| USB
Storage Milestones from
Storage History
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The USB (for Universal
Serial Bus) is a low cost serial bus which, when originally shipped in
1996
(USB 1.0), provided upto 12Mb/S. That's about 100x faster than the
RS-232
style serial interfaces used in earlier generations of computers which it
replaced.
The USB is now widely used in Macs, PC's and even Linux
systems. USB is typically used to connect devices such as printers, scanners,
keyboards, digital cameras, MP3 players and external storage devices.
In
June 2002, Intel and others started to demonstrate
USB 2.0, which increases the speed of the peripheral to PC connection
from 12 megabits per second (Mbps) on USB 1.1 to up to 480 Mbps on USB 2.0, or
40 times faster than with the older technology.
USB 3.0 - which
at 5Gbps will be
10x faster than USB 2.0 - was originally expected to be available in
the summer of 2008. Instead shipments started in December 2009. It will
offer throughput similar to
eSATA 2.0 - upto
approx 300MB/s.
The article -
USB 3.0 - A simple idea
full of challenges - summarizes the problems facing chip designers hoping
to achieve 5Gbps on cheap USB cables.
What if you're stuck with a USB 2 notebook and need fast cheap
external storage now?
Some companies, such as
Dane-Elec Memory,
are marketing USB 3.0 adapters.
Another solution - for those who want
to get more performance out of legacy USB 2.0
flash memory sticks is
to look at USB SuperCharger Software
from EasyCo which can
apparently speed up writes by 2x to about 5x.
eSATA is another option
- although for most notebooks it too - requires an adapter card.
Finally
AoE storage provides a
way for consumers to hook up a storage
network using their inbuilt ethernet - which may be easier to set up than
traditional NAS. | |
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| USB
storage news |
IDC Tallies SSD Shipments
Editor:- January 20, 2010 - IDC
says that
SSD shipments in
2009 exceeded
11 million units, an increase of 14% year over year.
Looking forward, IDC says it expects SSD adoption will continue to experience
tangible growth in 2010 and beyond, with shipments expected to achieve a
compound annual growth rate of 54% over the 2008-2013 forecast period.
Solid State
Drives - market research & analysts
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.
OCZ will show Symwave based USB 3.0 SSD at CES
Editor:-
November 24, 2009 -
Symwave today
announced that
its USB 3.0 controller
has been designed into a new
flash SSD by
OCZ - which will be
shown at CES in January 2010.
Editor's
comments:- Symwave's controller design includes a fully integrated USB 3.0 to
SATA controller
device (SoC with software) - making it easier to adapt existing designs for
SATA SSDs. It's very
fast. In September 2009 - Symwave demonstrated
270MB/s
R/W throughput for its new USB 3.0 controller.
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.
USB 3.0 SSDs Coming Soon
Editor:- October 5, 2009 -
Active Media
Products today announced imminent shipments of its
Aviator
312 line of bus powered fast
USB 3.0 external
SSDs with R/W speeds upto
240MB/s and 160MB/s respectively.
Measuring less than 3" long and
only 0.2" thin, the A312 is smaller than a credit card and is designed to
fit in a pocket. Capacity options include:- 16GB ($89), 32GB ($119) and 64GB
($209).
Jerry Thomson, VP of sales at Active Media Products commented, "Aviator
312 SSDs are a ground-breaking product with performance that is 8 to 10x faster
than today's fastest USB 2.0 flash drives."
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
Most Secure USB Memory Stick
Editor:- July 13, 2009 -
IronKey today
announced the launch of its S200 USB flash drive for government and enterprise
customers.
IronKey's CEO David
Jevans said: "The IronKey S200 is the first and only
USB flash drive to achieve
the demanding FIPS 140-2, Level 3 security validation from NIST, giving even
more proof that IronKey is the world's most
secure flash drive. We
are also releasing a suite of new enterprise remote management capabilities,
available over the Internet from the IronKey managed service, or from our
enterprise server software that companies can install and operate themselves."
Notebook SSD Market - New Overview
Editor:- June
17, 2009 - StorageSearch.com
published a new article this week called -
Overview of
the Notebook SSD Market.
This is a troubled and complex segment of
the SSD market - which has earned a justifiably bad reputation. Nevertheless SSD
vendors continue to throw products at the notebook market in many shapes and
sizes - hoping that something will stick before their cash runs out.
