Storage

The new PNY PRO Elite Prime microSD Flash Cards and PNY Performance Prime microSD Card Reader are designed for ultra-fast performance and users with high-demand workloads. With the latest high-speed flash memory technology, users can expect transfer speeds of up to 200 MB/s and write speeds of up to 150 MB/s.

With U3 technology and V30 Video Speed Class performance, alongside capacities that start at 64GB and go all the way up to a massive 1.5TB, the new PNY PRO Elite Prime microSD cards are perfect for high-quality photography, capturing 4K video, and running apps directly from the microSD card thanks to the A2 App Performance rating.

That last bit makes the PNY PRO Elite Prime microSD cards great for gaming handhelds like the Steam Deck, ROG Ally, and Nintendo Switch, reducing load times and improving performance.

ASUS has just launched its new TUF Gaming A2 SSD enclosure, which can take 4TB SSDs and handle up to 20Gbps of bandwidth through USB-C. Check it out:

The new ASUS TUF Gaming A2 SSD enclosure is a rugged portable SSD solution with high-speed transfers, capable of 20Gbps through USB-C 3.2 Gen 2x2, making it perfect for content creators, gamers, enthusiasts, and others who crave fast external SSD storage.

ASUS has built the TUF Gaming A2 SSD enclosure with durability at the forefront, with high-grade silicon rubber used in the exterior, which is capable of absorbing shocks and extreme temperatures. The enclosure even meets MIL-STD-810H standards which means it can survive a drop from 1.22 meters, with IP67-rated water and dust resistance, and data protection from potential static and electrical disturbances.

Corsair has announced that its new MP700 Elite SSDs are now available to buy.

The MP700 Elite is a PCIe 5.0 SSD using 3D TLC NAND that benefits from read speeds of up to 10,000MB/s and sequential writes of up to 8,500MB/s, with the drive available in 1TB or 2TB flavors.

Corsair observes:

"Utilizing the compact M.2 2280 form factor, the MP700 Elite is available both with a heatsink for desktop motherboards, and also without a heatsink for use with integrated motherboard cooling and in compatible laptops."

Samsung has teased that its next-gen 400-layer V-NAND will store more data, more performance, and feature higher reliability through future-gen V-NAND technology.

The company is expected to launch its next-gen V-NAND in 2026 which will be the 10th Gen V-NAND, sporting a 400-layer configuration, far exceeding the current 9th Gen V-NAND by 120 layers (280 layers versus 400 layers). The gap between 8th Gen V-NAND and 9th Gen V-NAND isn't that big (236 layers versus 280 layers) so the jump to 400 layers is exciting, indeed.

How will Samsung do this? The company will use Bonding Vertical (BV) NAND technology, which is different to what is used today with the current CoP (Circuit on Periphery) design. The CoP design has the peripheral circuits on top of the memory stack, while vertical bonding will separate the manufacturing of the storage and peripheral circuits, followed by the vertical bond.

Micron has just announced its new 9550 PCIe Gen5 E1.S data center SSDs have been added to the NVIDIA recommended vendor list (RVL) for the NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 AI system and its derivatives.

The company announced today that the NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 uses the GB200 Grace Blackwell Superchip to deliver "rack-scale, energy-efficient AI infrastructure", while the enablement of PCIe Gen5 storage in the system makes the Micron 9550 SSD an "ideal fit for optimizing performance and power efficiency in AI workloads like large-scale training of AI models, real-time trillion-parameter language model inference and high-performance computing (HPC) tasks".

Compared with other industry offerings, the 9550 SSD delivers up to 34% higher throughput for NVIDIA Magnum IO GPUDirect (GDS) and up to 33% faster workload completion times in graph neural network (GNN) training with Big Accelerator Memory (BaM). The Micron 9550 SSD saves energy and sets new sustainability benchmarks by consuming 81% less SSD energy per 1TB transferred than other SSD offerings with NVIDIA Magnum IO GDS and up to 43% lower SSD power in GNN training with BaM.

Twenty years ago, Western Digital released its first My Passport drive, an external storage solution for backing up essential or personal files without a power outlet on a compact 2.5-inch drive. For many, My Passport drives were a convenient and effective solution for storing photos, music, and video files. And it didn't take long for PC and console gamers to use them for game installs and back-ups, too.

The first My Passport drive from 2004 had a maximum capacity of just 40GB, which has increased by up to 150 times. Western Digital's current My Passport line-up includes a massive 6TB model, making it the world's highest-capacity 2.5" portable hard drive.

Western Digital has launched the new WD My Passport Ultra, 20th Emerald Anniversary Edition, to celebrate the milestone. It is available in 2TB (MSRP $89.99) and 6TB (MSRP $199.99) capacities.

SSD prices can be volatile, and like RAM and other forms of flash memory and storage, the question of 'how much' is influenced by various supply and demand factors. According to TrendForce analysts, "weaker-than-expected seasonal demand in the second half of 2024" could see NAND Flash wafer prices drop by up to 15% in Q4 2024.

The overall demand in the enterprise segment, driven by AI, remains high, and the SSD market there is profitable as drives are installed in countless servers and systems running generative AI workloads.

However, it's a different story on the client side, with the report indicating that retail demand for SSDs, memory cards, and USB drives "has remained sluggish since the beginning of 2024."

It seems that Windows 11 24H2 has another bug, and a pretty nasty one at that, affecting some of those who have a Western Digital SSD.

After installing the 24H2 update, owners of certain NVMe drives are finding that Blue Screen of Death crashes are being triggered randomly, seriously disrupting their PC usage - or even worse, they're ending up in a boot loop, one of the most-feared negative outcomes from an update.

TechSpot, which noticed the problem being reported on WD's community forum, notes that the bug seems to mainly hit those with WD Black SN770 and WD Blue SN580 SSDs (which don't have DRAM-based cache).

The 2024 Open Compute Project (OCP) Global Summit, which will run from October 15 to October 17, is currently underway at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. This year's theme, 'From Ideas to Impact,' is about turning theoretical discussions and innovation into real-world solutions.

NAND flash memory creators KIOXIA is there (booth #A) showcasing its data center and enterprise solid-state drive (SSD) portfolio, including the brand-new KIOXIA XD8 Series E1.S Data Center SSD line-up for hyperscale servers and storage. With the company's next-gen Enterprise and Datacenter Standard Form Factor (EDSFF) E1.S and PCIe 5.0 SSDs on hand, it will demonstrate cutting-edge speed, scalability, and energy efficiency.

This includes speeding up AI applications and workloads in the age of generative AI and demonstrating how innovative technology like Flexible Data Placement (FDP) can dramatically extend the lifespan of SSDs. Here's a breakdown of some of KIOXIA's 2024 OCP Global Summit demonstrations.

Alongside announcing its next-gen KIOXIA XD8 Series E1.S Data Center SSD Series with PCIe 5.0 technology, the company will also be at the Open Compute Project (OCP) Global Summit, which will take place this week from October 15th to 17th in San Jose, CA.

It will demonstrate the benefits of KIOXIA XD Series SSDs equipped with Flexible Data Placement (FDP) functionality running the RocksDB database there. RocksDB is widely used in generative AI workloads, training, and cloud applications and is all about high-performance searches through vast amounts of data.

FDP is part of the NVM Express base specification (TP4161), where flexible control over data placement on an SSD can enhance performance and extend its lifespan. Here's KIOXIA summarizing what FDP brings to the table and how it can be an invaluable tool for modern data centers and generative AI.