Todays & Tomorrows Technology

If you’ve been on the lookout for another solid-state drive option to satisfy your storage needs, you might just be in luck with the Vertex Turbo SSD announced by OCZ today, which is a 2.5-inch drive and meant to offer super high speeds.

The new SSD features an increased clock speed for the host controller. It also has a 64MB of cache as well as a 270MB/s read speed and a 210MB/s write speed. It can be used in notebooks but with a bay adapter, desktops are compatible as well.

Other features include a SATA II interface, skip-proofing and low power consumption. The new Vertex Turbo models will be available in 30GB, 60GB, 120GB and 250GB variations. We don’t know pricing or a release date just yet, but we’ll keep you up to date.

Corsair have announced two new SSDs in its Performance Series range, bringing high read/write speeds to lower price points. The P128 and P64 – which unsurprisingly offer 128GB and 64GB respectively – slot in below the current flagship P256, with the P128 offering the same 220MB/sec read rate and 200MB/sec write rate.

Meanwhile the P64 promises 220MB/sec read and 120MB/sec write rates. Both drives use the same Samsung controller as their more-expensive sibling, together with 128MB of cache and NCQ support.

The Corsair P128 is available now, with an MRSP of $339; you can currently find it on Newegg with a $40 rebate. The Corsair P64 will follow on in July; prices are yet to be confirmed.

Toshiba announced updates to their Portable Hard Drive line today that now offers the devices greater security and backup functions, improving ease of use and adding features for both beginners and those seeking greater customization.
These drives now have NTI BackupNow EZ software, which makes it easy to automatically backup your computer and restore it if need be. It also makes suggestions regarding the security of particular folders and files.

These drives are password-protected and also sport a Drive Space Alert that keeps you informed of your current storage capacity. The Portable Hard Drives are available in 320GB and 500GB sizes in red, green, white and blue color options for $119.99 and $149.99, respectively.

With Super Talent’s MasterDrive SX SSD range comfortably crashing through the 200MB/sec sequential read-rate mark, it was only a matter of time before arch-rival Active Media stepped up their game to compete. They’ve announced two new 2.5-inch SSDs, the Predator GT SATA-II line, each offering up to 220MB/sec sequential reads and 0.1ms access times.

Available in 64GB and 128GB capacities, each SSD comes in a brushed aluminum housing, together with a bracket to allow for mounting in a 3.5-inch bay. Like the MasterDrive SX range, the 64GB Predator GT has sequential write rates of up to 120MB/sec, while the 128GB version ups that to 200MB/sec.

The Predator GT also features 128MB of SDRAM cache and a new 8-channel controller. Both models are on sale now, priced at $199.95 fo

Samsung have announced a solid-state drive (SSD) that fits onto a mini-PCIe card, offering up to 64GB capacity in a form-factor nearly 80-percent smaller than a 2.5-inch drive. The SATA 3.0 Gbps drive is not only intended for compact devices, such as MIDs and netbooks, but as a secondary or complementary drive for regular notebooks.

In that way, users would no longer have to choose between the speed of SSD and the low price of traditional hard-drives, but instead have both. The mini-PCIe card weighs up to 8.5g and boasts 200MB/s read rates and 100MB/s write rates.

It also supports full-drive encryption and the usual shock-resistance of an SSD. Samsung are currently sampling the SATA mini-card SSD to its hardware partners, while pushing for standardization on its mechanical form-factor and pin-layout. That’s expected to be completed by Q3 2009; there’s no word on when we could see the drives reach the market.

Seagate announced three brand new BlackArmor line data storage devices today. They include the BlackArmor NAS 220 Storage Server, the BlackArmor WS110 External Drive Workstation and the BlackArmor PS 110 Portable Drive.

All three new devices sport automated backup and a bare metal recovery feature. First up is the BlackArmor NAS 220, which is remote accessible and network accessible with up 4TB for up to 20 computers. It will be available in a 2TB and a 4TB version in July for $500 and $700 each.

Next, there’s the WS 110 External Drive Workstation with an eSATA and USB 2.0 interface. It will be available in a 1TB and a 2TB version for $160 and $310 each. Last, there’s the PS 110 Portable Drive, which is 12.5mm thick and will be available in a 500GB version for $160.

Seagate revealed a bit more than they might have intended today by posting up information about their 640GB FreeAgent Go on their website. And actually, this is pretty big news, as it’s one of the first drives to exceed 500GB, at least for external storage, that is.

The larger capacity 640GB drive has fewer color options than the smaller drives, coming in just silver and black. However, much of the other features are the same, including its USB-only status.

There’s also support for the Seagate docking station. We don’t have any information on availability or pricing yet but that should all be available soon, or at least once Seagate makes this thing official.

Super Talent have announced a new range of solid-state drives, promising higher read and write rates thanks to a new 8-channel controller and more cache. The 2.5-inch Super Talent MasterDrive SX SSDs range in capacity from 64GB to 256GB, made up of MLC NAND flash, and the company is quoting sequential read speeds of up to 220 MB/sec and write speeds of up to 200 MB/sec.

Each of the drives have 128MB of DRAM cache and use a 3Gbps SATA-II interface. Power draw is down to 0.5W during reads and 0.15W while idle, and they’re also tipped to be more rugged, too, thanks to an aluminum shell.

The new Super Talent MasterDrive SX SSDs are available now, through retailers such as NewEgg and SuperBiiz. So far the only price we’ve seen is around $359 for the 128GB mid-range model.

