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LaCie launches
rugged USB flash stick
Editor:- July 13, 2010 - LaCie today
launched a
rugged USB
flash drive - the
XtremKey - with upto 64GB capacity inside a 2mm metal pipe casing.
Sealed
with wear-resistant screw threads and a rubber O-ring, it is watertight up to
100meters. The LaCie XtremKey is also resistant to 5-meter drops, fierce heat
and bitter cold. Non operating temperature is claimed to be (+200°C / -50°).
R/W speeds are upto 40MB/s and 30MB/s respectively. ...watch the flash key abuse
video
Editor's comments:- The XtremKey is not
an SSD. If
you're not sure about the critical difference between a flash drive and a flash
SSD - it's wear leveling.
For
rugged HDD and SSD drives see
military storage. If
you liked the LaCie video - check out
ioSafe's video linked in
our SSD video page
- which inspired it
the Top 10 SSD oems in the 2nd quarter of 2010
Editor:-
July 6, 2010 - StorageSearch.com
today published the 13th quarterly edition of the
Top 10 SSD OEMs -
with new commentaries and analysis - and a 1st time appearance in the top 10
list by OCZ.
Tracking the search volume of millions of SSD readers - the series is designed
to alert you to emerging market trends and simplify your process of
shortlisting potential partners and suppliers. ...read the article
a reader asked me a good question about SSD encryption
Editor:-
June 29, 2010 - a reader asked me a good question... Does
flash SSD
encryption hurt
performance and
reliability?
Yes, and No. But not necessarily in that order. And it depends on the SSD.
...read the article
will free terabyte disks extend the life of the hard disk
market?
Editor:- June 9, 2010 -
Could terabyte hard drives be given
away free? - is the subject of a new blog published this week on StorageSearch.com
In it I
suggest that the biggest future market for high capacity consumer HDDs isn't
backup and that a new market model may be a better business. ...read the article
SanDisk samples new
netbook /
notebook SSDs
Editor:- June 1, 2010 - SanDisk is sampling
higher capacity versions of its
netbook
compatible SSD modules with upto 128GB capacity.
SanDisk says
the "mSATA mini" form factor - which is 26.8mm x 30 mm x 3.4 mm -
is its "tiniest" SATA
compatible SSD. If you need
even smaller SSDs click
here.
The company is also sampling 256GB models in its notebook SSD
range - the SSD G4 - which has sequential R/W speeds upto 220MB/s and 160MB/s
and burst random 4KB performance of up to 600 IOPS.
In an effort
to allay user worries about
flash wear-out
- SanDisk says the G4 is rated for 160TB of writing - which they say is "sufficient
for over 10 years of PC usage." However, you wouldn't want to use this
drive in an SSD backup
system - because in that application it would last less than 2 years.
Themis launches 1U rugged RAID box for its military servers
Editor:-
May 4, 2010 - Themis
Computer has
launched
the RES-XStore -
a 1U (17" deep) storage system for mission-critical applications in harsh
environments.
The RES-XStore includes 4 hot pluggable canisters,
each containing 3x 2.5" drives. The RES-XStore communicates with the host
server, via an add-in HBA and PCIe x8. The RES-XStore includes a
RAID controller that
supports RAID levels from
0 to 60. Each canister is hot pluggable. As with all products in the
Rugged Enterprise Servers
family - the new storage enclosure is designed to operate in the most
challenging environments.
"Themis is re-defining 'rugged computing solutions' to mean
rugged servers and rugged storage from the same vendor. Our rugged server and
storage systems provide enhanced RAS, as well as industry leading SWAP",
stated William Kehret, president of Themis Computer.
8 Years Later - Movies Preloaded on the Hard Drive
Editor:-
April 12, 2010 - Seagate
today
announced
that its
500GB
FreeAgent hard drives have been preloaded with 20 movies which can be
activated via a license fee - including 1 free copy of
Star
Trek.
Malik Ducard, senior VP at Paramount (Seagate's content
collaborator) said "...with over 38 hours of movie viewing enjoyment
pre-loaded onto the portable device, we are offering consumers a great
opportunity to jump start their digital libraries."
Editor's comments:- it's taken a long time for storage oems to
get round to this. 8 years ago in an article -
Differentiating Storage
Appliances with Software and Services - I predicted that consumers should
be able to order storage devices online with user selectable movies or music
preloaded.
