HP and SanDisk announce a collaboration in Storage Class Memory (SCM), one involving the combination of HP Memristor technology and SanDisk non-volatile ReRAM in the creation of new Memory-driven Computing solutions.

The partnership also covers the enhancement of solid state storage solutions.

According to the two companies, the resultant SCM technology will be 1000 faster and offer up to 1000 times more endurance than flash storage, as well as offer "significant" cost, power, density and persistent improvements over DRAM. Thus it will allow for systems employing "tens of terabytes (TB) of SCM per server node for applications such as in-memory databases, real-time data analytics, transactional and high-performance computing."

Western Digital Corporation, America's industry-leading maker of storage solutions (the HGST, WD and G-Technology brands) enters into an agreement to sell about 15% to Unisplendour Corporation Limited (Unis), a leading information technology company in China (selling PCs, servers, storage, networking equipment-- and is expanding to cloud computing, mobile internet and big data processing.)

Unisplendour is the asset management arm of the Tsinghua University's Tsinghua Unigroup in China. Consumer Continue reading...

Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the universities of Münster, Oxford, and Exeter develop the the first all-optical permanent on-chip memory-- a light-based storage technology and an "important step" in the creation of photon-based computers.

According to the researchers electronic data exchange between processors and memory limits the speed of modern computers. This is due to the electrons running through the metal wires making the logic circuits inside computer chips bumping into each other, slowing down and generating heat. Optical technology does not have such problems, as photons (the particle making light) travel well together at, well, light speed.

However such technology has serious drawbacks. Photon-based memory circuits need a steady supply of power in order to store data, and all data is lost if the power is switched off.

Samsung announces the first consumer SSD to feature vertical NAND (V-NAND) technology in an M.2 "gumstick" package-- the 950 Pro, a storage device claiming read and write speeds of up to 2.5GB/s and 1.5GB/s.

Available in 256 and 512GB sizes, the 950 Pro features 2nd generation 32-layer V-NAND and Non-Volatile Memory express (NVMe), a protocol designed to further improve SSD performance through reduced power consumption and longer-lasting use. As such, Samsung warranties the 512GB model to write up to 400TB of data.

by Andy Marken

“Not everything ends the way you think it should. Besides, audiences love happy endings,” says John Travolta as Gabriel Shear in Swordfish (an American crime film about a computer hacker).

Living in Silicon Valley it is very hard to remind myself that everyone doesn’t live on three – five devices constantly…24x7, 365 days of the year. It’s so cool!  It’s such a great distortion field I feel sorry for those who don’t eat, sleep, live it.

But it’s possible everyone is getting with it:

• Pew Research reported that 84% of the adults in the U.S. are on the Internet and what the other 16% does, I have no idea.
• Statista reports there are nearly 5B mobile phones in use globally (some have 2+) so they can text and occasionally even talk to each other.
• We’re inching closer to having  everything/anything connected, which is why we ran out of IP(Internet Protocol) Version 4 addresses and moved up to IPv6  so the 50B things can chat.

No wonder attendees at Flash Memory Summit (FMS) 2015 were positively giddy.

Microprocessor speeds double every two years and device prices get lower, so we can create more things, stuff faster/better to be stored.

This year, we’ll pack away more than 3.5ZB (Zetabytes) of data. By 2020, they’ll be hunting for places to put 44ZB.

Yes, 44 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 bytes!

More than Ever – We’ve created more content in the past two years than in the previous 5000 and the volume of data, pictures, movies and things continues to grow at an accelerated rate.  No wonder you’re constantly buying storage devices.

WD announces "significant enhancements" to the My Cloud storage family at IFA 2015, including the dual-drive My Cloud Mirror complete with more memory and faster processing and a redesigned My Cloud OS 3.

The My Cloud Mirror personal cloud device features 2 HDDs set to Mirror Mode (RAID 1). It stores data on one drive and automatically duplicates it to the second, and features an improved processor and 1GB RAM for faster file transfers and app support.

The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) and the Solid State Storage Initative (SSSI) form the Data Recovery/Erase Special Interest Group (DR/E SIG)-- an industry initiative in the recovery of data from faulty or damaged solid state storage.

“SSDs present particular challenges when trying to erase all data or attempting to recover data from a nonoperational drive,” the group says.  “The DR/E SIG provides a forum in which solution providers and solid state storage manufacturers can collaborate to enable data recovery and erase capabilities in solid state storage in such a way as to ensure that customer demands for these services can be met in a cost-effective and timely manner with a high likelihood of success.”

German storage vendor brinell presents what it describes as a classier take on the external HDD-- the SSD EVO, a compact device featuring "uncompromisingly clear contours" and "exceptional materials."

The brinell EVO SSDs come in rounded housing and fancy materials, including soft nappa leather (in black, brown or white), stainless steel, faux-carbon and Makassar ebony. All materials include a glossy metal frame, while cables are built into the casing.

Inside the drives are Samsung EVO SSDs with read/write speeds reaching up to 420MB/s via USB 3.0 connection.