...read the
article
PLX Unveils Single Chip PCIe-to-USB 2.0 Host Controller Bridge
Editor:-
May 4, 2009 -
PLX Technology
announced volume production of the OXPCIe200 ($7.65) - a high-performance
PCIe-to-USB 2.0
single-chip host controller bridge.
The new device delivers up to
62.5Mb/s data throughput, has a low power requirement of 300mW, and a small
footprint (9x9mm) Thin Array Plastic Package.
storage chips
RunCore Offers 256GB SSD Upgrade for $890
Editor:-
May 1, 2009 - RunCore
announced pricing
for its new Pro IV 2.5"
SSD user installable PC / Mac upgrades which will ship in 2 weeks.
These
SSDs clone externally via USB
and then run internally via
SATA. Street price
for the 256GB model is expected to be approx $890.
WD Ships New 2TB Enterprise Hard Drive
Editor:- April
20, 2009 - Western
Digital - announced details of a new 2TB 3.5"
SATA
hard drive - the
WD RE4-GP.
Features include time-limited error recovery for use in
RAID systems, and lower
power consumption than older hard drives. MSRP is $329.
Editor's
comments:- this kind of drive is optimized to provide high capacity at low
cost, rather than high performance. Typical applications include
disk to disk backup and
video or other massive
content storage.
Aleratec Launches High Volume USB Flash Duplicators
Chatsworth, CA
- March 10, 2009 - Aleratec Inc. announces 2 new USB flash
duplicators.
Both the 27 way model (ESP $3,799) and 118 way model
(ESP $15,749) can copy up to 33MB/s. Aleratec's President and CEO, Perry
Solomon says - "The performance of the duplicators is not degraded when
simultaneously copying large numbers flash drives, a common shortcoming in most
USB flash drive
duplicators." ...Aleratec
profile, Disk
Duplicators
Olixir Announces DataVault Support for FIPS 140-2
Washington, D.C. - March 9, 2009 -
Olixir Technologies announced it will add new security features to
its family of DataVault hard drives in Q2 2009.
This will make them
fully-compliant with the requirements outlined in the Federal Information
Processing Standards
FIPS 140-2.
Incorporating an advanced set of security features including anti-virus,
anti-malware and encryption agents, which have already been approved by the DOD
DARTT Team, Olixir's external drives will meet all criteria to be connected via
USB cables to U.S.
Department of Defense networked computers. This comprehensive security
capability will be resident on the Mobile DataVault products and run
independently of the host computer to proactively protect the drive and the
network from malware and virus infections.
...Olixir Technologies
profile, Military &
Rugged Storage
A-DATA Launches 512GB USB / SATA 2.5" SSD
Editor:-
March 3, 2009 -
A-DATA launched
a 512GB 2.5"
flash SSD today at CeBIT.
The dual interface (USB
and SATA) compatible
SSD has R/W speeds upto
230MB/s and 160MB/s respectively, and is aimed at notebooks.
A-DATA's
press release
mistakenly claims this is the highest capacity
2.5" SSD. | |
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| New edition
- the Top 10 SSD Companies |
Editor:- January 12, 2010 -
StorageSearch.com recently
published the 11th quarterly edition of the
top 10 SSD oems -
ranked by search volume in the 4th quarter of 2009.
This is always
one of the most popular articles on our site. I know that many SSD companies
themselves are nervous and eager to see how they've fared in this important list
which predicts future winners in the market based on the world's leading SSD
focus group. |
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I've tried to be more direct
with my own analytical comments too - even if it means repeating some things
I've already said in other places - because I know that most of you don't have
the time to read hundreds of SSD articles. ...read the article | | |
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Animal
Brands and Metaphors in the Storage Market
Animal
marketing metaphors are popular in service industries, but you'd be surprised
how many companies have used animals in their marketing of data storage
products and services.
The storage market was worth over $150 billion
in 2005, and as it gets bigger - more companies will turn to animal brands to
help differentiate their otherwise bland products and lend them artificial
(or deserving) characters and virtues.
The idea behind this type of
marketing is to suggest positive connotations so it's unlikely that anyone will
choose to associate their products with gremlins. But you may be surprised by
the population of the storage ark.
This reference articles lists all
known companies who have furry marketing brands, and also includes some which
are slimy, scaly and scary too. ...read the article,
Mice in storage | |
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