First 512GB SSD offered for sale: $1500
SSDs have always been for those with a lot of cash and a lot of demand for speed, and after this new product introduction, things are still the same. SSDs, or solid state drives, are popular because they're fast and reliable.
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10.4.2009 Micron Demonstrates 1 GB/s SSD
According to a video posted on Microns new blog, the company managed to develop a solid state drive that could reach the fastest speeds ever recorded by such a product.
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26.11.2008 Used Microsoft Software for Sale: Cheap!
When Microsoft software reseller
Disclic began selling secondhand Microsoft software last week, a number of Microsoft watchers proclaimed "They can't do that, can they?"
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15.11.2005 Windows Home Server goes on Sale in the US
Windows Home Server is finally available in the US! You can pick it up at
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11.10.2007 NEC Confirms Packard Bell Sale
NEC confirmed that it was exiting the European PC market, announcing it had reached a deal to sell its Netherlands-based Packard Bell subsidiary to Chinese entrepreneur Lap Shun "John" Hui. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
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16.10.2006 Napster hangs "for sale" sign in front window
Napster is evaluating the possibility of a sale by hiring of an investment bank. Citing "recent third party interest," the company has asked UBS Investment Bank to explore strategic partnerships or an outright sale of the company.
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20.9.2006 Vista says NO to old DVD drives
Windows Vista will no longer support DVD-ROM drives that do not handle region coding in hardware (RPC1 drives) - thus preventing playback of DVDs that are region/CSS encoded with those drives.
Not a big problem, as RPC1 drives haven't been officially manufactured since 2000 (and Microsoft claims their drives are all broken), but for those with hacked drives (RPC2 with RPC1 firmware), or move the RPC1 drive to new computers, well, no more DVD movies for you!
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2.1.2006 How to archive on disk drives
Archiving on hard drives? Now that disk drives are cheaper per gigabyte than tape cartridges, you might be tempted to archive data on disk drives and stick them on a shelf.
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10.9.2008 Windows 7 to be available on USB Drives?
Microsoft is considering offering Windows 7 on a thumb drive to allow Netbook owners to more easily upgrade their machines, a source tells CNET News.
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29.6.2009 Mobile Vista will need hybrid hard drives
Microsoft has confirmed that its mobile version of Vista it will need a hybrid hard drive to run, when it hits the shops.
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15.6.2006 Mobile Hard Drives Hit 500GB
New Hitachi drive represents a giant leap forward in notebook storage.
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3.1.2008 Tailoring Windows 7 to Solid-State Drives
Microsoft is tailoring Windows 7 to solid-state drives. Mum's the word on the matter as far as the Redmond giant is concerned, but this will no longer be the case come November 2008.
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7.10.2008 Hybrid Drives to Become Vista Premium Logo Requirement
At a discussion of flash memory technologies to be included in Windows Vista and "Longhorn" here at TechEd 2006 this morning, Microsoft's program manager for Windows Client Performance Matt Ayres confirmed that inclusion of hybrid hard drives will be a requirement for mobile systems that carry the Vista Premium logo, beginning in June 2007.
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14.6.2006 Advanced Disks and Drives Management in Windows Vista
Disks, partitions, drivers, FAT, NTFS, volumes... the fact of the matter is that it all comes down to storage. So, essentially, managing disks and drives via Windows Vista will allow users to control the storage space available on the local hard drive or even drives if that should be the case.
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5.8.2007 Vista's ReadyBoost flash drives lack significant boost
Windows Vista's Windows ReadyBoost sounds too good to be true, and based on our extensive lab tests, it is. The technology promises to let you speed up Windows by plugging an inexpensive USB flash drive into your PC. But we found that while ReadyBoost may speed up Vista a tiny bit, it can also slow it down in some instances.
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18.5.2007 SanDisk: Windows Vista not optimized for solid-state drives
SanDisk said Monday that Windows Vista is not optimized for solid-state drives, delaying the delivery of optimized drives until next year.
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22.7.2008 How to Open Bitlocker Protected Drives on Windows Vista & XP
Microsoft Windows 7 has one amazing feature to protect your important documents and content called as BitLocker.
