Storage News - Page 68

Mushkin announced the release of the Reactor SSD. The drive only has one listed capacity of 1TB, but we would expect it to be available in numerous capacity points. The Reactor sports the Silicon Motion SM2246EN controller, but no word on the type of NAND employed. The SSD only features a three-year warranty, which is a bit light in the era of 10-year warranties we see with several MLC SSDs. The NAND is likely MLC, as that version of Silicon Motion's controller doesn't support TLC, at least to our knowledge.

The Reactor comes in a 2.5" 7mm form factor, which is perfect for mobile applications. The SMI controller also supports DevSlp, a key function that idles the SSD to save power in mobile applications. The Reactor features speed of 74,000/76,000 IOPS random read/write and 560/460 MB/s sequential read/write speed. The Reactor wades into an extremely competitive market, and low-cost MLC and TLC SSDs are lowering the bar on pricing. The fab-enabled SSD manufacturers are in the midst of a cost-cutting cycle, and current prices are as low as 34 cents per GB.

Fab-enabled manufacturers are also deploying extensive value-added features, such as free caching software, cloning software, and robust toolbox features. The Reactor will have a hard time competing with the low price and extensive value-adds, especially with a 3-year warranty, when other manufacturers are moving to ten-year warranty periods.

Data storage affects every aspect of modern life, but it turns out the technology developed for Blu-ray data storage can also have other uses. Solar cells work by trapping light, and it turns out that the same patterns used on the surface of Blu-Ray disks can absorb 21.8% more light than other textures. Solar cell efficiency is measured by how many photons they can absorb, and current designs utilize quasi-random nanostructures to boost efficiency. The pits and grooves present on a Blu-ray are between 150 and 525 nanometers, which is coincidentally the perfect size for trapping photons.

Researchers at Northwestern University began by testing with the patterns from a blank Blu-ray, but interestingly enough they found that greater efficiency is achieved when data is present. Researchers tested with different types of video on the Blu-ray, such as Jackie Chan's "Supercop", episodes of "Family Guy", and black and white movies. The efficiency of the solar cells increased no matter what type of video was present. The 21.8% increase in efficiency equates to a 12% improvement in conversion efficiency, which will result in more efficient solar panels and other applications.

The findings will be published in the journal Nature Communications under the title "Repurposing Blu-ray Movie Discs as Quasi-random Nanoimprinting Templates for Photon Management." Perhaps there is a use for those old dusty Blu-rays on the shelf after all.

Starting on Black Friday, and only available while supplies last, Samsung is offering a free Far Cry 4 download with any purchase of an 840 EVO SSD. The offer is only available from participating retailers, most notably Best Buy, Amazon, Newegg, Microcenter, Fry's, and Tiger Direct. Users will be able to download the game at a Samsung-hosted web address (Samsung.com/fc4) until September 1.

The 840 EVO is a value SSD that delivers tremendous performance. Our resident SSD expert, Chris Ramseyer, recently took a look at the 840 EVO in his Samsung 840 EVO 500GB SSD Review - An SSD with a Good Price and Performance article. Chris found the 840 EVO to offer a great mixture of price and performance, and the EVO won the TweakTown Editor's Choice award. The 840 EVO is currently selling at roughly 45 cents per gigabyte, and adding in the free Far Cry 4 game is the cherry on top.

The floods in Thailand in 2011 sent a tidal wave of high prices through the HDD market. The ripples of the flood are just receding and HDD prices are finally rebounding. Black Friday sales are going to feature HDDs for roughly $25 a terabyte, and expect many of these great deals to come without the normal mail in rebate programs. External drives are also going to be exceptionally low priced and feature speedy USB 3.0 interfaces.

After years of declining sales the PC market is also finally improving. Storage devices are somewhat of a litmus test for the PC market. When sales of PC are bad the HDD market declines. Users seem to be turning back to their home computers. Sales of tablets, which helped eviscerate the PC space, are also starting to decline. The personal storage category has rebounded with a 4.8% increase in overall units shipped last quarter, according to IDC.

More units means lower prices and better deals as we hunt for Black Friday deals. Most consumer HDDs are somewhat similar in performance if they feature the same speed, and nearly all feature the same warranty period. If you are looking for the best hard drive price should be a major factor, as there is little to separate drives of the same speed.

As according to their press release sent out a mere 9 hours ago, Patriot have just announced they are increasing the storage sizing in their LX series of SDXC and microSDXC flash memory storage.

These come in the form of a 256GB UHS-I class 10 SDXC Flash Card and a 128GB UHS-I Class 10 microSDXC Flash Card. These new products are said to be available very soon for a MSRP of $129.99 and available for purchase from major American retailers such as Fry Electronics, Newegg and Amazon.

Said to be compliant with the latest SD Association 3.0, their new SDXC Flash Card is marketed as being able to store HD 1920 x 1080 video in real-time - providing you with a 80 MB/s peak read speed and a write speed of up to 20 MB/s. Other than this new 256GB model, Patriot also offer this card in 64GB and 128GB editions - backing them with a 5 year warranty.

In an earnings call today for investors, Robert Crooke, VP and GM NVM Solutions Group, publicly announced Intel's 3D NAND. The new 3D structure will use lithography larger than 20nm but Intel didn't disclose anything further. The new 3D NAND will be produced in Utah, a IMFT factory, Intel's joint venture with Micron Technology.

