PLEXTOR, a leading developer of award-winning solid-state drives (SSDs) and other high-performance digital storage devices, showcased the new M9Pe Extreme at COMPUTEX 2018, Taipei, Taiwan. Breaking consumer SSD speed barriers, the new M9Pe Extreme delivers astonishing sequential read/write speeds of up to 6,500 / 5,000 MB/s. The next-generation M9Pe Extreme combines technologically advanced components and the Marvell 88NR2241 intelligent NVMe switch along with PLEXTOR exclusive technologies to deliver high level performance required by prosumers, professional PC gamers and other application-intensive users such as animation editors, audio-visual drafting personnel, and film-making companies. Not only does M9Pe Extreme provide greatly enhanced data transmission performance, it also offers RAID functionalities for data redundancy and performance improvements making it a great choice for office or workspace environments.

Fay Ho, Senior Director for Brand Division, LITE-ON Technology Corporation, said, "Continuing Plextor's outstanding capability in the high-speed storage devices, the M9Pe Extreme, as the name states, delivers unprecedented extreme high-speed performance, making a new record in consumer SSD read/write speeds. With high quality components and excellent performance boosting technologies, PC gaming experience, for one, will never be the same."

Beijing Memblaze Technology Co., Ltd. newly released high-performance PBlaze5 910/916 and low-power 510/516 series NVMe SSD. They adopt the 64-layer enterprise-level 3D-NAND and support NVMe standard protocol with a user capacity up to 15.36TB.

The PBlaze5 910/916 series NVMe SSD features 6GB/s sequential read bandwidth, 1 million IOPS read performance and 89/11microsecond read/write latency. With the high performance shared by PBlaze series products, PBlaze5 910/916 series boasts advanced features like High-speed TRIM and Multiple-namespace, with higher QoS and more flexible.

Cryorig at COMPUTEX 2018 showed the most complex and impressive M.2 SSD cooling solution the market has ever seen with their Frosbit cooler. The Frostbit cooler, which the company had already teased going into the show, is the world's first M.2 cooling solution to feature heatpipe cooling technology - the heatpipe transfers heat from the M.2 SSD through its heatpipe loop and dissipates it in a large volume heatsink. This should alleviate any thermal throttling issues which some NVMe, M.2 SSDs are plagued with with inefficient airflow setups. The secondary, heat-dissipating heatsink can be adjusted so as to avoid contact with other components. This design really brings memories of OCZ's Reaper memory kits, as well as some other after-market modding solutions for RAM memory sticks which featured similar heatpipe designs.

Toshiba Memory America, Inc. (TMA), the U.S.-based subsidiary of Toshiba Memory Corporation, today announced that its RC100 Series of NVMe (NVM Express ) M.2 solid state drives (SSDs) is now available. First introduced earlier this year at CES 2018, the new RC100 Series is geared toward the retail DIY market and features a powerful yet cost-effective design to make the benefits of NVMe storage accessible to more users than ever before. The Toshiba RC100 Series is well-suited to the entire spectrum of mainstream computing - from gaming desktops and notebooks to mini-PCs (NUCs) and everything in between. The new drives are available in capacities of 120, 240 and 480 gigabytes.

While the performance advantages of first-generation NVMe drives are well known, this high performance has come at an equally high cost - until now. By leveraging its state-of-the-art 64-layer, 3-bit-per-cell TLC (triple-level cell) BiCS FLASH technology and an in-house-developed controller, Toshiba Memory Corporation was able to fit an entire SSD within a single BGA package. The RC100 Series balances cost and performance and bridges the gap between SATA and enthusiast-grade NVMe SSDs. A compact design also enables the RC100 to fit onto an M.2 2242 (22x42mm) PCB, making it one of the smallest SSDs commercially available.

BIOSTAR at COMPUTEX 2018 also showcased some other bits and pieces of hardware that didn't actually focus on mining. The company's M500 Series M.2 SSD, for example, features relatively high performance (not for an NVMe drive, surely, but against a SATA SSD there's just no competition). The LED indicators are interesting additions, dynamically blinking and giving color-coded information at a glance regarding drive temperature (which may sometimes be relevant in hunting down throttling scenarios), as well as data transmission on the drive itself.

ADATA exhibited two new M.2 NVMe SSD with PCI-Express 3.0 x4 interface, the XPG SX7100 and the SX8200. The SX7100 is positioned a notch above PCIe 3.0 x2 drives, such as the SX6000 series, and could be priced close to those drives. This drive succeeds the XPG SX7000 from last year. It combines 2nd generation (10 nm-class) 3D TLC NAND flash memory with Realtek RTS5760 controller, which supports NVMe 1.3 and HMB.

