Storage News - Page 5

A new report by TrendForce indicates that prices will increase dramatically for NAND Flash suppliers like Samsung, Kioxia, SK Hynix, and Micron to return to profitability. The price hike could be as high as 50% for NAND Flash (in the short term), leading to SSD prices increasing dramatically in 2024.

"Major domestic players in the NAND Flash industry indicate that NAND Flash suppliers, driven by the goal of profitability, will continue to aggressively raise prices," the report writes. "It is anticipated that prices will need to increase by over 40% once again for major manufacturers to break even."

Yeah, a 40% price hike to break even is quite something and a reminder that the NAND Flash industry is in a very precarious spot at the moment.

KIOXIA has announced that it has started mass production of its new 2 Terabyte capacity microSDXC memory card, making it the smallest and largest storage solution. If you've put a microSD memory card in a Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, tablet, digital camera, or smartphone, then you'll no doubt be aware of how impressive this is - these things are tiny!

KIOXIA's new EXCERIA PLUS G2 2TB microSDXC memory cards use the company's innovative BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory with a specialized in-house controller to fit 2 TB of storage capacity within the microSD form factor. According to KIOXIA, it has stacked "sixteen 1 terabit dies of 3D flash memory" while staying within the maximum spec thickness of just 0.8mm - remarkable.

You're probably wondering about speed; the KIOXIA's new EXCERIA PLUS G2 2TB microSDXC memory cards meet UHS Speed Class 3, Application Class 1 (A1), and Video Speed Class 30 (V30). In real-world data, this is a read speed of up to 100 MB/s and a write speed of up to 90 MB/s.

MSI has unleashed its new Spatium M750 Pro PCIe Gen5 NVMe M.2 FROZR SSD, packing up to 12.4GB/sec (12,400MB/sec) reads and up to 11.8GB/sec (11,800MB/sec) writes. Our storage editor, Jon Coulter, writes a detailed review you can read here.

MSI's new Spatium 570 Pro SSD is a new Gen5 SSD that has incredible reads and writes, powered by the Phison E26 SSD controller and MSI's in-house towered FROZR heatsink. It's an enthusiast-grade heatsink that features Core Pipes that silently reduce temperatures of the Gen5 SSD by up to 20C under a stylish cover that ensures you're getting those wicked high reads and writes all day and night long.

You can install the new MSI Spatium 570 Pro SSD into your Gen4 M.2 slot and still enjoy 7.3GB/sec (7300MB/sec) reads, meaning that no matter what M.2 SSD slot it goes into, it'll give you huge speeds. Gen5 board owners in particular, with up to 12.4GB/sec is pretty tasty, if you ask me.

PCIe Gen5 storage is well and truly here, offering up to double the speed of Gen4 across bandwidth and transfer. This massive generational leap delivers a sizable performance boost for all applications requiring huge amounts of data - including in the enterprise and server space.

Today, we've got a new announcement from KIOXIA, a leader in flash memory and storage, confirming that its CM7 Series and CD8P Series NVMe Drives have passed certification for PCI Express 5.0 specification and NVMe 2.0 specification compliance. This includes up to 14,000 Megabyte/s of read throughput for a PCIe X4 lane SSD. KIOXIA notes that the PCIe 5.0 tests were carried out at PCI-SIG compliance workshops and can now be found on PCI-SIG Integrator's List.

This is wonderful news for enterprises and the cloud as the KIOXIA CM7 Series and CD8P Series are available in capacities of up to 30.72 TB in 2.5-inch and E3.S form factors.

KIOXIA RM7 Series SSDs are all about value and delivering high performance with a focus on reliability, lower latency than SATA SSDs, and speeds of up to 12Gb/s using the SAS interface (SAS-3). With capacities starting from 960GB and going up to 7.68TB, RM7 Series Value SAS SSDs are now available in HPE's ProLiant Gen11 servers.

And to make the news just that little bit cooler, KIOXIA has confirmed that in addition to ProLiant servers for enterprise, KIOXIA RM Series Value SAS SSDs are also being used aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in the HPE Spaceborne Computer-2 (SBC-2). SBC-2 is currently being used to conduct scientific experiments in orbit around Earth. HPE's next mission to the ISS is scheduled for January.

"With outer space being the most rugged and the furthest edge environment there is, we are very excited to have Value SAS as the core storage technology supporting HPE SBC-2 over the next several years, targeted for the International Space Station," said Faraz Velani, senior director and head of Go-to-Market for the KIOXIA SSD Business Unit.