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21.10.2009 Western Digital Launches High-Performance 7200RPM 2TB Drives
Western Digital has announced today that it will be shipping 7200 RPM 2TB drives: the WD RE4 (WD2003FYYS) which is targeted towards servers and enterprise systems, and the 2TB Western Digital Caviar Black (WD2001FASS) for desktop systems
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1.9.2009 Windows 7 Pre-Beta updated to Play Nice with NTFS External Drives
Microsoft is offering support to testers of Windows 7 when it comes down to issues associated with the integration of NTFS external drives with the operating system.
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28.11.2008 Windows 7 Drives RAM Ccapacity Explosion; Vista SP2 Usage Rising
Windows 7 will drive the average PC RAM capacity to 4GB in the next 18 months. That's the conclusion of researchers at the exo.performance.network who are monitoring the ramp-up to Windows 7's launch on October 22.
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23.9.2009First 512GB SSD offered for sale: $1500
SSDs have always been for those with a lot of cash and a lot of demand for speed, and after this new product introduction, things are still the same.
SSDs, or solid state drives, are popular because they're fast and reliable. They feature no moving parts, so they don't suffer nearly as badly
from knocks or drops as regular hard drives. Although, these benefits come with a price; these drives are typically much smaller in storage, and
because they're a lot harder to manufacture, they're a great deal pricier too. According to Techworld, a company named Super Talent has made
a world first and debuted a 512GB SSD ready for consumers; the largest to ever be sold.
Read full story.....
neowin.net -
10.04.2009Asus debuts netbook with Windows 7 and 512GB SSD
Asus has debuted an ultra thin netbook S121 running Windows 7 and the worlds largest 512GB solid state drive(SSD). The S121 netbook is equipped with a
1.33GHz Intel Atom microprocessor and uses their touch mode software on Windows 7. This is a huge step for Windows 7 considering that Windows Vista
is not a good option for netbooks. The netbook is expected to be available in a month, but without Windows 7. Windows 7 will be available once it hits
the market later this year. A few weeks back Neowin discussed whether Windows 7 is the Linux-netbook killer and we got great response from our users.
Read full story.....
neowin.net -
07.01.2009Toshiba Announces 512GB SSD
jcxp.net - 18.12.2008
Asus debuts S121 netbook with Windows 7 and 512GB SSD
Asustek Computer on Tuesday debuted an ultra-thin, light netbook called the S121 with two new technologies, Microsoft's yet-to-be released Windows 7
OS and the world's largest solid state drive (SSD) at 512GB.
winbeta.org - 07.01.2009
Toshiba to show 512GB solid-state drive at CES
Toshiba said Wednesday that it will showcase a 512GB solid-state drive at the Consumer Electronics Show next month and begin shipments in the second
quarter of 2009. To date, this would be one of the largest-capacity solid-state drives for use in laptops and come close to matching the size of
mobile hard-disk drives. Toshiba said it is releasing a broad family of "fast read/write SSDs" based on 43-nanometer Multi-Level Cell (MLC) NAND
flash technology that will be showcased at CES. MLC technology allows solid-state drive makers to deliver higher capacity drives at lower prices.
Image Courtesy: cnet news
Read full
story.....
neowin.net - 18.12.2008
OCZ release Vertex SSD range
OCZ recently unveiled their latest range of Solid State Drives (SSD), aiming to hit the balance between cost and performance. With only a few
exceptions, SSDs haven't received a warm welcome from consumers yet - almost certainly due to the cost, as the price per gigabyte is considerably
higher than that for traditional hard drives. Only a small handful of major technology companies have entered this new, emerging market, and perhaps
for a good reason. However, the new drives could be the start of a push to lower prices without lowering performance drastically either.
Read full story.....
neowin.net - 11.12.2008
SSD, i-RAM and Traditional Hard Disk Drives
In this article we are going to introduce to you two solid state drives from Samsung and a unique data storage solution from Gigabyte aka i-RAM. Let
check out their performance compared to that of conventional hard disk drives.
winbeta.org - 24.04.2008
Six New SSDs: Can Intel Be Dethroned?
Hard drives based on flash memory are still a few years away from becoming mainstream products, because flash memory drives are still much more
expensive per gigabyte than conventional hard drivesand even if they were cost-competitive, flash-based solid state drives (SSDs) cannot satisfy
worldwide demand. However, there are more and more flash SSD products that are serious hard drives alternativesat least for enthusiasts.
winbeta.org - 30.01.2009
64GB SSD on the Desktop: Samsung and OCZ go mainstream
We are seeing the SSD market mature quickly from the performance, pricing, and capacity viewpoints. Just over a year ago, the first generation SSD
drives had average capacities in the 16GB range with read/write performance around 45/25 MB/s. Pricing for these drives was around the $100 per-GB
range and most suppliers explicitly stated the drives were meant for industrial, military, medical, or commercial use.