The drive comes in a variety of capacities ranging from 120 GB all the way up to 1920 GB, with 240 GB, 480 GB, and 960 GB along the way. It offers sequential transfer rates of up to 2100 MB/s reads, with up to 1500 MB/s writes; both of which are a significant step up from the 1800/850 MB/s reads/writes of the SX7000. ADATA didn't reveal when it plans to launch SX7100, but that when it does, it will strike a price-performance sweet-spot that could drive buyers away from both PCIe x2 and pricey PCIe x4 options.

Team Group at its Computex 2018 booth showed off its latest performance-segment M.2 NVMe solid-state drive, the T-Force Cardea S. You won't be faulted for confusing this with the original Cardea launched last year. The Cardea S is a mid-range drive, with PCI-Express 3.0 x2 interface. It's based on the Phison PS5008-E8 controller, mated to 10 nm-class 3D TLC NAND flash memory, and comes in 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB capacities. The controller takes advantage of the NVMe 1.3 protocol. The drive is designed to max out performance from this controller, and offers sequential speeds of up to 1600 MB/s reads, with up to 1100 MB/s writes, and up to 280,000 IOPS 4K random access performance. Since the controller runs a lot cooler than the E7 controller of the original Cardea, the drive makes do with a much lighter heatsink.

Corsair today launched a new series of SSDs under their brand. The MP300 carry a more budget affiliation, offering a high-speed NVMe solution (which Corsair says is up to three times faster than SATA) for relatively low prices. Like other budget NVMe solutions, the Corsair MP300 runs on a PCIe 2x bus, instead of the higher performance 4x (which carries higher cost for the controllers, hence, the price savings).

With that bus, Corsair is quoting up to 1600 MB/s read speeds, and up to 1040 MB/s writes, which are still more than enough for mainstream workloads. The usage of 3D TLC NAND also helps in the cost savings, naturally - and doesn't carry the same performance and longevity issues as it may have had in its inception. Corsair is selling these drives at 120, 240, 480 and 960 GB capacities, at €59.99, €94.99, €154.99, and €314.99 respectively.

Marvell, a leader in storage, networking and connectivity semiconductor solutions, today announced its latest NVM Express (NVMe ) solid-state drive (SSD) controller family for mainstream and high-performance PC client and edge computing SSDs. The Gen 3x4 PCIe SSD controllers, the 4-channel 88SS1084 and 8-channel 88SS1100, bring leading performance, endurance and reliability to the industry and will help broaden the adoption of NVMe SSDs across emerging client and edge computing applications. The controllers integrate Marvell's fourth generation of NANDEdge technology, offering the advanced error correction capabilities to address the increasing demands required to enable future SSD solutions with emerging 96-layer triple level-cell (TLC) and quad level-cell(QLC) NAND architectures.

As gaming, video-on-demand, CAD, imaging, photography and video surveillance proliferate and scale, NVMe SSDs can meet the increasing storage performance and capacity requirements that these end use applications seek. The new Marvell client NVMe SSD controller family can provide up to 3.6GB/s of bandwidth and up to 700,000 input output per second (IOPS). The 88SS1084 and 88SS1100 devices can save system power consumption by supporting lower voltage NAND devices and LPDDR4 DRAM components. These features enable PCs and edge computing devices to process and store increasingly data-intensive workloads more quickly and reliably.

Intel launched the Optane 905P SSD in the more practical M.2-22110 (110 mm long) form-factor, following up on its early-May launch in the add-in card (AIC) form-factor. These drives take advantage of the PCI-Express 3.0 x4 interface and NVMe protocol, and feature the company's latest generation 3D X-point memory. The drive likely comes in capacities of up to 480 GB, with transfer rates of up to 2600 MB/s reads, up to 2200 MB/s writes, and 575k/550k 4K random access speeds. The USP here is endurance, with 10 DWPD, and 1.6 million hours MTBF.

NGD Systems, Inc., the leader in computational storage, today announced the general availability (GA) of the 16 terabyte (TB) Catalina-2 U.2 NVMe solid state drive (SSD). The Catalina-2 is the first NVMe SSD with 16TB capacity that also makes available NGD's powerful "In-Situ Processing" capabilities. The Catalina-2 does this without impact to the reliability, quality of service (QoS) or power consumption, already available in the current shipping NGD Products.