Imation renews RDX license to hard disk afterlife
Editor:-
March 10, 2010 -
Imation today
announced
it has extended its RDX (removable
hard disk) license
agreement with ProStor
Systems through 2020.
Imation also announced that it has
invested $5 million to help advance ProStor's
disk backup technology.
Editor's coments:- RDX was unveiled in
November 2005.
Today's announcement takes the license agreement to
beyond the expected
lifetime of the hard disk market. However,
SSD backup will also be
viable in the same form factor.
Super Talent's Cryptic USB3 SSD
Editor:- March 2,
2010 - Super
Talent Technology today
announced
imminent availability of a new
encrypted
USB 3
flash SSD - with
upto 256GB capacity.
When I asked for more technical details I was
told the datasheet isn't ready yet. The USB 3.0 SuperCrypt is a true SSD (with
wear-leveling).
Internally the module (95 x 34 x 15.4 mm) is a
SATA SSD with a USB
bridge chip.
Cactus Launches Rugged Reliable CF PATA SSD
Editor:-
January 25, 2010 -
Cactus Technologies
today launched a rugged
32GByte industrial grade
CF form factor PATA
compatible SLC flash SSD.
The 303 Series offers high
endurance (>2M
write cycles per block),
wear leveling,
defect management and 4M hours
MTBF.
ioSafe Launches Disaster Proof Backup SSD
Editor:-
January 5, 2010 - ioSafe
launched the
ioSafe Solo SSD - an ultra rugged
USB /
eSATA
external
flash SSD with
upto 256GB capacity ($1,250) designed to provide data protection against
disasters such as fire, flood, and building collapse.
ioSafe offers
a "no questions asked"
Data Recovery policy
to help customers recover from any data disaster including accidental deletion,
virus or physical disaster.
"The new ioSafe Solo SSD is the world's most rugged and versatile
desktop external hard drive. It can be used alone or in conjunction with any
offsite or online backup
strategy to add real time, zero data loss, synchronous disaster protection to
any data that sits vulnerable," said ioSafe CEO, Robb Moore.
Digital Video Cameras get 250GB Adapter
Editor:-
December 2, 2009 - Maxell
announced imminent availability of a new digital video camera adapter ( $1,500)
- the iVDR VC102 designed to operate with its
Firewire compatible
250GB iVDR EX rugged drive ($289).
Operating
off a rechargeable, internal battery, it will operate for up to 90 minutes of
nonstop recording. iVDR news
VAIOs get SanDisk SSDs
Editor:- November 3, 2009 -
SanDisk
announced
that its 64GB
(9,000
vRPM) pSSD module has been selected as a standard SSD option in
Sony's
new VAIO X ultra-thin laptop.
RDX QuikStor Now 640GB
Editor:- October 27, 2009 -
Tandberg Data
now offers a 640GB model in its
RDX
QuikStor cartridge "10 year data life"
removable disk archive
product line.
This is 28% more than the previous maximum 500GB
capacity model. Tandberg Data has shipped more than 150,000 RDX QuikStor drives
and more than 450,000 compatible cartridges worldwide. disk to disk backup
Editor's
comments:- You may not be impressed by the capacity - but
reliability is more
important than density for backup
applications.
Originally launched in
November 2005 - "RDX
uses a patent-pending error correcting format, which makes the data 1,000x
more recoverable than in a standard
hard drive. This means
that RDX-stored data will be readable even after the cartridge has been archived
and non-operating more than a decade."
In comparison - if you use
standard hard drives for removable disk archiving my own experience is that
50% are unreadable after 4 years and 80% are unusable after 6 years.
Dane-Elec Unveils USB 3 SSDs
Editor:- October 19,
2009 - Dane-Elec
Memory announced it will start shipping a range of USB 3 compatible
external SSDs with 250MB/s throughput in December.
These new products
leverage
Intel's flash SSDs.
Dane-Elec will also be offering USB 3.0-compatible adapters for desktops with
PCIe slots and laptops with PCIXpress slots.
Intel Walks the SSD Notebook Talk
Editor:- September
14, 2009 - Intel
has published a case study about the productivity benefits of using
SSDs
instead of hard drives in business notebooks.
Following an
internal evaluation Intel says it will deploy up to 10,000
SSD notebooks
this year to its own employees.
- Benefits to users include:- increased productivity, reduced data loss and
drive-related errors, and lower thermal footprint for more comfortable use.
