Researchers at Delft University of Technology build a prototype storage device able to store data using single atoms-- providing theoretical capacity of 500TB per square inch.

Such capacity is 500 times more dense than the highest capacity HDDs available to date and, as lead scientist Sander Otte puts it, “would allow all books ever created by humans to be written on a single post stamp.”

The atomic storage technology makes use of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM), a technique allowing the moving of individual atoms. The prototype consists of a flat copper bed covered with around 60000 chlorine atoms, with 8000 empty spaces left around them. The STM was used to arrange the atoms in a grid with gaps representing data, bringing about a means of storage that works more or less like a sliding puzzle.

Samsung announces a successor to microSD-- Universal Flash Storage (UFS), a removable memory card format promising better performance for use in high-resolution video recording.

Based on the JEDEC UFS 1.0 card extension standard, UFS cards feature sequential read speeds of 530MB/s, a dramatic increase from the 95MB/s ofered by UHS-1 microSD cards. Random reads are also faster at 40000 IOPS, while random write speeds reach 35000 IOPS.

Sequential write speeds reach 170MB/s, almost double of of microSD cards.

Samsung starts mass production of a NVMe PCIe SSD in a single ball grid (SBG) form factor-- the PM971-NVMe, fiting up to 512GB of storage in a chip the size of a postage stamp.

For those wanting specifics, the chip crams all related components (namely x16 V-NAND flash chips, controller and 4Gb LPDDR4 RAM) in a package measuring 20 x 16x 1.5mm and weighing just 1g. However, while being small, the chip promises performance matching larger equivalents, with read speeds reaching 1.5GBps, write speeds of 800MBps and random read and write IOPS clocking at 109K and 150K respectively.

Western Digital claims the 256GB SanDisk Extreme microSDXC UHS-I card is the fastest microSD card in its class, making it ideal for 4K video recording.

According to the company the card holds up to "14 hours of 4K UD video," while transfer speeds of up to 100MB/s make easy work of transferring large files to PCs. Write speeds are also speedy at 90MB/s.

Also launched by WD is a slightly slower card-- the SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I card Premium Edition. Described as a 256GB card optimised for mainstream consumers, it offers maximum transfer speeds of 95MB/s and enough space for over 24 hours of HD video.

Western Digital announces a heavier duty version of the 2014 My Passport Wireless external HDD-- the My Passport Wireless Pro.

Available in 2 or 3TB capacities, the My Passport Wireless Pro retains the same features as its predecessor. It connects to PCs via USB 3.0 for use as a regular external HDD, but the addition of wifi connectivity turns it into a miniature private cloud, allowing wireless uploading and downloading of files.

A browser-based dashboard provides access to drive battery life, remaining capacity and settings, and WD provides companion iOS and Android apps for smartphone and tablet file access. Also included is an SD card slot, making the drive ideal for photographers wanting to feed files from a camera to an HDD without need for a PC.

The MX300 is something of an SSD first according to Crucial-- it features 3D NAND arranged in a triple-level cell (TLC) configuration, a design the company says allows for larger capacity and improved performance.

Initially available in a limited-edition 750GB version (275, 525 and 1050GB will follow at a later date), the MX300 carries 8 memory chips, each housing 2 dies of 96GB capacity. Also included is Crucial dynamic write acceleration technology turning a portion of TLC memory into functioning as faster SLC, a Marvell 88SS1074 controller and protection via AES 256-bit, eDrive and TCG Opal 2.0.

Toshiba combines NAND flash with OCZ enterprise-grade storage with the OCZ RD400-- a high performance NVMe SSD series featuring the M.2 form factor and capacities ranging from 128GB to 1TB.

The company even caters for customers with motherboards lacking the required slots with optional PCIe x4 M.2 adapter cards.

In terms of performance Toshiba claims the series is one of the fastest yet-- sequential read/write reaches up to 2600/1600MB/s, while random rad/write (4kib) is up to 210000/140000 IOPS. Providing such performance according to the company is a combination of the PCIe Gen3 x4 lange interface and 15nm MLC NAND flash memory.

Synology announces a pair of DiskStation NAS products-- the DS916+ 4-bay scalable NAS aimed at professionals and small businesses, and the 1-bay DS116 ideal for home users and small workgroups.

A successor to the DS415+, the DS916+ supports up to 9 drives through compatibility with the DX513 expansion unit. It carries an Intel Pentium N3710 quad-core CPU complete with AES-NI hardware encryption engine, and either 2 or 8GB RAM, while speeds reaches a link aggregate average 225.91MB/s read and 221.04MB/s write (or 225.83MB/s and 209.35MB/s encrypted read and write).

In professional-friendly features the DS916+ supports real-time H.264 single-channel 4K/UHD or triple channel HD video transcoding, while power consumption reaches up to 30W when accessing drives and as little as 13W in HDD hibernation mode. Also included is DiskStation Manager OS software.