The use of Arm multi-core processors in Catalina-2 provides users with a well-understood development environment and the combination of exceptional performance with low power consumption. The Arm-based In-Situ Processing platform allows NGD Systems to pack both high capacity and computational ability into the first 16TB 2.5-inch form factor package on the market. The NGD Catalina-2 U.2 NVMe SSD only consumes 12W (0.75W/TB) of power, compared to the 25W or more used by other NVMe solutions. This provides the highest energy efficiency in the industry.

Acer is preparing one of the first few premium gaming notebooks to pack a combination of AMD Ryzen 7 2700 8-core processor and Radeon RX Vega 56 graphics. Unlike the Intel+NVIDIA original, this Predator Helios variant makes use of desktop-on-mobile processors, as do most desktop-replacement notebooks and portable workstations. The variant benefits from the low TDP and high energy efficiency of the Ryzen 7 2700, and runs it at its stock speeds. This is no small feat, because the Intel+NVIDIA option of the notebook packs a Core i9-8950HK (6-core/12-thread) "Coffee Lake" processor with 45W rated TDP.

The Radeon RX Vega 56 is the other surprising component choice here, considering that the notebook's 17.3-inch display only has Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution, which can be hauled by an RX 580, even at higher refresh-rate, and FreeSync thrown in. The Intel+NVIDIA model's GPU option is the GeForce GTX 1070 (which is slower than the RX Vega 56). Other components include 16 GB of dual-channel DDR4 memory, 256 GB NVMe SSD storage, 1 TB of HDD storage, and Killer Doubleshot Pro networking.

MSI, the pioneer and global leader enabling Professional industry, introduces today the brand new All-in-One PC, PRO 24X Series, with an incredibly ultra-slim design measuring only 6.5 mm thick. As slender as a ballpoint pen, its simple metallic slim stand elegantly complements the Ultra-slim display while its brushed metal patterning on the rear cover provides a stylish and contemporary design. The PRO 24X Series is equipped with IPS Grade Panel which instantly optimizes the screen colors and brightness to ensure that users can enjoy every scene at its best, and with an incredibly narrow 2.2mm ultra-slim bezel, it blends seamlessly into any workspace and helps users to focus on their professional tasks.

For a traditional All-in-One PC, it might be very difficult to upgrade the hardware, but with the MSI Easy Maintenance Design, maintaining or upgrading your 2.5" storage on the PRO 24X will not be a nightmare anymore. Furthermore, with Intel CoreTM i3 above processor, the PRO 24X supports Intel Optane technology which provides an unparalleled combination of high throughput, low latency, high quality of service, and high endurance. However, if users would like to enjoy a blazing fast system boot up and insanely quick loading of applications and data, this stylish model also supports one NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD.

COLORFUL Technology Company Limited, professional manufacturer of graphics cards, motherboards and high-performance storage solutions is proud to announce the addition of two new options for its CN600S line of solid-state drives. COLORFUL is adding the CN600S 240GB and CN600S 480GB drives featuring Intel 64-layer 3D NAND. Those looking for a cost-effective high-performance, high-capacity storage solution for low-profile applications including notebooks and other M.2 capable devices. The improved speed and capacity of the COLORFUL CN600S allows it to be used in a wider range of applications including gaming, professional use or HTPC.

The COLORUL CN600S is equipped with the SMI 2263XT controller, features a M.2 2280 design standard and is rated for transfer speeds up to 2 GB/s reads and 1.5 GB/s write performance. The SMI 2263XT uses the PCIe Gen3 x4 interface and can deliver 4x faster performance than SATA3 for reading, accessing and opening applications and games. The COLORFUL CN600 M.2 PCIe SSD is focused in offering the most compelling cost-benefit ratio in the market.

QNAP Systems, Inc. has extended the lineup of QM2 PCIe expansion cards with new models that support up to four M.2 SSDs slots on a single card. QM2 cards support either M.2 SATA SSDs or M.2 PCIe NVMe SSDs to enable SSD caching for boosted IOPS performance or to form an auto-tiering volume for optimal storage performance. QM2 cards also allow QNAP NAS users to maximize both storage capacity and performance by installing M.2 SSDs without occupying any 3.5-inch drive bays.

"When faced with a performance bottleneck, the random read/write speed of the hard drives in a NAS is one of the decisive performance factors," said Joan Hsieh, Product Manager of QNAP, continuing "QM2 cards can greatly boost the performance of QNAP NAS with PCIe slots, while the flexible configuration of SSD caching and I/O-aware Qtier all helps multiply NAS performance."