Robert Crooke holding an Intel 3D NAND package.

Intel stressed the disruptive nature of the new 3D structure. The company plans to release products in the second half of 2015 with the new flash and plans to use the technology to disrupt SSD prices.

Apple recently upset their users by removing support for third-party software that enables TRIM functionality. Perhaps most distressing was the fact the change went unannounced. Many Apple users with Trim Enabler, a third party app that enables TRIM functionality, unfortunately bricked their installs when they updated to OS X 10.10 Yosemite. There is a method for enabling TRIM with third-party SSDs, but it involves creating a massive security vulnerability. SSDs can work without TRIM but speed is reduced and endurance also takes a hit. TRIM works by complimenting the Garbage Collection routines inside the SSD, which allows the early removal of previously deleted data.

After the news was released we were contacted by several third-party SSD vendors about the impact of removing TRIM functionality. From our conversations it was revealed that only one manufacturer currently has native TRIM support for Apple products. Angelbird has supported native Apple TRIM support for two years, and the Angelbird wrk for Mac is the only SSD right now that circumvents the issue. Chris, our consumer SSD guru, recently took an in-depth look at the SSD in the Angelbird SSD wrk 512GB SSD Review. The wrk leverages a Silicon Motion SM2246EN controller, but we aren't sure if that specific controller is the key to native Apple TRIM support. We contacted Angelbird representatives and they confirmed native TRIM support, but could not share specifics on exactly how they enable it. Angelbird representatives also confirmed they have external USB 3.0 devices that support TRIM through their proprietary software.

Other large manufacturers have touted their enhanced garbage collection routines as viable alternatives for native TRIM support. Garbage collection helps keep SSDs fast and responsive, with or without TRIM, but work much better in concert with TRIM functionality. SandForce SSDs benefit from enhanced garbage collection performance as a side-benefit of their DuraWrite data reduction technology, but as Chris explained in the TRIM Lost and Found, Performance Investigated Article, all SSDs perform better with native TRIM. OWC supplies SandForce-powered SSDs for use in Apple products, but currently the only third-party SSD manufacturer with native TRIM support is Angelbird.

BadUSB was developed by a team of researchers to highlight the inherently flawed design of the USB specification. Once injected, this exploit allows full control to the users computer. The worst aspect of this vulnerability lies in the nature of the hack, it actually resides in the firmware of USB devices. Erasing or wiping a USB stick is the most common method of removing malware, but since this exploit resides in the firmware of the device, it renders traditional virus removal techniques useless. The hack goes far beyond just flash memory sticks and includes USB hubs, SD card adapters, SATA adapters, all USB input devices, webcams, and storage devices.

The concept of attacking a computer through USB devices certainly isn't new, the NSA has been known to utilize similar tactics via the Cottonmouth device leaked by Edward Snowden. A recent update on the severity of the issue was released at the PacSec security conference. Researchers tested eight USB controllers from leading manufacturers and determined that only half of them were safe from the attack. This is a better outlook than previous research that indicated all USB devices are vulnerable, but is a hollow comfort because users have no method of determining which devices are exposed to the nefarious firmware hacks. There is no known method for the common user to even detect an infection, let alone remove it.

The original researchers refused to publish the BadUSB code, but some other friendly sorts have published their own BadUSB code, purportedly for studying the problem and providing incentive for companies to fix the issue. The bad news? The code is now available to the public. The only recourse for end users is to simply not trust any USB device.

Apple and Samsung have had a contentious history, but business makes for strange bedfellows. Apple and Samsung curtailed their supplier agreements as they broadsided each other with full-on legal attacks over the last few years, but Samsung resumed supplying Apple earlier this year. This alliance has been fruitful for both participants as they continue to enjoy favorable operating profits. Samsung's 10 percent volume growth for NAND last quarter is likely due to Apple demand. This couldn't come at a better time for Samsung, whose own mobile unit is experiencing some turbulence. Apple continues its meteoric rise with record performance.

Much of Samsung's growth is spurred by increases in eMMC, eMCP, and SSD shipments. eMMC enjoys broad use in mobile applications, and Samsung is already transitioning to new UFS 2.0 (Universal Flash Storage) designs. These designs quadruple eMMC's performance, jumping from a top speed of 400MB/s with eMMC 5.0 to 1.45GB/s with UFS 2.0. UFS 2.0 allows for command queuing and simultaneous read/write operations, which lead to the big boost in performance. UFS 2.0 will provide enough throughput for next-gen cameras and multimedia applications.

Apple is likely including the new UFS 2.0 devices into their next generation of devices, and several NAND fabricators are also producing UFS 2.0 designs, which are slated to debut in 2015. Samsung has already announced their intention to leverage UFS 2.0 into new designs from their struggling smartphone unit.

Cindori Software provides the Trim Enabler program that allows Apple users to use third-party SSDs and still have TRIM functionality. An SSD has no idea what data is erased by the filesystem, but TRIM marks data for deletion that has been removed at the filesystem level. This allows the SSD to clean itself up during a routine task called garbage collection. TRIM is important for SSDs, without it they will eventually slow down and become less responsive. Without notice Apple has blocked third-party applications, such as Trim Enabler, from working unless users institute a workaround that creates a security risk with OS X 10.10 Yosemite. Unfortunately, users are finding this out after the upgrade has already taken place.

A summary of the issue from Cindori Software: