Toshiba Memory America, Inc. (TMA), the U.S.-based subsidiary of Toshiba Memory Corporation, has enhanced its portfolio of solid-state drives (SSDs) for the data center with a new, 3D flash memory-based lineup of PCI Express NVMe and SATA SSDs in multiple form factors. The new CD5, XD5 and HK6-DC SSDs enable infrastructure managers to address performance and workload demands by offering robust performance and reliability with lower operating power for read-intensive applications such as NoSQL databases, big data analytics and streaming media.

"Demand for flash storage in data centers continues to grow rapidly - with capacity shipped into the enterprise expected to increase at a 58 percent CAGR through 2021," said Jeff Janukowicz, IDC Research Vice President for Solid State Drives and Enabling Technologies. "In order for hyperscale, virtualization, automation/orchestration and software-defined storage applications to thrive, cloud data centers must meet specific workload requirements. Toshiba's latest data center SSDs are designed to help customers address these demanding environments and realize the most value from their flash storage."

Vuzix Corporation, a leading supplier of Smart Glasses and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies and products for the consumer and enterprise markets, is pleased to announce that the company has begun mass production of the world's first Windows-based smart glasses. First production shipments are expected to be delivered within approximately 30 days.

Vuzix entered into a development agreement with Toshiba in February 2017 to create a customized Window-based USB-C Type C AR smart glasses for Toshiba, which is a derivative product of the Vuzix M300 Smart Glasses. Over the past year the team at Vuzix created an entirely new Vuzix product for Toshiba, has delivered hundreds of engineering and development units and has begun volume manufacturing for Toshiba to fulfill the initial purchase order received by Toshiba as part of 3-year supply agreement, that has an expected minimum of $5,000,000 in purchases in the first 12 months, and which was previously announced by Vuzix in December 2017.

Toshiba's Client Solutions Division (CSD) a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today announced the first completely wearable Augmented Reality (AR) solution to combine the power of a Windows 10 Pro PC with the robust feature set of industrial-grade smart glasses. Designed for enterprise customers, Toshiba's new dynaEdgeTM AR Smart Glasses packages together the company's new dynaEdge AR100 Head Mounted Display (HMD) with its dynaEdge DE-100 Mobile Mini PC for a completely wearable PC system maximizing mobility, productivity and security without compromising flexibility.

Toshiba's new AR solution provides Document Viewing, Live Video Calls, See-What-I-See, Photo/Video Capture, Alerts/Messaging, Workflow Instruction and Barcode Scanning capabilities making it ideal for a variety of uses cases, including Maintenance, Remote Expert, Manufacturing, QA Inspection & Audit, Logistics, Training and Knowledge Transfer. Available in the second quarter with a starting MSRP of $1,899.99, the dynaEdge AR Smart Glasses is offered in various configurations with processor, memory and storage options as well as developer's kits for different industrial applications.

Toshiba Memory Europe GmbH has announced three new additions to the EXCERIA family of microSDXC cards, named M303. With capacities of up to 256GB, maximum read/write speeds of 98MB/s and 65MB/s respectively, as well as a new Video Speed Class 30 (V30), the M303 allows users to record and store 4K Ultra HD content.

The M303's speed rating supports 4K Ultra HD video recording; a prerequisite for the latest action cameras, video recorders and drones. Smartphones compatible with microSDXC specification will benefit from the M303's ability to write high-resolution videos and images at high speed. Rated with Video Speed Class 30 (V30), the M303 provides a minimum data transfer rate of 30 MB/s with a recommended UHS device under the conditions regulated by SD association.

Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC), a committed technology leader, announces its new MQ04 Series 2TB HDD model MQ04ABD200, designed for use in notebook PCs, all-in-one and slim-line desktop systems, and other applications requiring high capacity storage and 2.5-inch mobile-class durability.

The MQ04ABD200 dual-disk model delivers 2 TB of storage capacity in a compact 2.5-inch, 9.5 mm height form factor. The drive's 6 Gbit/s SATA interface and 5,400 rpm performance, combined with a large 128 MB buffer, result in a 34 percent increase in maximum transfer rates and a 50 percent improvement in power efficiency compared to Toshiba's previous 1 TB mobile-class model generation, MQ01ABD100.

