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If NAND flash is the fuel, than a controller is the engine. This article takes a look at controller and firmware, it’s importance, and the players that “Own the Controller”. The first debate is what’s more important, the controller itself, or the firmware that drives it? While a debatable issue, we can certainly agree that one does not work without the other. Further, significant Intellectual Property …

Runcore, well known for their SSDs and storage solutions, has announced that they will be showcasing a myriad of products at Satellite 2012. For those who don’t know, Satellite focuses on (try to act surprised) the satellite industry, attracting numerous interested parties (military, broadcast, enterprise, mobile, telcos). The show also highlights products of immediate relevance to the industry. This naturally includes …

Tonight is Hollywood’s big night!  Will you be watching the Oscar’s or surfing the net? The red carpet events are worth watching, looking to see who has the best dress, best hair, all the important things. Then of course there is the fact that Billy Crystal will be hosting. As for all the rest, who wins what and who they wish to thank, …

Eli Harari,  one of flash memory’s founding fathers, was not reserved when speaking Monday at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC). The SandDisk co-founder predicts that flash memory will “checkmate” hard drives by 2020.  He goes on to state that DRAM, as we know it, may not be far behind. This is quite the counterpoint to the recent Microsoft Research …

Toshiba has put a strong foot forward into the enterprise SSD storage arena with their 6 Gbb/s MKx001GRZB series of drives that also feature 32nm SLC NAND Flash Memory.  These drives are available in capacities of 100 / 200 / 400 GB. The 6 GB/s interface lets these SSDs achieve sequential speeds of 500MB/s reads and 250MB/s writes.  4K random …

Its been some time since Samsung has put out an SSD video but they seem to be spreading the SSD love throughout Europe as of late. It seems that Samsung has taken 50 of their prized 830 Series SSDs, one ambulance turned Tech bench and 4 SSD angels (of which one definitely is) and has toured Europe in hopes of …

Up until this morning, the most recognizable characteristic of a ‘SandForce Driven’ SSD was the fact that it’s capacities were always 60, 120, 240 or 480GB, unlike the standard of 64, 128, 256 and 512GB. This was a strong clue which supported our belief that LSI SandForce and Intel had teamed up for manufacture of their enthusiast level 520 Series …

ADATA, Taiwanese purveyor of SSDs and memory products, today announced a new range of SandForce powered offerings. Consisting of three new lines, the XPG SX900, the Premier Pro SP900, and the Premier SP800, each is powered by the SandForce-2281 controller. The XPG SX900 is designed for higher performance, boasting typical SF-2281 speeds of 550MB/s reads and 530MB/s writes. The XPG moniker refers to …

Rosewill has had a renaissance of sorts in the case market.  Trying to provide the right mix of features at the right price is always going to be a challenge “ its a moving target. Lately though, Rosewill has been getting it right and some of their recent offerings have been very well received by enthusiasts. The Ranger-M Chassis seeks …

Mach Xtreme Technology today announced the new MX-Starter Premium family of SSDs intended to appeal to the value oriented SSD client. The MX-Starter Premium is a SATA 2 SSD and performance is listed at 150MB/s read and 80MB/s write with up to 10,000 IOPS. This line of SSDs will be available in capacities of 32GB, 64GB and 128GB, and each …

Have you ever had the chance to be a part of history? Anyone who has been to Niagara Falls, Ontario, and has been on the Maid of the Mist boat tour, can pretty much consider themselves just that. After 165 years, The Niagara Parks Commission has decided that good work ethic and commitment doesn’t amount o much and has chosen a new company …

SMART Storage Systems, well known for their high performance memory and storage products, has announced the release of their Optimus Ultra SSD. Utilizing a SAS interface, the Optimus will offer a sustained transfer rate of 1GB/s and random read/write performance of 100k and 60k IOPS, respectively. The Optimus  will be available in capacities ranging from 150GB to 1.2TB, which makes it …

Today’s review will be just a bit different as we transition from the typical SSD review to that of CPU as Intel was nice enough to send along a newly released Sandy Bridge E i7-3820 for us to take a look at. The timing of this review couldn’t be more appropriate as many will be looking for that ‘last minute’ …

Intel’s new Ivy Bridge processors are only a few months away and it appears that they may have some company when they launch with Intels anticipated release of the 313 series SLC caching SSDs. The 313 series will be available in 20GB and a 24GB capacities and, although the reasoning behind the 24GB capacity seems a bit unclear, they were …

Everyone is getting in on the SSD caching action these days. Through software, or a combination of software and hardware, using fast SSDs to speed up slower mechanical storage seems like a catchy idea. Enter the HighPoint 3420X8 RocketCache which enables you to mix up to 4 devices for your caching pleasure.  Would you like to mix three SSDs and …