SSD
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Fujitsu's LOOX U50XN now configurable with 64GB SSD
Fujitsu's marvelously light LOOX U50XN -- better known as the U810 here in the States -- just keeps getting better. Apparently, to-be owners in Japan can now snag one with an oh-so-coveted 64GB SSD, though all the other specs look to remain identical to what we've already seen. 'Course, adding such a fine piece of hardware won't come cheap -- as a matter of fact, you'll be forced to cough up an extra ¥95,000 ($887) for the privilege. Oh, and the unconfirmed word on the street has the new drive option coming stateside in March, but don't bet the farm on that just yet, alright?[Thanks, Paul P.]
Champagne wishes & caviar dreams: the SSD-equipped MacBook Air
The solid-state-drive and the MacBook Air. 64 GB of goodness and no moving parts. You know you want it; fast, quiet, cool, power-saving and simply the finest laptop money can buy -- plus, you can shave with the front end, or slice cucumbers. One minor note, however, for those who measure their tax refunds in the thousands instead of the tens or hundreds of thousands: this prime bit of kit will take a huge bite out of your bankroll.How huge? Check the Apple Store (and marvel that the number wasn't mentioned specifically in the keynote except to say "pricey") -- a whopping $3100 for the new hotness. Sure, it may be worth every penny, but first you have to find all those pennies and herd them into a recognizable grouping of some sort.Would the SSD MBA be worth it to you? Extra points if you don't have an actual M.B.A. graduate degree and you can still afford one.Thanks Rich
Apple's MacBook Air is available for pre-order
If you're the type who just has to be the first to have everything, then don't waste any time and rush over to Apple.com to pre-order your MacBook Air. Aside from the regular list of MacBook accessories, you'll have to decide if it's worth $300 to go from a 1.6Ghz Core 2 Duo to a 1.8Ghz. The only other choice to ponder is if your also the SSD type. Sure, SSDs are faster and use less power than their spinning brothers, but at $999 -- and 16GBs less capacity -- it's a hard pill to swallow. Of course you can get the ultimate MacBook Air for $3,098 and while you're at it, go ahead and get an all but useless optical drive for $99 and what is almost sure to be a required accessory on any first gen product; AppleCare at $249.
A-DATA demos 128GB SATA RAID SSD
After swinging by A-DATA's booth, we happened to notice the number 128GB placed neatly atop SATA RAID SSD -- needless to say, our lens was immediately attracted. Reportedly, this 2.5-inch drive includes a pair of 64GB SSDs, but we weren't able to tell whether the unit pictured above was a finalized product. Unfortunately, we also aren't sure how close this thing is to going commercial, but it's a delightful glimmer of hope if nothing else, eh?
A-DATA shows off badly-designed eSATA flash drive
We're not exactly sure what's up with the design here, but apparently, A-DATA felt it was a great idea to unveil an uber-speedy eSATA SSD flash drive that requires both an eSATA and a USB connection. Supposedly, this 16GB to 32GB unit can't actually be plugged directly into an eSATA port as-is, as power from the USB socket is necessary for things to function properly. Essentially, the flash drive has to be connected to the pictured dongle -- which obviously takes up two ports in your machine -- in order to operate. Needless to say, we've all ideas that we'll see a design tweak before these ship en masse.
Hands-on with SanDisk's 72GB SSD (and friends)
Hungry to take a peek at that 72GB SSD we mentioned just moments ago? We hear ya, and we're delivering. We swung by SanDisk's booth and snapped a few shots of the capacious new drive along with a few relatives that were hangin', so go on and dig into the gallery while wishing on your lucky stars to eventually own one. %Gallery-12970%
SanDisk announces 72GB(?!) SSD, 8GB Cruzer Crossfire
SanDisk has another SSD today, a little 5mm thick, 40 gram 1.8-inch SATA II number, due out in Q208 and expected to be released in laptops later on in 2008. Also up to bat (and comparatively far more boring), the 8GB Cruzer Crossfire, which doubles the capacity of the last Crossfire and will retail for $130.