Patriot is aiming to join the high-end, M.2, NVMe SSD playing field with its upcoming Viper SSD family. The company has already shed most details (but not all) on the specs of these upcoming SSDs, which will carry Phison's latest E12 controller, the cream of the crop when it comes to Phison-manufactured solutions. The E12 is controller by Phison is NVMe 1.3 compliant, supports 8 NAND channels, and delivers a PCIe 3.0 x4 interface with strong ECC algorithms. These features are being paired with Toshiba's 64-layer BICS 3D NAND flash memory. The company wants these to succeed to the company's previous Hellfire flagships, with more appealing and modern design, performance, and features.

The Viper SSDs will be available from 240 GB to 2 TB capacities, and Patriot is quoting Phison's own performance estimates for the Phison E12 controller as the performance speeds of its Viper SSDs: 3200 MB/s sequential read, 3000 MB/s sequential write, and 600K random read and random write IOPS. Due to how the showcased Viper SSDs already carry product stickers and retail packaging design seems to be finished, these are expected to be out sooner, rather than later, and will be another options for users looking to bring their storage to some measure of Warp speeds.

Overview
At the end of 2017 we had 93,240 spinning hard drives. Of that number, there were 1,935 boot drives and 91,305 data drives. This post looks at the hard drive statistics of the data drives we monitor. We'll review the stats for Q4 2017, all of 2017, and the lifetime statistics for all of the drives Backblaze has used in our cloud storage data centers since we started keeping track.

Hard Drive Reliability Statistics for Q4 2017
At the end of Q4 2017 Backblaze was monitoring 91,305 hard drives used to store data. For our evaluation we remove from consideration those drives which were used for testing purposes and those drive models for which we did not have at least 45 drives (read why after the chart). This leaves us with 91,243 hard drives. The table below is for the period of Q4 2017.

Plextor today introduced its latest line of value SATA SSDs, under the M8V series. Available in 2.5-inch and M.2-2280 form-factors, the drives leverage SATA 6 Gbps interface, combining Toshiba's latest-generation 64-layer BiCS TLC NAND flash memory, with Silicon Motion SM2258 controller. This controller offers LPDC and redundant array of NAND flash. Both variants come in capacities of 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB.

Performance differs by capacity variants. All three capacity-variants read at speeds of up to 560 MB/s. The 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB variants write (sequentially) at speeds of up to 400 MB/s, up to 510 MB/s, and up to 520 MB/s, respectively. Their 4K random-access speeds are rated at 60,000/70,000 IOPS (reads/writes), 81,000/80,000 IOPS, and 82,000/81,000 IOPS, respectively. Plextor rates their endurance at 70 TBW for the 128 GB variant, 140 TBW for the 256 GB variant, and 280 TBW for the 512 GB variant. Plextor is backing these drives with 3-year warranties.

Toshiba's Client Solutions Division (CSD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today announced its line of award-winning, business-class mobile computing solutions to feature the new 8th Generation Intel Core vPro processors. Toshiba will begin shipping the Portégé X20W, Portégé X30, Tecra X40, Tecra Z50, Tecra A50 and Tecra C50 with Intel's newest processing technology in the first quarter of 2018.

"We are excited about incorporating the 8th Generation Intel Core vPro processors to our portfolio of business-focused laptops," said Carl Pinto, vice president, marketing and product development, Client Solutions Division, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. "The performance enhancements available via this new processor combined with the advanced features and options found in our Portégé and Tecra business laptops positions Toshiba as a premium mobile computing provider."

The Financial Times has reported that Toshiba is considering a last-ditch effort towards producing liquidity, should its memory chip production business spin-off to Bain Capital not be allowed to complete prior to the end of March, in the face of antitrust scrutiny delays. Should that be the case, Toshiba would be in a dire situation, as the spin-off development has clearly shown (remember that Toshiba went from a 20% stake spin-off to a 100% spin-off due to increasing concerns with the company's outstanding debt and lack of liquidity).

Should that be the case, the company is reportedly considering an IPO as one of its contingency plans, the Financial Times reports, citing sources familiar with the plans. If the acquisition by Bain Capital fails to win regulatory approval by March 31, Toshiba is no longer bound to the deal's terms, sources familiar with the situation have told Reuters. The Financial Times further added that some analysts - and Toshiba shareholders - favor this contingency plan over the existing deal - and apparently there's some sentiment towards the same in the financial markets at large, as Toshiba shares hit a three-month high in morning trade, at one point rising as much as 4.7 percent, after these IPO plans started being made public. If Toshiba's board wasn't considering an IPO before, they sure are more likely to do so now.

