Here is Corsair's 128GB Flash Voyager GT drive next to Kingston's 256GB DataTraveler 300 and an iPhone 3G.
(Credit: Crave UK )Billions of bytes are currently swarming into the capacious fortress of Corsair's new 128GB Voyager GT flash drive. It's the largest, fastest, and most exciting flash drive we've been sent yet, and it'll cost you about $497 when it becomes available in the next few weeks.
Described by one of its reps as an "aspirational product," Corsair knows this is a device aimed at enthusiasts only. But if you frequently need to write a gigabyte of data to a flash drive in 47 seconds flat, listen up.
(Credit:
Crave UK )
The Voyager GT obliterated Corsair's 64GB Voyager drive in benchmarks. It achieved a maximum sustained write speed of 26MBps and sustained read speeds of just under 39MBps. Compare this to the 64GB Corsair Voyager's 8MBps for writing and 27MBps for reading, and you'll begin to understand why this model pushed our right eyebrow up to its highest position to date.
It's a solid, rubbery drive, and it will easily survive a fall. But it's bordering on the size of an iPod Nano. At this size, and at this cost, you have to wonder whether you'd be better off with a portable hard disk. But for those who want flash, it's the biggest, baddest and--most importantly--fastest piece of USB-driven solid-state storage technology we've ever tested.
(Source: Crave UK)
More memory, please: waiting for the iPhone to go to 32GB and the Touch to hit 64GB.
(Credit: Apple)OK, now that CES and Macworld are behind us, it's time to take a moment to ponder just what was missing. For me, anyway, the biggest letdown was the absence of any word on a higher-capacity iPod Touch.
As a non-iPhone guy with a slight bit of iPhone envy, I've had my eye on the 2G Touch for the last three months. But like a lot of people, I've been waiting either for the price of the 32GB version to come down or to pay not much more for a 64GB model, which has been making the rounds in the rumor mill and message boards for months.
Previously, I wrote a column about why it was the wrong time to buy an iPod. So, in a sense, you could call this column, "Why it's almost the right time to buy an iPod...or at least an iPod Touch."
I just think the Touch needs one more rev to be a near-ideal device. (Even if Apple doesn't want to sell my products in its App Store, I still have no problem recommending its products to readers.) Of course, a 128GB model would be perfect, but I could live with a 64GB version (or cheaper 32GB model). That would enable you to store a decent-size music collection, a good amount of video, and lots of apps--and maybe even leave you with a little room to grow.
(Credit:
Transcend)
I'm not sure this will help stop the downturn in the NAND flash memory market, but Transcend on Tuesday joined the league of solid-state-drive makers and introduced its new 128GB high-speed 2.5-inch drive.
The new drive features the SATA-II interface and Transcend's Multi-level cell flash memory chip. This combination allows it to offer sustained read/write speeds of up to 145MB/92MB per second, about 40 percent faster than high-speed regular 2.5-inch SATA hard drives.
Like other SSDs, the new SSD from Transcend has very low 0.2ms latency that would potentially increase the performance of software applications, as well as the overall system.
The new Transcend SSD is available in capacities ranging from 8GB to 128GB, with the 128GB version costing only $379, a very good deal. You can also find Transcend's SSDs that support the older IDE interface with capacities ranging from 8GB to 64GB.
All Transcend's SSDs are covered with a two-year warranty along with the company's worldwide support.
Samsung has begun production of 128GB solid-state drives as it tries to overcome technical hurdles with larger-capacity drives.
(Credit:
Samsung)
The Seoul-based company announced Wednesday that it has begun mass producing 1.8- and 2.5-inch 128GB solid-state drives (SSDs). The new drives are based on a technology called multi-level cell (MLC). Samsung also plans to begin producing a 256GB solid-state drive at the end of this year using MLC.
MLC allows drive makers to build larger capacity drives, though the technology also presents performance and data reliability challenges--not only for Samsung but for all solid-state drive makers.
While multi-level cell technology allows higher data densities, it is not as fast as SLC (single-level cell), the technology used in current laptops such as the Apple MacBook Air and Hewlett-Packard 2510p. "MLC is a cost-efficient model of SLC" since multi-level cell squeezes more bits in a single cell, said Michael Yang, flash marketing manager at Samsung.
"What you're doing is that you're slowing down the chip" to maintain reliability, he said. "Performance wise, MLC is slower than SLC."
Yang also responded to reports claiming that solid-state drives are less power efficient than typical 2.5-inch hard disk drives. "From all our experiences with testing from both sides--from our flash memory division and hard drive division--we found SSDs are definitely more power efficient," said Yang. Power savings are 20 percent to 30 percent at the system level compared to hard disk drives, he said.
Yang added that the supporting silicon for newer Serial-ATA II solid-state drives is also more power efficient than the previous generation of SATA drives.
Power consumption for the Samsung SSD is approximately 0.2 watts, and in active mode 0.5 watts.
The Samsung MLC-based SSDs have a write speed of 70MB/s and a read speed of 90MB/s--performance levels that approach those of SLC-based solid-state drives now in mass production, the company said.
Mass production of the Samsung MLC-based 64GB SSDs also began this month, the company said.
Toshiba has postponed the launch of the Dynabook SS RX1 notebook slated to ship with a 128GB solid-state drive, according to an announcement on Toshiba's Japanese Web site.
Toshiba Dynabook SS RX series
(Credit: Toshiba)The Japanese-market Dynabook has been billed as the first notebook with a 128GB solid-state drive, or SSD.
The notebook was originally scheduled for general availability in April but will be delayed until June, according to Toshiba.
Toshiba cited parts delays. It's not clear whether the delays are SSD-related, but Toshiba postponed the launch of a notebook last year with a 64GB SSD due to flash memory chip "procurement" delays.
The 128GB SSD-equipped dynabook is expected to sell for 400,000 yen, or about $4,000.
Meanwhile, Toshiba Europe has listed the Portege R500-12Q with an 128GB SSD, though no information on availability is given, according to Engadget.
Popular ultralight notebooks such as the Lenovo ThinkPad X300 and Apple MacBook Air come with 64GB SSDs.
Intel is expected to announce SSDs ranging up to 160GB this year. Samsung is expected to follow suit.
(Credit:
Samsung)
No, that's not a typo.
The current reigning king of flash memory pushes the envelope for NAND flash a little further with a 64Gb (gigabit) memory chip. Put 16 of them together and it amounts to 128GB (gigabytes), which is enough to put some hard drives to shame. Samsung claims the mega-memory card is capable of storing 32,000 MP3 files.
It's built with a new manufacturing process that Samsung dubs the self-aligned double patterning technology (SaDPT), which must be pretty heavy stuff because the company has applied for 30 patents in connection with the new 64Gb flash device. But don't expect this drugged-up memory card to power the new toys you get for Christmas. Samsung is expecting production to commence only in 2009.
(Source: Crave Asia)
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