Ahead of Computex 2018 CRYORIG announces new M.2 cooler Frostbit and RGB enhanced C7 RGB CPU Cooler. CRYORIG's Frostbit is not only the industry first aftermarket M.2 NVMe SSD cooler with dual heatpipes, it allows full adjustment of the Secondary Heatpipe and large volume Heatsink. The C7 RGB is based on CRYORIG's award winning ITX cooler C7, with a 12v RGB lighting enhanced 92 mm fan. Both products will be shown at CRYORIG's Computex booth at Nangang Exhibition Hall I0527.

Mushkin launched the Pilot line of M.2 NVMe SSDs, which it debuted at the 2018 CES. The drives combine Silicon Motion SM2262 controller with 3D TLC NAND flash memory. Built in the M.2-2280 form-factor, the drives feature PCI-Express 3.0 x4 interface, and take advantage of the NVMe 1.3 protocol. The drive comes in four capacities - 120 GB, 250 GB, 500 GB, and 1 TB, which differ in performance.

The 120 GB variant offers sequential transfer speeds of up to 1215 MB/s reads, with up to 515 MB/s writes, up to 91,000 IOPS 4K random reads, and up to 133,000 IOPS 4K random writes. The 250 GB variant is almost twice as fast, with up to 2470 MB/s sequential reads, up to 1000 MB/s sequential writes, up to 179,000 IOPS 4K random reads, and up to 257,000 IOPS 4K random writes. The 500 GB variant is faster still, with up to 2680 MB/s sequential reads, with up to 1755 MB/s writes, up to 335,000 IOPS 4K random reads, and up to 277,000 IOPS 4K random writes. The 1 TB variant leads the pack, with up to 2710 MB/s sequential reads, with up to 1755 MB/s writes, up to 283,000 IOPS 4K random reads, and up to 280,000 IOPS 4K random writes. The drives are backed by 3-year warranties.

Samsung continues to outpace all competition in the SSD market - which it has basically cornered, at least in enthusisasts' minds, when it comes to performance and reliability. In a bid to strengthen their grip, Samsung have decided to introduce their 970 EVO and 970 PRO SSDs with lower pricing than previously announced. This reduced pricing across the entire capacity catalog is sure to bring the heat to other, competing solutions in the market, and make Samsung's options - which now count with a 5 year warranty - all the more appealing.

The new pricing will see Samsung's 970 EVO, for example, going for $109.99 in its 250 GB form; $199 for 500 GB; $399 for its 1 TB capacity; and $799 in its ultimate, 2 TB form. These prices place it in an extremely competitive light with Intel's 760p, for example ($116.25, $215.45, $399.99 and $1730.01, respectively) and WD's in-house WD Black ($119.99, $234.24 and $449.99 for the 1 TB version). The 970 PRO, the best-performing SSD, will apparently be available from $249.99 (500 GB) and $499.99 (1 TB). Samsung essentially lowered pricing against its previous generation 960 EVO and 960 PRO, while delivering (virtually) across-the-board improvements.

OWC , a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, has announced that effective immediately, it is lowering the price of the bus-powered 1.0TB Envoy Pro EX Thunderbolt 3. OWC will be the first technology manufacturer to offer a 1.0TB Thunderbolt 3 SSD for under $500.

The Envoy Pro EX is the Mac and Windows PC solution that is built with a take anywhere design - be it importing images on a location shoot, performing live on-stage, editing in-studio, transferring data between workflows, or transporting music files or family photos for sharing. The powerful and portable drive pushes the envelope on performance, pairing Thunderbolt 3 with an M.2 (NVMe) SSD to provide transfer speeds up to 1,800MB/s, up to 3x faster than USB 3.0 SSDs.

Apacer introduced the AS2280P2, a mid-range M.2 NVMe SSD. Built in the M.2-2280 form-factor, the drive features PCI-Express gen 3.0 x2 interface, taking advantage of the NVMe protocol. It features 3D TLC NAND flash memory, and comes in capacities of 120 GB, 240 GB, and 480 GB. The 120 GB variant offers sequential transfer rates of up to 1550 MB/s reads, with up to 530 MB/s writes; both the 240 GB and 480 GB read at speeds of up to 1650 MB/s, and differ with write speeds. The 240 GB variant writes at speeds of up to 950 MB/s, and the 480 GB up to 1000 MB/s. All variants offer 4K random access performance of up to 92,160 IOPS. Backed by 3-year warranties, the 120 GB variant is priced at 45.90€, the 240 GB variant 77.90€, and the 480 GB variant 156.90€.