Ritek joins the 128GB SSD crowd
Now that 64GB SSDs are getting (somewhat) commonplace, it looks like 128GB is the new standard top-end size, as Ritek joins Samsung in announcing the triple-digit capacity. The 2.5-inch SATA drive features a crazy 300MB/s burst read speed, SMART monitoring, and a read / write rating of two million cycles. Those of you who are just extremely wealthy as opposed to fabulously so might be interested in the 32GB and 64GB versions -- we hear business class is just as nice.
OQO releases 64GB SSD and outdoor display options for Model 02
OQO may not be releasing a new portable machine this CES, but the Model 02 is getting a couple of new upgrades. In addition to a new $200 outdoor display option (with 50% of the outdoor reflectivity of the current 02's screen, but no additional brightness), the new high end version will also feature a 64GB SSD (up from 32GB) as well as that new screen for an even $3,000. Oh sure, that's ridiculously expensive -- but maybe you're just that serious about UMPCs.
Samsung 128GB SATA SSD now official
The 64GB drives are still hard enough to acquire, but Samsung's taken its next big step in MLC (multi-level cell)-based SSDs, announcing a 128GB drive. They'll start shipping en masse in the first half of this year, and will definitely cost more than enough to make you want to reexamine your obsession with solid state storage, and maybe even your life.
Imation partners with Mtron, tosses its own hat into the SSD ring
SSD is really going mainstream this year, and while Mtron has been showing up with the goods -- and powering our favorite RAID array ever -- it looks like it took a brand like Imation to take it to the next level. The two companies are teaming up for two new SSD product lines: Imation SSD MOBI 3000 for laptop and mobile use, and Imation SSD PRO 7000 for enterprise purposes. The MOBI 3000 sports 100MBps read times and 80MBps write, with 0.1ms random access times, which supposedly makes it the fastest SSD product on the consumer market -- the drive purportedly cuts boot times in half. The SSD PRO 7000 does 120MBps read and 90MBps write, and has a mean time between failure greater than one million hours. Price and availability will be announced in the "coming months." It can't come soon enough, believe you us.
BiTMICRO introduces 832GB SSD for CES 2008
The folks at BiTMICRO are about to blow some doors off of the SSD truck with a new product they'll be showing at CES this year. According to a press release, the company is introducing a new, 2.5-inch solid-state drive with a whopping 832GB of NAND flash goodness. The SATA II (3Gbps) drive is a new addition to the company's E-Disk Altima line, and utilizes a technology the company calls multi-level cell (or MLC) memory, which apparently doubles the number of bits stored per memory cell when compared with single-level cell (SLC) NAND. The drives are expected to ship Q3 2008 in capacities ranging from 32GB to 832GB -- and you can be sure we'll be staring intently at them (and asking for demo units) as soon as CES rolls around.[Via Macrumors forums]
Lexar introduces Crucial-branded SSDs
The SSD market is starting to get pleasantly crowded -- Lexar just announced a new line of Crucial-branded SSDs in both 32GB and 64GB capacities. The 2.5-inch SATA drives will offer sub-1ms latency, and Crucial will also be offering an external drive enclosure and 3.5-inch internal bay kit, which will allow you to pull your drive and take it with you on the go. No pricing is available yet, but Crucial says these'll hit sometime in Q1.
A-Data whips up a 64GB SSD
We've seen a number of large-capacity SSDs, but 64GB seems like the current sweet spot, and A-Data's aiming to fill it out with a quartet of new 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch PATA and SATA drives. That's pretty much it on the outside -- it is just a big flash drive, after all -- but don't worry, there's plenty of sexy once you actually get an SSD inside your machine.[Via PC Launches]
Buffalo unveils a 100GB flash drive
Although we've seen flash SSDs that top out at 416GB, nothing in the mainstream is really bigger than 64GB -- but Buffalo's new SHD-UHRS series seems like it's bringing the status quo up to 100GB. The USB 2.0 external drive uses two different types of flash memory to reach that capacity, yet it's only about the size of a business card and weighs just two ounces. Those of you somehow entranced by the case design but lacking the ¥107,720 ($952) for the 100GB model needn't worry, however: Buffalo is also shipping a 32GB version for a pretty competitive ¥35,400 ($312) and a 64GB model for ¥75,340 ($665).