Last fall,
second generation controller technology became available and performance jumped to 60/40 MB/s read/write speeds for the mainstream market along with
specialized manufacturers like Mtron and Memoright offering drives in the 100/80 MB/s read/write range. The new capacity standard became 32GB with
64GB performance oriented drives available. Pricing for the mainstream also dropped with costs averaging around $48 per-GB for the
performance-oriented drives and around $33 per-GB for the mainstream drives.
winbeta.org - 16.05.2008
Seagate plans SSD, 2TB hard drive for next year
Seagate will introduce its first SSD (solid-state drive) storage and 2TB hard drive next year, company CEO Bill Watkins said.
The company's first SSD product will be targeted at enterprises that need speedy storage and can afford to pay a premium for the expensive
drives. Seagate has no plans to release SSD drives for consumers as the high prices could deter them for the next few years, Watkins said in an
interview.
The release date and price information for the 2TB hard drive were not available. Seagate released 1TB hard drives,
the Barracuda 7200.11 and Barracuda ES.2, in the middle of 2007.
winbeta.org - 30.05.2008
SSD versus Enterprise SAS and SATA disks
AnandTech: We compare RAID configurations of up to 16 SATA drives, up to eight SAS drives, and up to eight Intel X25-E SLC SSDs in different
situations and try to find out which configuration makes the most sense for different enterprise applications. OLTP in particular has our attention:
are the expensive SLC SSD drives capable of outperforming SAS RAID...
winbeta.org - 20.03.2009
OCZ release Agility SSD series
OCZ have released a new range of Solid State Drives, named the Agility series, which will complement their eight SSD ranges they have at the moment.
Described as "an affordable offering for mainstream notebook and desktop users demanding the latest technology" in their press release, the new
range will be placed in their mainstream category. The 2.5" SSD makes use of a 64MB cache, something which the Apex SSD range (which we reviewed a
few months ago) does not offer. The drive uses 5 watts of power when in use, and 2 watts when idle, making it potentially appealing to notebook
owners.
Read full story.....
neowin.net - 10.06.2009
TechSpot: OCZ Agility EX 60GB SLC SSD Review
OCZ is showing strong commitment to be at the forefront of SSD technology. Over the past year the company has released nearly a dozen different series
targeting every possible market, from affordable netbook oriented products to enterprise-grade solid state drives for servers and data warehouses.
They have had a great deal of success with multi-level cell (MLC) drives such as the Vertex we reviewed a few months ago. At the other side of the
spectrum, single-level cell (SLC) solid state drives tend to sell for more outrageous prices. OCZ has been working on making this technology a bit
kinder on your bank account.
Read full
story.....
neowin.net - 15.10.2009
Review: OCZ Apex Series 120GB SSD
The OCZ Apex Series of Solid State Drives (referred to as SSDs from now on) has been out for a few months now, and thanks to the kind people at OCZ,
I've been able to get my hands on one of the 120GB models from the series. I will be reviewing both the product, and the technology, comparing the
benchmark and test results from the SSD with the results from a traditional hard drive, but we will go into that later. First of all, let's take
a look at the SSD itself.
Read full story.....
neowin.net - 25.03.2009
SanDisk reveals plans for SSD performance boost
It is getting certain that hard drives as we know them are not going to be the mainstream for data storing for too long. Although solid-state drives
are used primarily for system that need low power consumption, SanDisk (and Microsoft) gave us hope that we can expect these drives in systems that
need high performances, too.
SanDisk Corporation revealed plans for a new type of file system called ExtremeFFS. The enhancements of this
file system can improve read and write speeds more than 100 times. This is supposed to be achieved with a page-based algorithm. This means that there
is no connection between physical and logical locations. When writing data in a SSD, ExtremeFFS should put the data in a place that should be most
efficient.
The second very important possibility of a NAND module that ExtremeFFS will use will is the multi-channel option. That means
that the SSD can read or write in different modules at the same time.
The next two solutions do not really have a part in SSD performance,
but could be useful to users.
