Flash Memory Summit 2014 - Ray Pang, Director of Marketing at Skyera, stopped by our booth to discuss the skyHawk All-Flash Array (AFA). Skyera aims to bring the price of AFA down below $3 per GB, a similar price to disk-based storage subsystems. Skyera accomplishes much of the cost reduction by using their own design that doesn't rely upon traditional form factors. The end result is a remarkably slim 1U device that boasts up to 44TB of screaming flash storage.

skyHawk delivers 88 times more storage density at 1/10th of the power consumption of a like-priced HDD solution. Another key benefit of skyHawk is its converged storage architecture, which unifies block-based iSCSI and NAS file systems (NFS v3). The slim package provides up to 2.4 GB/s of bandwidth and 400,000 IOPS. skyHawk also employs compression and de-duplication technologies to boost the amount of use-able SSD space, but has base configurations before data reduction of 12, 22, and 44 TB.

Delivering all of this performance requires either 40 x 1GBe connections, or only 3 x 10GBe connections. The total package weighs under 20 lbs and pulls less than 350W, which is insanely efficient for a datacenter storage system.

Flash Memory Summit 2014 - As we reach the end of planar (2D) NAND scaling we will begin to see more disruptive products emerge with futuristic technology such as PCM and magnetic and carbon nanotubes, the only question is which will rise to the top as the premier after-NAND technology. These new technologies will initially emerge as complimentary technologies to the existing NAND used in SSDs. Saul Zales, the Chief Executive Officer of Contour Semiconductor, brought along a wafer of their DTM (Diode Transistor Memory)that is valued at nearly $10 million, due to its early design and rarity. DTM is a phase-change based memory (PCM)that reduces the mask and process costs by up to 65% compared to NAND.

The 4F2 self-aligned structure uses a vertical epitaxial diode as the select device. In the future, Contour Semiconductor could include magnetic or carbon nanotube storage elements. The wafer is built on the CMOS process with a cross-point array architecture that supports word, sector, and page-level erase commands, which are very similar to NAND's design and fucntion. This will allow the use of the DTM packages with NAND controllers. We were lucky enough to see one of the only DTM wafers in existence, and had a quick chat with Saul Zales in the booth.

What does all this mean? Up to a billion P/E Cycles, which would be nearly immeasurable endurance compared to current SSDs. Using this type of memory as a cache for less-durable NAND could boost performance and endurance exponentially, and eventually new storage devices could use this type of memory.

Drivers are used to seeing gas pumps, but California, the No. 1 electric-vehicle market globally, is seeing a wider expansion of electric vehicle charging stations. EV owners are able to recharge their vehicles at home, but there are a number of free charging stations being installed - and helping woo a growing number of car buyers to consider purchase electric vehicles.

Not surprisingly, most of the charging stations can be found in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Sacramento, but are increasing in number in more rural areas. The state currently has more than 1,840 charging stations statewide, and that figure is only increasing.

"To put it in perspective, I sold 10 (Leafs) last month but the numbers out of the Bay Area are much higher," said John Driebe, Nissan car dealer in Elk Grove near Sacramento, California. "I'm seeing (monthly dealership) sales of 60, 70 and 74 at those dealerships. With the population density and the all high-tech people working in the Bay Area, it's crazy how many they're selling there."

NVIDIA's Tegra K1 processor is quite the performance powerhouse, with a quad-core processor with four A15 CPUs, up to 2.3GHz clock speed, and a 192 Kepler-based GPU cores for the graphics side of things. We've seen the Tegra K1 power NVIDIA's cheap, but very powerful Shield Tablet, but the company is already showing off the next version of its SoC.

At HOT CHIPS, a technical conference in the world of high-performance chips, NVIDIA has unveiled more details on the 64-bit version of its Tegra K1 processor. The 64-bit Tegra K1 is powered by the 192-core Kepler GPU, with NVIDIA's own custom-designed 64-bit, dual-core "Project Denver" CPU, which is fully ARMv8 architecture compatible. The big shift here is that the Denver part of the Tegra K1 is a dual-core variant, with a clock speed of up to 2.5GHz, but is 64-bit capable. The current Tegra K1 is a quad-core chip, with 32-bit capabilities. This makes the 64-bit Tegra K1 the world's first 64-bit ARM processor for Android, demolishing the competition when it comes to performance.

NVIDIA has used some clever optimizations, as well as its advanced technology in its Denver CPU cores, to deliver performance from its dual-core Denver-based Tegra K1 that rivals even four or eight-core CPUs that we find in our mobile devices today. Better yet, The 64-bit Tegra K1 processor offers PC-class performance, extended battery life, better gaming and multi-tasking, and much more. NVIDIA will see its 64-bit Denver-based Tegra K1 processor baked into mobile devices later this year, with the company also teasing that it is already working on support for the upcoming release of Android L on its 64-bit Tegra K1.

Some of you might remember a time when first-person shooters were the pinnacle of PC gaming, and John Romero was at the center of that for quite some time. He co-created Doom at id Software, and then went off to make, what he thought was going to be a big hit, Daikatana all the way back in 2000. Well, Romero is back, and he's teasing that he is working on another shooter.

