The importance of Toshiba in the flash industry cannot be overstated.  Toshiba is not only one of the world’s largest flash suppliers, but also, they are often recognized as the prime choice when SSD manufacturers are making quality SSDs.  Some SSD manufacturers refuse to use anything nut Toshiba NAND flash memory in their SSDs. So where has Toshiba been as …

The importance of SSD controllers often gets overlooked in the world of SSDs.  Memory itself is front and center in the minds of most, simply because it is the most prominent component in any SSD.  Most recently, we are even seeing Apple using the term ‘flash’ in its product literature , rather than ‘SSD’.  Not only is the controller capable …

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., leading developer of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for consumers and enterprise, is announcing its new StoragePro XL 1.1 SSD management software.  This new application allows for centralized monitoring and management of OCZ enterprise SSDs that are connected to network servers, appliances or storage arrays.  Designed to be a network-accessible management tool, StoragePro XL 1.1 gives IT …

Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc., a global storage products developer and producer, and their Storage Products Business Unit are announcing the PX02SS enterprise solid state drive (eSSD).  This new addition to Toshiba’s eSSD family is optimized for write-intensive usage scenarios, such as data processing and online transaction processing. The PX02SS utilizes a 12 GB/s SAS interface (backwards compatible with 6 …

Today’s review is of MyDigitalSSD’s SuperCache 2 mSATA 128GB SSD, and the FNet HybriDisk caching software.  A license key for the HybriDisk software is included with the purchase of the SuperCache 2. INTRODUCTION How does a caching SSD work?  It works in conjunction with a hard drive disk (HDD) to create what the operating system sees as a single, combined storage partition. …

SONY ULTRABOOK PRO 13 CONFIGURATIONS DIFFER A few weeks back, we published our review of the Sony VAIO Pro 13 ultrabook where we discovered that there were two different configurations of the VAIO being shipped, that with a SATA 3 M.2 SSD and that with a native M.2 PCIe SSD.  Not only did the system that we received contain a …

UNDERSTANDING SATA M.2 AND NATIVE M.2 PCIE SSDS By now, many are aware that there is a new SSD standard known as NGFF or M.2.  NGFF is actually a slang term that started the process rolling and means ‘next generation form factor’.  If you have been following our reviews as of late, you would have also learned that, within the …

Perhaps the two most notable recent trends in SSDs have been the inevitable introduction of M.2 SSDs and the unexpected announcements of ‘driverless’ PCIe SSDs, that require no more than inserting the device into an available PCIe slot and rebooting the PC system. Very close and long-standing industry relations placed us in a position to provide exclusive analysis and report …

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., global memory technology leader, is announcing that its SM1625 enterprise SSD has been certified by VMware as an optimized solution when utilized with VMware’s Virtual SANTM.  VMware Virtual SAN is a new software-defined enterprise storage system that enables users to pool server HDDs with Flash resources, creating a resilient, high-performance and dynamic shared storage solution for …

When it comes to high performance RAID add-in cards, there are really only two big players in the market: Adaptec and LSI.  These two have been duking it out for years, each one constantly trying to one up the other, with LSI often coming out on top.  To give you a bit of history, lets take a look back at …