Kingston announced a brand new flash drive series yesterday called the DataTraveler 200, which sports a 128GB capacity for the very first time. Other models are 32GB and 64GB, rounding out the line up nicely.
These flash drives feature added security by means of the Password Traveler software. Other specs include a capless design with a retractable USB connector. It’s also compatible with the ReadyBoost feature on Windows Vista.

These flash drives will work with both PCs and Macs. Available now, the 32GB, 64GB and 128GB DataTraveler 200 flash drives cost $120, $213 and $546, respectively.

Western Digital have announced their first range of self-branded solid-state drives (SSDs), the Western Digital SiliconDrive III series. Based on technology acquired in the company’s acquisition of SiliconSystems back in March, the new range consists of two 2.5-inch SSDs and a 1.8-inch model, boasting read speeds up to 100MBps and write speeds up to 80MBps.

The larger drives consist of SATA 3Gb/s and PATA ATA-7 versions, with capacities ranging from 30GB to 80GB. The former manages read/write rates of up to 100/85MB/s respectively, while the latter achieves 85/60MB/s respectively. As for the smaller, 1.8-inch drive, that too has a SATA 3Gb/s interface and read/write speeds of 100/80MB/s respectively; it’s available in capacities between 30GB and 60GB.

The drives also feature SiSMART technology, which monitors the SSD in real-time so as to alert the user of potential drive failure. No word on pricing or specific availability.

Samsung announced an update to their S1 Mini external hard drive line today that adds a new 160GB model to the mix. As if that weren’t enough, you’ll now be able to choose from two additional Pop colors.
The 1.8-inch S1 Mini line already comes in Snow White, Piano Black, Wine Red and Chocolate Brown but now you have the additional options of Ocean Blue and Sweet Pink.

About the size of a credit card, the S1 features auto back-up, a capacity gauge, a USB 2.0 connection, 128-bit and 256-bit AES encryption, password security and a standby mode. You can get the updated S1 Mini line in Korea now and will be available elsewhere by the end of the month.

OCZ Technology seems to always be toiling away on new solid state drives, but it's rare to find any from the company that are priced for the average Joe / Jane. Rather than aiming specifically for the fat-walleted enthusiast crowd, the Agility series is hoping to make a decent sized splash in the mainstream market. These 2.5-inch SATA II SSDs promise 230MB/sec read and 135MB/sec write speeds, along with 64MB of cache and a two-year warranty. We pinged OCZ for details surrounding pricing and availability, so here's the dirt: the trio of models will be available in a fortnight or so for $129.99 (30GB), $219.99 (60GB) and $349.99 (120GB).

Eye-Fi have announced their latest wireless memory card, the 4GB Eye-Fi Pro. Using the SDHC format, the new Eye-Fi Pro offers the usual automatic wireless transfer of images from digital cameras to a computer or website; however it also adds new file-type support, increased control over which images are synchronized, more flexible WiFi connectivity and video functionality.

The Eye-Fi Pro 4GB now includes “Selective Transfer”, which allows users to choose which photos and/or videos are uploaded. This bypasses the issue with the older cards where every shot was transferred; according to Eye-Fi all users will now be able to use Selective Transfer, not just those with the Pro 4GB. Images are selected by locking them through the camera’s own menus.

Meanwhile the Pro 4GB also supports RAW images, making it more appealing to pro-photographers, which like the JPEG images can be geotagged automatically. WiFi ad-hoc connections directly between the camera and a computer can be used for peer-to-peer transfer, too.

Users also get access to more than 10,000 Wayport hotspots, together with any open WiFi hotspots they may come across, and the system supports in excess of 25 online photo/video sharing sites. Of course, media is also stored locally in the card’s own storage too. The Eye-Fi Pro 4GB is available now, priced at $149.

Every sale of Active Media’s new WWF Penguin USB flash drive may prompt the company to send off a 5-percent donation to the WWF, but we’re hoping it won’t encourage owners to grab poor, innocent penguins, snatch off their upper-bodies and attempt to ram the remainder into the nearest USB port. Real penguins don’t come in 2GB, 4GB, 8GB or 16GB capacities, after all.

Neither do they have PVC-free non-toxic silicone rubber bodies, like the Active Media penguins have. The company also claims that their drive is free of lead and mercury.

No matter how many they sell, Active Media are pledging to give at least $25,000 to the WWF fund, so even if you’re lazy and apathetic about your novelty flash storage it’s nice to know the animals will still get a donation. The penguin drives are available now, priced between $12.95 and $42.95.

Storage may not be as glossy or as exciting as a new netbook, MID or Smartbook, and as such we didn’t see as much hard-drive coverage from Computex as we did mobile devices; still, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t some deuced impressive hardware lurking at the show. OCZ brought along their Colossus, a 3.5-inch SSD-based drive which boasts 1TB of capacity and sustained read/write speeds of 265MB/s.

It does that by using a RAID-0 setup inside, managed by a JMicron RAID controller and a pair of Indilinx controllers which each control the flash memory. Unlike 2.5-inch drives, the Colossus isn’t going to be much use for notebooks and small-form-factor PCs, but for performance computers it offers the speed of a solid-state drive with the capacity you’d typically rely on a traditional platter-based HDD for.

As ever, there’s a catch, and that’s unsurprisingly the price tag. We’re not entirely sure when the OCZ Colossus 1TB SSD will reach the market, but the company expect it to be priced between $2,500 and $3,000. A cheaper (relatively speaking) 500GB version will also be offered.