Intel announces industry's smallest SSD chips
The picture says it all, Intel's going crazy small with its latest SSD chips, but it's certainly not leaving capacity behind. The new Intel Z-P140 PATA SSD chips come in 2GB and 4GB capacities, are extendable up to 16GB, and weigh less than a drop of water. We're already impatient for phone manufacturers and DAP makers to start cramming these into their devices, and the RAID opportunities are really sinful. Intel should be showing the chips off at CES in January, no word on when we'll see 'em hit the market.
Cox Arizona getting VOD via SSD-based servers
It's one thing to get video-on-demand, but it's another thing if that content is being served up via Concurrent's MediaHawk 4500. Apparently, Cox Communications' Arizona division will be using the aforementioned media server -- which automatically detects failures and re-routes streams to alternate paths -- to dish out VOD content to its customers. Additionally, the unit relies on solid state discs, presumably making everything a bit snappier for the end user. We're not told whether HD material will be included in this VOD rollout, but nevertheless, deployment is scheduled to begin in Q1 of next year.[Via Multichannel News]
Battleship Mtron: the absurdly fast SSD RAID array
Listen, we know you think your RAID setup is pretty snazzy, and, truth be told, it probably makes our rig look silly by comparison. However, in the computer world, there's always someone out there with a bigger, nastier system -- and we've just spotted one of the nastiest of them all. Next Level Hardware is a site that specializes in putting outrageous setups to the test, and this time they haven't disappointed with their benchmarks on the Mtron 16GB SSD (reportedly the fastest SATA drive in the world). Oh, did we mention the test was on a RAID 0 array of nine drives? Dubbed the "Battleship Mtron," the sickening collection of hardware blazed past the competition (a WD Raptor, less stacked Mtron RAID setups), delivering mind-boggling data swaps like copying a 1GB folder in four seconds. You read that right: four seconds. Like where this is headed? Truck over to the test page and peep all the stats... seriously, it's upsetting.[Thanks, David]
Toshiba's new 128GB SATA SSDs -- hello, SanDisk?
128GB of SSD. You long for it, you need it, and with any luck you'll have it when Toshiba starts churning 'em out for production by May. The new 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch MLC NAND slabs with SATA interfaces will ship in three capacities: 32GB, 64GB, and the big daddy 128GB. The new SSDs are based on the new 56-nm processes announced back in January. Of course, with Toshiba and SanDisk bedfellows in flash we're also expecting a SanDisk announcement on the quick -- certainly no later than CES in early January. No prices announced, though we anticipate the year-over-year reductions to continue, right boys?[Via Impress]
STEC announces "cheap" 32GB to 512GB MLC NAND-based SSDs
Everyone wants to be packing some of that sweet flash memory in their notebooks these days, but not everyone wants to shell out such high prices for such relatively measly capacities. Well along comes Santa Ana-based STEC Inc. with what it claims to be a breakthrough NAND technology that will allegedly slash the price of solid state drives down to just $2/GB within two years; specifically, the company says it has successfully leveraged so-called multi-level cell-based (MLC) NAND into SSDs with 90MB/s read / 60MB/s write speeds -- good enough to exceed platter-based hard drive performance at prices supposedly half of what they are today. STEC is currently shipping manufacturing samples between 32GB and an impressive 512GB (in a 2.5-inch form factor; the largest 1.8-inch drive is 128GB), although it remains to be seen how much of those savings will be passed along to the consumer when these eventually come to market.
