market today. The technology is up to 1,000 times faster and has up to 1,000 times greater endurance3 than NAND, and is 10 times denser than conventional memory.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash products, today launches the XPG SX930 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Gaming SSD for professional gamers and overclockers. It comes with a JMicron controller and Enterprise-grade MLC plus NAND Flash, offering excellent performance and durability for gaming systems and workstations. Thanks to ADATA's exclusive pSLC Cache Technology and DDR3 DRAM Cache Buffer, the SX930 leads to victory when you're in a 3D battle with highly-improved efficiency.

Featuring Enterprise-grade MLC plus NAND flash, the XPG SX930 outperforms other SSDs with excellent durability. It is not only suitable for gaming systems, but also ideal for workstations, which require long-term and stable operation. By applying JMicron controllers, the sequential read/write speed of SX930 is up to 560/460 MB/s, and it's available in 120GB, 240GB and 480GB. In addition, the SX930 is equipped with the innovative and exclusive "pSLC Cache Technology" by ADATA, which can effectively enhance the data transfer speed for the ultimate performance to meet professional gamers' demands.

Today, Micron Technology, Inc. announced a new addition to its expansive portfolio of flash storage products, providing a purpose-built solution for cost-sensitive consumer applications seeking high performance and reliability. The new TLC NAND is built on their 16-nanometer (nm) process and delivers a balanced set of features for applications like USB drives and consumer solid state drives. The market appetite for TLC is projected to be strong throughout 2015, constituting almost half of the total NAND gigabytes shipped.

Micron's 16 nm process-recognized by TechInsights as the Most Innovative Memory Device and 2014 Semiconductor of the Year-is a mature and proven storage technology, making it an excellent foundation for a reliable TLC design. TLC, or triple-level cell, is a technology that fits three bits in every flash data cell, creating greater cost and size efficiency. Customers of the technology will benefit from Micron's extensive design support team, who act as trusted advisors to ensure smooth qualification and optimal end-solution performance. Key flash customers and ecosystem partners worldwide have already begun working to integrate this new NAND with their latest designs, ensuring quick adoption in end applications.

Micron Technology, Inc. has announced a new encryption-enhanced solid state drive (SSD) for read-centric data center workloads, accelerating the transition from legacy hard disk drives (HDDs) to higher-performance flash-based storage. The M510DC combines a suite of firmware data protection features with the market's first true TCG Enterprise-level data encryption for SSDs-a capability that is of paramount importance to the highly scrutinized medical, banking and government industries.

The M510DC SATA SSD provides a balance of performance, security, enterprise reliability, power and cost. The M510DC SSD is an ideal solution for improving application load times for content delivery networks (CDNs) and enhancing response times to enable quicker decisions in big data analytics. While early enterprise SSD deployments focused on high-endurance drives, data from Greg Wong, founder and principal analyst at Forward Insights, reveals that two-thirds of today's newly optimized data center SSD purchases require one drive fill per day or less. These market changes create a distinct opportunity for customers to focus on a cost-optimized SSD like the M510DC.

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.

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation, a global leader in designing and marketing NAND flash controllers for solid state storage devices, today announced that its SM2256 SATA (6 Gb/s) client SSD controller now supports Micron's new 16 nm 128 gigabit (Gb) TLC NAND flash, enabling high-performance and unprecedented reliability for a new class of cost-effective TLC-based SSDs.

SM2256, the world's first SSD controller supporting Micron's 16nm TLC NAND, offers the best performance and cost-optimized four channel SATA 6 Gb/s client SSD controller in the market. Using Micron's 128 Gb 16 nm TLC NAND, the SM2256 delivers up to 540 MB/s sequential read performance and 460 MB/s sequential write, as well as up to 90,000 random read IOPS and 80,000 random write IOPS. Leveraging Silicon Motion's proprietary NANDXtend error-correcting code (ECC) technology, the SM2256 enhances the endurance and retention of TLC NAND, delivering more than three times better reliability for TLC SSD as compared to the existing BCH ECC schemes.