- Benefits to IT include:- faster malware scans, better performance with less
RAM, and extended battery life cycle.
Despite the higher cost of SSDs -
Intel concluded that the case for replacing notebook HDDs (which averaged 4.9%
annual failure rate according to its own experience) - was "compelling".
...read
the article (pdf)
Sonnet Launches Camera to Hard Drive Transfer Module
Editor:-
September 10, 2009 - Sonnet
Technologies today announced the
Qio
professional universal media reader/writer.
It's a convenient
high speed alternative to stand-alone card readers,
SATA controllers and
various adapters, combining their functionality in a compact rugged case, and
fulfilling the data handling needs of videographers with multiple cameras using
different memory card formats.
We talked to many customers who had combinations of Sony, Panasonic
and Red cameras who wanted some way to transfer the data from any of them at
full speed to hard drives,
needed drive-to-drive copy capability, and desired a compact, portable, rugged,
and battery-operable package," said Robert Farnsworth, CEO of Sonnet
Technologies. "The Qio does this and more!." Removable Storage
Verbatim Acquires Freecom
Editor:- September 3, 2009
- Verbatim's
parent company (Mitsubishi Kagaku Media Co., Ltd) has
acquired Freecom Technologies.
The
Freecom acquisition represents yet another investment made by the MKM/Verbatim
group aimed at the growing external
hard disk drive market. The asset acquisition of
SmartDisk, made in
June 2007, has proved successful in establishing MKM/Verbatim in both the
portable and desktop external HDD markets on a global basis.
Editor's
comments:- Although virtually unknown outside Europe, Freecom was founded 20
years ago in 1989. Its acquisition is sandwiched between FolderShare and
FreeDiskSpace.com in our list of 499
gone-away storage
companies. Who will be the 500th? It's probably happening as you read this.
WD's 2.5" TB USB HDD
Editor:- July 27, 2009 -Western Digital is
shipping a new 3 platter, 2.5" terabyte
mobile hard drive.
The
WD Scorpio
Blue is 12.5 mm high, has a
USB interface and costs
$249.99
SaberTooth SSD Bites into Eee PC Upgrade Market
Editor:-
July 15, 2009 -
Active Media
launched its
SaberTooth
brand of SATA Mini PCIe MLC flash SSD cards as upgrades for Asus Eee PCs. R/W
speeds are upto 155MB/s and 100MB/s respectively. The 64GB model costs
$219.95.
The company's marketing VP - Jerry Thomson says "SaberTooth
SSDs deliver read and write speeds that are up to 5x faster than stock
storage devices in the Eee PC. Upgrading gives users a huge performance boost..." | |
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| Can You Trust Your Flash
SSD's Specs? |
Editor:- I've noticed is that
the published specs of
flash SSDs change
a lot -from the time a product they are first announced, then when they're
being sampled, and later again when they are in volume production.
Sometimes
the headline numbers get better, sometimes they get worse. There are many good
reasons for this.
The product which you carefully qualified may
not be identical to the one that's going into your production line for a
variety of reasons... ...read the article | |
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| Z's Laws - Predicting
Future Flash SSD Performance |
A few months ago a
reader asked me a very good question.
"Is there an industry
roadmap for future flash
SSD performance?"
That prompted other questions like...
- How fast are flash SSDs going to be in 2009?, 2010? or 2012?
- What are the technology factors which relate to flash SSD throughput and
IOPS?
- How close will flash SSDs get to
RAM SSD performance?
There wasn't a simple answer I could give at the time. Clues lay
scattered all across this web site
and in my many one on one discussions with readers about the market... |
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But I agreed there should be
a single place on the web where these answers could be found.
Forget
Moore's
Law. That gives you the wrong answer, and this article explains why. ...read the article | | |
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the
Dangers of Removable Storage Media - article by Pointsec
In
the early
James
Bond films of the 1960s, viewers were introduced to an array of implausible
(at the time) portable high tech spy gadgets. Nowadays we know from our own
everyday experience that something the size of a cigarette lighter can actually
be a video camera with its own wireless internet access.
The
proliferation of miniature high capacity storage devices creates a serious
problem for commercial and national security. This article provides an up to
date picture of the intrinsic dangers posed by current removable storage
technologies. ...read
the article, ...Pointsec
profile, Security,
Removable Storage | | |