Virtual RPM is a method of measuring the performances of a SSD. It represents the number of revolutions per
minute that a hard drive should gain to have equal performances like the SSD in that moment. It is not really clear why it was necessary to create
this kind of value. Why wouldn't we use read/write speeds, or access times? The only explanation that we could get is that would be the easiest
way for the consumer to compare HDD and SSD performance. Nevertheless, an average consumer does not know that RPM does not really have to have a
significant impact on HDD performance. Not a bad advertisement, I must say.
Sandisk has also thought a way to keep your data safe.
That's the Long-Term Data Endurance (LDE). The technology implemented in SSDs to measure the reliability of a drive, and representing it as a
number to the consumer. Sandisk has called other SSD drive manufacturers to follow this idea.
All of this should be available to the market
in 2009.
Just to add, Microsoft has announced that Windows 7 will have much better optimization for SSD drives. Shiny days are awaiting
the SSD industry!
Read full story.....
neowin.net - 06.11.2008
Mobile users offered first external SSD
Networking company Buffalo Technology has finally launched its external SSD drives at prices that promise to steal a share of the portable market from
old-world 2.5-inch hard drives. The capacities of the new MicroStation drives are modest by the standards of a spinning drive -- 32GB, 64GB, and 100GB
-- but there are other features to tempt buyers beyond the gigabytes.
The first is perhaps size. Weighing around 60 grams, the aptly-named
drives are not much bigger than a credit card at 57 x 14 x 89mm, a form factor that looks tiny next to the supplied wrap-around USB 2.0 connector and
cable used to attach it to a PC.
neowin.net - 03.09.2008
Samsung's 256GB SSD
On Wednesday night, Samsung announced that it had begun mass-producing its new 256GB Solid-State drives.
These drives are not only
bigger, but they are faster; they run on average, at more than double the speed of Samsung's 64GB and 128GB SSDs.
With sequential read
rates at 220MBps and write rates of 200MBps, these drives are sure dazzle.
The company compares the SSD to a 7, 200 RPM HDD with storing
HD movies. The SSD can store 25 HD movies in just 21 minutes. That's nearly 20GB/minute! The HDD trailed far behind at about 70 minutes.
In terms of power usage, it uses 1.1 watts, compared to the normal 2-watt usage.
It's 2.5" wide and a mere 9.5mm thick, weighing in
at only 81 grams!
While pricing is not available yet, we can be sure that this drive is one of the many keys to the future of SSD usage,
and regardless of the price, tech enthusiasts will clog online stores buying them the minute they are released.
Welcome to the future...
jcxp.net - 20.11.2008
Samsung puts 128 GB SSDs into mass-production
Samsung today said that it has begun mass producing 1.8 and 2.5 multi-level cell (MLC)-based solid state drives (SSD) with 64 and 128 GB storage
capacity. Samsung also promises more attractive pricing, which indicates that SSD technology will become more competitive with traditional hard
drives and be in reach for more consumers.
winbeta.org - 09.07.2008
The SSD Anthology: Understanding SSDs and New Drives from OCZ
Anand Lal Shimpi: If you look at the SSD market today, youd assume that its very different from what it was just six months ago when the X25-M
launched. People are worried that the Intel drive has issues with degrading performance over time. Some vendors are now shipping revised JMicron
drives with multiple controllers, supposedly fixing all of the problems I talked about last year.
I hate to break it to you guys.
As different as the world may seem today, its all very much the same...
winbeta.org - 20.03.2009
Samsung to deliver 256GB solid-state drive in 2009
Samsung Electronics could deliver 256GB solid-state drives next year, quadrupling the capacity of SSDs it is currently shipping to PC makers, the
company said.
Samsung recently plugged 64GB SSDs into Lenovos ThinkPad X300 laptops, which only have SSD storage built in, said
Jim Elliott, vice president of memory marketing for Samsung Semiconductor. The drive maker also supplies the 64GB SSD available as a storage option for the MacBook Air.
Samsung is due to ship samples of 128GB SSDs in the middle of this year. The 128GB samples will only reach hardware makers, and Samsung will
continue to work with PC makers like Lenovo and Dell to deliver SSD drives in capacities from 64GB to 128GB, Elliott said. He declined comment on when
Samsung would make SSD drives available directly to consumers, or to say more about 256GB SSDs other than that they could be out next year. Samsung is
trying to double SSD capacity every 12 months, he said.
winbeta.org - 05.03.2008