During Monday night's recording of the Super Joystiq Podcast Gamescom Special, alongside special guests Mike Bithell and Brenda Romero, he said: "I'm working on several games at once right now. But [Brenda] had mentioned earlier that I'm working with a concept artist, and so I've got some cool imagery for the main character".

Brenda Romero chimed in, saying: "I'm concerned about how much you're going to say". John Romero replied with: "I haven't made a shooter since 2000. So I'm basically starting to work on another one". After he said that, the crowd of people supposedly went crazy with excitement.

Terrible news today, with the confirmation that U.S. comedian and actor Robin Williams, star of innumerable classic comedies such as 'Mrs Doubtfire', 'Jumanji', 'Dead Poets Society' and 'Good Morning Vietnam', has died at the age of 63 from apparent suicide.

The statement from the Marin County Sheriff's Office Coroner Division has confirmed the circumstances of the actor's death. Williams had been battling severe depression in recent years, according to his representatives.

Williams' wife, Susan Schneider released a statement to media saying "This morning, I lost my husband and my best friend, while the world lost one of its most beloved artists and beautiful human beings".

Flash Memory Summit 2014 - BiTMICRO's newest MaxIO SSDs pack a whopping 6TB of data into a half-length full-height PCIe form factor. The new MaxIO SSDs feature full data path protection and their proprietary DriveLight Management Software. The MaxIO series leverages Toshiba A19nm MLC NAND to provide 240,000 random read IOPS and 100,000 random write IOPS. Sequential performance weighs in at 1.1 GB/s read and 800 MB/s write. The MaxIO is exceptionally power efficient, requiring less than 30W active for up to 6TB of flash storage. The MaxIO also differentiates by running all of its processes, including ECC, on the SSD. Other alternatives utilize the host server to handle these basic flash management functions.

BiTMICRO tackles some of the inherent challenges of a large capacity SSD by separating their Talino controller architecture into a Split ASIC technology, placing the FTL (Flash Translation Layer) onto a separate processor. This allows the MaxIO to effectively manage the much larger LBA range of a high capacity device, while also enabling global wear leveling techniques to enhance endurance. Cramming as much capacity onto one device is critical in high-density applications that need the performance of an AFA (All Flash Array), but want to maintain the highest performance by keeping the SSD as close to the processor as possible. This helps to reduce any associated networking infrastructure. The drives are optimized for read-centric applications and features up to 1 DWPD of endurance during the five-year warranty period. We were lucky enough to speak with Zophar Sante and Stephan Uriarte about the differentiators and advantages of their new architecture in the video below.

As always, stay tuned for the latest updates on TweakTown.

The Blackphone was announced as a way for security conscious consumers to use their device in peace, without the fear of their communications being compromised - and it has now been 'hacked' at the Black Hat event in under five minutes.

@TeamAndIRC managed to gain root access to the Blackphone at the DefCon hacking conference within five minutes by going through the Android Debugging Bridge, and without using a bootloader to boot. Blackphone still seems to be solidly secure on the surface nonetheless, and now the company has responded to the discovery.

Blackphone said it is perhaps not as big of a disaster as it sounds: the company underplayed getting access through ADB, claiming it is just a part of the Android OS that the firm opted to turn off, and that a patch is on the way. But another vulnerability uncovered by TeamAndIRC, the company said in a blog post, is "accurate" - and a patch was released in three days of its initial discovery. Blackphone went on to congratulate the hacker for finding the bug.

Criminals that compromise networks and steal large amounts of information are finding easier and more organized methods to quickly get rid of the data. Data dumps are one of the most popular products found on these underground forums, where buyers and sellers communicate in an organized fashion similar to an official business from the legitimate world.

Many cybercriminal groups are trying to steal bulk data, such as the Target and eBay breach, looking to offload the information as quickly as possible. Using organized underground hacker forums, many based in Eastern Europe and China, they are able to sell and trade the data.

"When we think about the markets themselves they are organized in a unique fashion," said Tom Hold, Michigan State University associated professor specializing in cybercrime. "At the individual level, we're talking about a process where we're seeing peers and colleagues; at the formal forum level, we're seeing a more formal organization that takes place."

Consumers are expected to control more than half of the estimated 5.2 million Chromebook units sold in 2014, according to research firm Gartner. The devices will see strong growth in the education sector - and while still not largely appealing to technology enthusiasts - the low-cost devices are building a stronger following.

Samsung led the Chromebook market in 2013 with 1.3 million units sold, and is expected to have 64.9 percent of the market by the end of 2014. Meanwhile, Acer has 21.4 percent, relying on the cost-effective ARM-based CPUs, while Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo have 6.8 and 6.7 percent control of the market, respectively.

" Competition in the Chromebook market is intensifying as more vendors launch Chromebooks, with eight models in the market in 2014,"said Isabelle Durand, Gartner Principal Analyst, in a press statement. " Now that the PC market is no longer growing strongly, vendors are searching for new business opportunities. They launched Chromebooks to revive interest in sub-$300 portable PCs once the netbook bubble had burst."