Toshiba throughout 2017 made big moves in the flash storage industry, particularly its bitter falling out with WD/SanDisk. The company today is more innovative than ever. Its 2018 International CES booth had a mix of products by the original Toshiba digital storage products division, and its client-focused, US-based, former OCZ division. The star-attraction isn't some big PCIe add-on card SSD that can push a dozen terabytes per second; but the modest RC100 M.2 NVMe drive. Drives like it could make NVMe storage affordable for upper-mainstream gaming PC builders throughout 2018.

The RC100 has been exhaustively detailed in one of our older articles. It's an M.2-2242 drive with PCIe gen 3.0 x2 interface, and more than triple the transfer rates of the fastest SATA SSD you can find. This drive will be gulped down by both the DIY and OEM markets. Next up, is the TR200 entry-level SATA SSD launched last October, targeted at those still clinging onto HDDs or first-time builders. It features Toshiba's 64-layer TLC NAND flash to achieve some of the lowest price-per-gigabyte ratios.

Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC), a committed technology leader, announces the latest additions to its line of portable hard drive solutions for personal storage, the CANVIO PREMIUM, ADVANCE and BASICS models, offering flexible capacity ranging from 500GB, 1TB, 2TB and 3TB options. Although the models may differ in materials and features, the CANVIO line brings a unified design of flat and rounded devices thanks to the new 1TB-per-platter technology.

The CANVIO PREMIUM series offers versatile connectivity in a stylish design with an aluminum finish and diamond-cut edges in silver metallic. The device is easy to store with the thinness body and give it a sharper look. It is accompanied by a USB Type-A to USB Type-C2 adapter that can be inserted in any orientation for easy connectivity to everything from notebooks to high-end desktop PCs. The 2TB devices in the Premium line have a 13.5mm profile, 5.5mm slimmer than the previous model. The 1TB devices also have a 13.5mm profile and the 3TB devices have a 19mm profile.

Following its early-CES launch, we have more details of Toshiba's "entry-level" M.2 NVMe SSD, the RC100. This drive is designed to offer significantly higher performance than SATA SSDs, at a tiny (10-15 percent) price premium over the fastest SATA SSDs. This market has been made inroads to by companies like ADATA, with their XPG SX6000-series. The RC100, offers not only NVMe performance, but also a more compact size. The drive is built in the M.2-2242 form-factor (42 mm long). It will fit on any motherboard that supports M.2-2280 drives, you just have to move the fastening nut to an inner hole marked "42."

Toshiba RC100 drives combine an in-house developed controller with Toshiba 64-layer BiCS Flash TLC memory. The drive features PCI-Express 3.0 x2 host interface, and takes advantage of the NVMe 1.2 protocol. It offers sequential transfer rates of up to 1,620 MB/s reads, with up to 1,130 MB/s writes; and 4K random access performance of up to 160,000 IOPS reads, and 120,000 IOPS writes. The drive comes in capacities of 120 GB, 240 GB, and 480 GB, and is backed by a 3-year warranty.

Toshiba Memory America, Inc. (TMA), the U.S.-based subsidiary of Toshiba Memory Corporation, will be highlighting the use of its industry-leading BiCS FLASH 3D memory in several applications - including its new lineup of NVMe SSDs, the RC100 Series.

At CES, TMA is collaborating with its customers and technology partners to take on the future - together. Toshiba was the first company in the world[1] to announce 3D flash memory technology, which effectively addresses the processing, storage and management of the growing volume of data generated worldwide. Recent announcements see the company continuing to lead the industry forward, including the introduction of a 96-layer 512Gb die; the debut of the industry's first[2] flash memory device with quadruple-level cell (QLC) technology; and the addition of Through Silicon Via (TSV) technology. Already enabling the enterprise, data center, PC and mobile applications of today, TMA's BiCS FLASH has paved the way for the applications of tomorrow. In everything from artificial intelligence and virtual reality to a growing number of automotive applications (such as infotainment), high performance computing and the ever-expanding "internet of things," storage density needs will climb higher and higher - and BiCS FLASH was designed with this in mind.

It's been a couple years now that we've seen continuously increasing pricing of DRAM and NAND semiconductors. The price increase, which has been hailed and documented over, over, andover again (and there are way more articles on this subject here on TPU), follows reported increased demand which has failed to be accompanied by its respective manufacturing and supply ability.

