ssd

Intel is introducing new solid-state drives with increased performance as these devices find a more welcome home in Windows 7.

Intel said Tuesday it is moving to a more advanced 34-nanometer manufacturing process for its X series of solid-state drives (SSDs). To date, Intel has built drives on a 50-nanometer process. The more advanced process allows for higher data densities, enabling Intel to pack more data onto the same number of flash chips and reduce cost.

Solid-state drives typically offer better performance--in some cases, dramatically better performance--than hard disk drives. But SSDs cost more per gigabyte than hard drives, limiting their use to performance-sensitive applications such as high-end laptops, gaming PCs, and servers.

The new price for the 80GB version of the X25-M drive is $225 for quantities up to 1,000 units, a 60 percent reduction from the introduction price of $595 a year ago, Intel said. The 160GB version of the Intel X25-M drive is now $440, down from $945 at introduction.

However, the actual price drop in the market will be lower, Troy Winslow, marketing manager for the NAND Products Group at Intel, said in a phone interview. Intel had already announced an interim price reduction in January, below the original $595 and $945 price tags, he said.

"In the marketplace it will be around a $100 drop on the 80GB drive and almost a $200 drop on the 160GB drive," he said. The X25-M comes in a standard 2.5-inch form factor, which is the size of most hard drives used in laptops.

Winslow also addressed rumors circulating on Monday about higher-capacity drives. Intel will not introduce a 320GB SSD this year, he said. "What we decided to do is split 34-nanometer into a two-step process," he said. The first step will be to cost-reduce existing 80GB and 160GB drives. "And what we'll do later--and it's not even going to be this year but first half of next year--we will introduce, also on 34 nanometer, a performance enhancement and a doubling of the capacity," Winslow said, meaning that larger capacity drives, such as those over 300GB, won't appear until next year. … Read more

The market for consumer solid-state drives just got slightly more diverse.

Lexar Media announced Monday its latest line of solid-state drives (SSDs), the Crucial M225 SSDs. Lexar has been a known flash storage device maker, while Crucial is a known brand for computer system memory, or RAM.

The M225 SSDs come in three versions, 256GB, 128GB, and 64GB, and offer throughput speeds up to 250MBps in reading and 200MBps in writing.

These drives utilize a SATA 2.0 (3Gbps) interface and feature MLC NAND flash components housed in an industry-standard 2.5-inch drive enclosure. This means they are compatible with … Read more

Bozeman, Montana, has decided they need everyone's social network log-ins and passwords to conduct background checks on prospective employees. So cute. They call it Face Page. Plus we talk about the iPhone lines, and go to town on the need for copyright laws. Turns out we may not need them.

Live blog: iPhone 3G S launch day http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10268140-37.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10268774-37.html

How to tether your iPhone running OS 3.0 without jailbreaking, for … Read more

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Much more than most companies, Intel's success depends on the technology that will arrive in its field years hence. As a result, the company has more than 1,000 researchers beavering away to gauge and develop that technology.

And the company wants everyone to know it.

At its Intel Research Day at the Computer History Museum here Thursday, the company touted a wide range of projects that extend beyond the company's core business of making computer processors. On display were projects to improve the WiMax regional wireless network technology, improve mobile devices' processing power while … Read more

Flash-memory manufacturer SanDisk announced Tuesday an SDHC card aimed at new Netbook owners disappointed with the skimpy internal storage the micro laptops may come with. On the surface--in the middle and on the bottom, too--it seems SanDisk took a bunch of old, slow Class 2 8GB and 16GB SDHC cards, rebranded them as Netbook SDHC Cards, and doubled the price of the cards to $44.99 and $88.99, respectively; the street prices are a little lower.

On the product page, SanDisk points out that this is a fast way to add more lightweight storage for videos, music, and photos … Read more

The Computex trade show, which opens Tuesday in Taipei, Taiwan, could also be known as Netbook-pallooza. It seems as if every tech company has something related to the rapidly growing category of mini-notebooks to announce there.

SanDisk is one of them, and though the company doesn't make a Netbook, it is eager to hitch its wagon to this PC trend. On Monday afternoon, the company is preparing to launch two new Netbook-centric products at the show: an SD card sold specifically for Netbooks, and its second-generation pico SSD, or PSSD.

The SD card will be available in storage capacities … Read more

In the midst of a tight market for flash memory, SanDisk and Samsung Electronics have renewed two key agreements that both companies expect will strengthen their positions.

In the first of the two deals, SanDisk and Samsung announced on Wednesday an agreement to renew the cross-licensing of certain semiconductor patents. The agreement means that each company has the right to use each other's patents in producing cell flash memory and flash storage systems, such as solid-state drives. It does not include patents related to 3-D memory, a new technology that could eventually replace traditional flash memory in portable devices. … Read more

While it's now easy to get a desktop with a terabyte or more of storage, it's still pretty hard to find a laptop with even 300GB. That's why I am very impressed with the Portege R600-ST4203 laptop that Toshiba announced Thursday.

The Portege R600-ST4203 is one of world's first laptops with 512GB of storage and it's definitely the first with that much storage in the form of a solid-state drive (SSD). Until now, most SSDs for laptops have remained in the 32GB to 128GB capacity range.

The Portege R600-ST4203 is the newest model in Toshiba'… Read more

Clickfree just announced its new Traveler external hard drive that uses the same file-based transfer software we reviewed in the Clickfree Portable Backup Drive back in January. The difference is that this device uses solid-state technology for faster transfers and increased durability.

Clickfree stresses that its file-based software is different from other backup solutions that only create an image of the host computer onto their drives. During this "total backup," the drive will restore operating systems and applications, but also winds up restoring viruses, malware, and corrupt files.

Clickfree's automatic backup software only restores your "irreplaceable … Read more