SMART Modular Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of SMART Global Holdings, Inc., (NASDAQ: SGH), and a leader in specialty memory, storage and hybrid solutions including memory modules, Flash memory cards and other solid state storage products, today announced that it has begun shipping its nvNITRO Accelerator Card featuring MRAM technology. SMART has partnered with Everspin Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRAM), the world's leading developer and manufacturer of discrete and embedded magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), to launch the new Spin-transfer Torque MRAM (STT-MRAM)-based nvNITRO Accelerator Card. The nvNITRO is ideally suited for the most demanding transaction logging applications and, along with enhanced performance features, is designed with plug-and-play capability requiring no changes to system hardware, memory reference, bios or file systems.

MRAM technology is byte-addressable and persistent with very low latency, enabling dramatically improved system performance for many applications. The nvNITRO Accelerator Card fully exploits these unique attributes to provide a disruptive solution for industries where transaction processing and data recording performance are critical. For example, nvNITRO can reduce financial application wait times by reducing latency up to 90% over enterprise SSDs. Based on this performance data, SMART and Everspin will jointly target customers in the financial sector including joint demonstrations of nvNITRO performance at The Trading Show in Chicago, May 9-10.

Samsung Electronics, today introduced the Samsung 970 PRO and EVO, the third generation of its industry-leading consumer solid state drive (SSD) lineup. Having led the market with the first consumer-focused NVMe SSD in 2015, Samsung continues to push the performance barriers with this latest generation of SSDs that are built for tech enthusiasts and professionals so that they can enjoy higher bandwidth for intensive workloads on PCs and workstations.

"Samsung has led the NVMe SSD industry since its inception, and the company continues to define the latest standards of consumer storage with unprecedented performance of the 970 PRO and EVO SSDs," said Un-Soo Kim, senior vice president of Brand Product Marketing, Memory Business at Samsung Electronics. "The 970 series sets a new bar in all aspects for the NVMe SSD market with groundbreaking performance, superior reliability and best-in-class capacity."

GIGABYTE, an industry leader in competitive, high performance server motherboards and systems, has refreshed its AMD EPYC 1U and 2U server line-up with a range updated options supporting different storage device combinations, with increased NVMe connectivity to integrate more dense, high bandwidth storage. These five systems are part of GIGABYTE's ready-to-integrate general purpose Rack Server family, equipped with the best power supplies and cooling fans and combining a high level of performance, energy efficiency and overall reliability for web hosting, mass storage, virtualized infrastructures, databases & analytics and other demanding applications.

GIGABYTE's AMD EPYC server systems are based on the 7000 series EPYC processor, offered as a SoC and incorporating a multi-die design with 32 cores per processor, 128 PCIe lanes and 8 channels of DDR4 memory. These features have allowed GIGABYTE to create a range of servers that pack a real punch in flexibility and expansion options. First released in July last year, adoption of GIGABYTE's AMD EPYC servers has been gaining momentum, lowering TCO for datacenters by offering an optional balance of compute, memory, I/O and security.

PC gaming is increasingly immersive, with richer and more intense visual content than ever before, and gamers are faced with making technology choices to maximize their experience. To push leading-edge performance, lower power consumption and extended durability for PC gaming systems, Western Digital Corporation today introduced a high-performance Western Digital Black 3D NVMe SSD featuring the company's own SSD architecture and controller. The drive accelerates data for PC applications to enable users to quickly, access, engage and capture today's high-resolution video, audio and gaming content.

With growing demand for rich content, PCs must have the capability to run intensive applications and enable the 4K/Ultra HD graphics and video content experiences. To move this immense amount of data quickly and seamlessly, Western Digital developed a new breed of SSDs to help remove the traditional storage bottleneck. This M.2 drive features a new NVMe architecture and controller, which optimally integrates with Western Digital 3D NAND. Western Digital's new vertically integrated SSD platform was engineered from the ground up, specifically architected to help maximize performance for NVMe SSDs, with advanced power management, durability and endurance for the growing range of applications benefiting from NVMe technology.

Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., a world leader in memory products and technology solutions, today announced A1000 PCIe NVMe SSD. The M.2 drive is Kingston's first entry-level consumer-grade PCIe NVMe SSD utilizing 3D NAND. The A1000 delivers twice the performance of SATA at near SATA pricing.

The single-sided M.2 2280 (22mm x 80mm) form factor makes A1000 ideal for notebooks and systems with limited space. The PCIe NVMe drive features a Gen 3.0 x2 interface, 4-channel Phison 5008 controller, and 3D NAND Flash. It delivers 2x the performance of SATA SSDs with read/write speed up to 1500MB/s and 1000MB/s giving it exceptional responsiveness and ultra-low latency.