However, reports that companies were planning on increasing production of DRAM and NAND below the expected increases in supply demand may have turned at least some regulatory eyes towards the issue. China's National Development and Reform Commission's Pricing Supervision Department (NDRC) said they are aware of the situation, how it could point towards price-fixing from the four major NAND production players (Samsung, Hynix, Micron and Toshiba), and are looking into the matter. "We have noticed the price surge and will pay more attention to future problems that may be caused by 'price fixing' in the sector," the official Xu Xinyu was quoted as saying in an interview to Chinese newspaper Daily China.

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it is going ahead with a forward-looking plan for a new memory fabrication facility in Kitakami, Iwate prefecture. Toshiba Memory Corporation (TMC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Toshiba, will establish a company to operate the facility, and invest approximately 7 billion yen in site preparation and initial construction work in FY2017. The new facility, announced on September 6, 2017, will produce BiCS Flash, TMC's proprietary flash memory. It will be TMC's seventh fab.

Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC), a committed technology leader, announces the AL15SE Series HDD, its next generation of 10,500 rpm enterprise performance hard disk drives for mission critical servers and storage. The new drive series boasts a 2,400 GB capacity model - a 33 percent capacity increase over Toshiba's AL14SE generation and Toshiba's largest capacity ever for a 10,500 rpm HDD.

Built to deliver superior low-latency performance, the AL15SE Series supports 12 Gbit/s SAS dual-port interface to optimize the host transfer rate. All models utilize a space-efficient, power-saving 2.5 inch , 15 mm form-factor. Advanced Format models support 4K native and 512e emulated sector technologies and increase areal density in capacities ranging from 600 GB to 2,400 GB and feature a 15 percent increase in sustained transfer rate over the prior AL14SE generation. New 512n sector technology models increase areal density in capacities ranging from 300 GB to 1,200 GB.

Corsair rolled out the range-topping 1,600 GB variant of the Neutron NX500 PCI-Express SSD series, which made its debut in August 2017 (variant SKU: CSSD-N1600GBNX500). The drive is priced at 1,770€ (including taxes). The half-height, single-slot add-on card features PCI-Express 3.0 x4 bus interface, and takes advantage of the NVMe 1.2 protocol. The drives combine Phison PS5007-E7 controllers with Toshiba-made 15 nm MLC NAND flash memory.

It has a rated sequential performance of up to 3,000 MB/s reads, with up to 2,300 MB/s writes when tested with ATTO; up to 2,800 MB/s reads with up to 1,600 MB/s writes when tested with CrystalDiskMark; and random-access performance of up to 300,000 IOPS 4K reads, with up to 270,000 IOPS 4K writes, when tested with IOMeter. Its endurance is rated at 2,793 TBW, and is backed by a 5-year warranty.

Toshiba Corporation, Toshiba Memory Corporation, and Western Digital Corporation have entered into a global settlement agreement to resolve their ongoing disputes in litigation and arbitration, strengthen and extend their relationship, and enhance the mutual commitment to their ongoing flash memory collaboration.

As part of this agreement, TMC and Western Digital will participate jointly in future rounds of investment in Fab 6, the state-of-the-art memory fabrication facility now under construction at Yokkaichi, including the upcoming investment round announced by Toshiba in October 2017. Fab 6 will be entirely devoted to the mass production of BiCS FLASH, the next-generation of 3D flash memory, starting next year. TMC and Western Digital similarly intend to enter into definitive agreements in due course under which Western Digital will participate in the new flash wafer fabrication facility which will be constructed in Iwate, Japan.

The parties will strengthen their flash memory collaboration by extending the terms of their joint ventures. Flash Alliance will be extended to December 31, 2029 and Flash Forward to December 31, 2027. Flash Partners was previously extended to December 31, 2029.

Toshiba Memory Corporation, the world leader in memory solutions, today announced that it has begun shipping samples of embedded NAND flash memory products for automotive applications that are compliant with JEDEC UFS version 2.1. The new products meet AEC-Q100 Grade2 requirements and support a wide temperature range of -40°C to +105°C, offering the enhanced reliability capabilities that are required by increasingly complex automotive applications. The line-up meets a broad range of applications requirements with five different capacities: 16 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB, 128 GB and 256 GB.