The new ADATA SD810 External SSD is a serious contender for being one of today's most rugged external SSD and storage solutions. It features triple IP68 waterproof, dustproof, and MIL-STD shockproof protection - so it can withstand any environment on the planet and keep chugging along.

It's also speedy, with the USB 3.2 Gen2 x2 interface (over a Type-C connection) able to deliver read and write speeds of up to 2000 MB/s. In addition to being compatible with all PCs and modern consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, it supports Apple's new iPhone 15 smartphones to back up photos and videos while out and about.

The ADATA SD810 External SSD is constructed from aluminum alloy with a design that improves heat dissipation and stability compared to other external SSDs. It's also lightweight and smaller than a credit card.

SABRENT's latest UDB-C Hub is one of those devices that packs in the right amount of features while remaining compact to feel essential. Per the headline, the big thing here, apart from the USB-C Hub action, is the addition of an M.2 SSD Slot that comes with a thermal pad for cooling to make the most out of the main USB-C 10Gbps (USB 3.2 Gen 2x1) connection.

There's also up to 90W bypass charging power delivery, with three USB Type-A ports, two 5Gbps (USB 3.2 Gen 1x1) with power, and a single legacy USB 2.0 port for connecting devices like keyboards and mice. As with all SABRENT hubs, the new SABRENT USB-C Hub 6-Port Dock with M.2 SSD Slot (HB-6PNV) is plug-and-play.

The features don't stop there, as there's a lot more to this little USB-C Hub - including the ability to connect to an external display for 4K@60Hz video, which is awesome for Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Ally owners.

Sabrent is cooking right now, preparing its next-gen Rocket 5 Plus SSDs powered by Phison's newest E16 SSD controller that will unleash rocket-fueled transfer speeds of 14GB/sec and beyond.

According to some of my industry sources, Sabrent will be unleashing its next-gen Rocket 5 Plus SSDs "soon" (the Consumer Electronics Show is held in Las Vegas in the first week of January). The new Sabrent Rocket 5 Plus SSD will have read speeds of up to 14GB/sec on the right platform: you'll need the right CPU and the right motherboard, with a Gen5 M.2 SSD slot, and you'll be ready to rock and roll at those rocket-fueled speeds.

Phison has a few E26 SSD controllers powering Gen5 SSDs that are pushing 10GB/sec, then 12GB/sec and now the codenamed "Max14um" controller fully saturates the PCIe Gen5 x4 interface. Oh yeah.

Using the popular CrystalDiskMark benchmarking suite, Twitter/X user @GPUsAreMagic posted a result showcasing some pretty incredible results - a read speed of 182 GB/s and a write speed of 175 GB/s. You might think this was either fake or the app glitching, but with the tag CrystalCacheMark, the result comes from using the 32MB of 3D V-Cache on the Ryzen 7 5800X3D CPU as a RAM disk.

Sure, with a capacity of 32MB (out of a total of 96MB of V-Cache on the 5800X3D), you're not talking about much in the way of storage, but 182 GB/s is the sort of read speed that makes the latest SSDs look like floppy disks from the 1980s. We're blown away by PCIe Gen 5 drives hitting 12GB/s, so seeing 182GB/s is insane.

Setting up and using the CPU's limited 3D V-Cache as a storage device requires an OSFMount tool, which allows RAM disks to mount image files in various formats. Not only that, but precise CrystalDiskMark settings needed to be used.

ASUS recently teased its GeForce RTX 4060 Ti DUAL SSD graphics card with an M.2 slot on the back, but now the team at ASUS have been toying with it... using the M.2 slot to make a GeForce RTX 4090 act as an external GPU, as well as throwing a Gen5 M.2 SSD inside and rocking huge speeds through the GPU.

We've got ASUS China Product Manager, Tony Yu, playing with the ASUS RTX 4060 Ti DUAL SSD... where he not only used the aforementioned RTX 4090 as an external GPU, but plugged in both a Gen4 and Gen5 M.2 SSD into the back side of the GPU and ran some storage tests... with some rather surprising results, I've got to admit.

The Crucial T700 Gen5 SSD was installed into the M.2 slot, because ASUS has tweaked the PCB and included a Gen5 connector on the card. The RTX 4060 Ti itself uses the Gen4 standard, but the M.2 slot on the back is ready to rock and roll with those 12GB/sec+ glorious speeds that only Gen5 can do. With the Crucial T700 Gen5 4TB SSD installed, ASUS proudly showed off an incredible 12.4GB/sec reads, and 11.7GB/sec writes... all from the back of its RTX 4060 Ti DUAL SSD graphics card.