The new products are embedded NAND flash memory products that integrate NAND chips fabricated with 15 nm process technology and a controller in a single package. Storage requirements for automotive applications continue to increase as systems including automotive information & entertainment systems and ADAS become more sophisticated, and UFS supports their high performance and density needs. The addition of automotive UFS expands Toshiba Memory Corporation's line-up of embedded NAND flash memory products for automotive applications, which currently includes automotive e-MMC products. Utilizing the UFS interface allows the new products to achieve sequential read of 850 MB/s and random read of 50,000 IOPS, which are approximately 2.7 times and 7.1 times faster than their current e-MMC counterparts, respectively.

Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation today announced the launch of the MG07ACA Series, the world's first enterprise 14TB Conventional Magnetic Recording (CMR) HDD. Using a 9-disk, helium-sealed design, the new MG07ACA Series provides the power-efficient capacity and storage density needed by cloud-scale and enterprise storage solution providers to achieve their TCO objectives.

"We have raised the bar with the new MG07ACA Series 9-disk helium-sealed design," said Akitoshi Iwata, Vice President of Storage Products Division, Toshiba Electronic Devices and Storage Corporation. "By utilizing an innovative design, we continue to improve the benefits that high-capacity disk storage can deliver to our broad global customer base."

Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation today announced the addition of "MN06ACA10T," a 10-terabyte (TB) hard disk drive (HDD) in a 3.5-inch form factor with a SATA interface. The new drive is designed for home NAS and small office/home office (SOHO) NAS applications. Sample shipments start today.

"MN06ACA10T" air-based HDD delivers 10 TB capacity by deploying an improved magnetic recording head and disk magnetic layer. The 10 TB capacity is 25% higher than that of the previous model in the series, the 8 TB MN05ACA800, and buffer size is doubled to 256 MiB.

Toshiba Memory Corporation, the world leader in memory solutions, has enhanced its line-up of client SSDs with the launch of premium models in its XG5-P series. The new NVM Express (NVMe) client SSDs improve on the performance of the current XG5 series models and double the maximum capacity to 2 TB. Sample shipments to OEM customers start today in limited quantities, and Toshiba Memory Corporation will gradually increase shipments from the first calendar quarter of 2018.

The XG5-P series also utilizes a PCI Express (PCIe) Gen3 x4 lane and NVM Express Revision 1.2.1 interface, and delivers performance of up to 3000 MB/s sequential read and 2200 MB/s sequential write, and up to 320,000 IOPS random read and 265,000 IOPS random write. Its random read/write performance in full access range is approximately 55% better than that of standard XG5 series products. At the same time, low power consumption is maintained at less than 60 mW during operation.

Toshiba Memory Corporation, the world leader in memory solutions, has today started sampling Universal Flash Storage (UFS) devices utilizing Toshiba Memory Corporation's cutting-edge 64-layer, BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory. The new UFS devices meet performance demands for applications that require high-speed read/write performance and low power consumption, including mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, and augmented and virtual reality systems.

The new line-up will be available in four capacities: 32 GB, 64 GB, 128 GB and 256 GB. All of the devices integrate flash memory and a controller in a single, JEDEC-standard 11.5 x 13 mm package. The controller performs error correction, wear leveling, logical-to-physical address translation and bad-block management, allowing users to simplify system development.

Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc., a committed technology leader, announces the MD06ACA-V, the latest addition to its SV Series line-up of 3.5-inch hard drives for surveillance applications. The new models are available in capacities up to 10 TB with a higher transfer rate compared to previous MD04ABA-V models, helping to enable support for up to 64 camera streams. Higher capacity and transfer rates enable support for higher resolution camera streams to meet changing compliance mandates for surveillance data.

The MD06ACA-V Series is designed for 24/7 streaming operation scenarios, and is typically used for surveillance digital video recorders (SDVR), surveillance network video recorders (SNVR) and Hybrid SDVR. The MD06ACA-V Series features 7,200 rpm access performance, and the new 10 TB model delivers a 58 percent increase in maximum sustained transfer rate when compared to Toshiba's prior MD04ABA-V series, pushing it to 237 MiB/s. Available in 6 TB, 8 TB and 10 TB capacities, the new models provide a SATA 6 Gbit/s interface, with a 256 MiB dynamic buffer. Additionally, the MD06ACA-V models support Advanced Format (512e) technology for compatibility with legacy applications and operating environments.