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WD takes short cut into Solid State market
Western Digital has announced its acquisition of the leading supplier of solid-state drives for the embedded systems market, SiliconSystems Inc for $65 million. With immediate effect SiliconSystems will be now known as the WD Solid-State Storage business unit.
With the acquisition WD can now compete in the solid state drive market which is worth an estimated $1.1 billion (2008).
Super Talent launches 64GB USB stick
Time was when a 1GB USB stick could cost you a major body part. How times have changed, with the latest 64GB Luxio models from Super Talent retailing (in the US only at present) at around $149 (currently £91, but increasing rapidly).
These premium drives come in a gift box with a custom leather carry case and a choice of wood-grain (pictured), black or silver finish.
Western Digital unleash beast
Western Digital have just annouced the 4th generation Raptor drive, the 300GB VelociRaptor (WD3000GLFS), the world's fastest SATA drive.
The VelociRaptor has a 2.5in form factor, a 10,000rpm spin speed, 16MB of cache and a claimed seek time of 4.2ms.
The 2.5in drives are enclosed in a 3.5in frame that Western Digital has named IcePack which has a built in heatsink to help keep the beast cool. A version for the enterprise space will be launched later without the IcePack.
The MSR price for the new drive is £250.
Super-thin DVD disc promises eco-friendly covermounts
German optical disc manufacturer ODS has just announced a super-thin flexible DVD disc that it claims will revolutionise the enormous DVD covermount market. At 0.6mm thin and weighing 8 grams, the EcoDisc uses only half the amount of polycarbonate found in a standard DVD. As it's only a single-layer construction, it doesn't need the usual non-biodegradable bonder and so is should be more environmentally friendly than standard discs.
According to ODS, 1.6 billion discs were distributed via newspapers and magazines in 2005 in Western Europe, consuming 18,000 tons of polycarbonate.
The only major downside is that the disc won't work in slot-loading DVD drives.
Iomega 2TB drive available
We flagged the US release of Iomega's 2TByte Storcenter Pro NAS 150d Server drive last month. It is now shipping in Europe for £775 ex Vat, with a 1TByte version costing £535.
It will act as a server for up to four printers connected via its USB 2.0 ports and Iomega says it one of the first products of this class to support hot-swapping of any of its four internal hard drives.
A tiny media streamer for tiny customers
Agere is starting production of a "mobile content server" called the BluOnyx.
The 6-15mm thick rectangular box sports Bluetooth, a mini-USB port and an SD slot to increase capacity.
The units won't be available until April 2007 but like MSI's similar box, I'm struggling to see an audience for this kind of a device.
Agere hypes the ability to stream content to mobiles phones. It says the unit is "for the YouTube generation" but surely the YouTube generation will be watching YouTube...
Serious users may be better off spending a little more on a proper network attached storage device, like the HP Media Vault we reviewed last month which has a decent sized hard disk and can read and write at 50Mbits/sec, much faster than Bluetooth's theoretical maximum of 3Mbits/sec - if more than one person tries streaming from this "mobile content server" the thing may grind to a halt.
I suspect the real inspiration behind these hard disks is the ever thinning margins and Bluetooth, SD and flashly light add-ons may be the only way to make a profit. Prices range from £50 for a 1GB flash based unit scaling up to £130 for the 40GB 1.8in hard disk device.
CES 07: Seagate aims to make backup chic
Seagate is aiming to give an air of sex to storage, with its sleekly designed FreeAgent external backup family of products.
The FreeAgent Pro comes in 320GB, 500GB and 750GB versions and is aimed
at being more of a lifestyle and backup device.
It includes 500MB of online storage that is free for six months, after which it is a paid for service (the capacity can be increased).
The idea, said Seagate, is to have a limited amount of data available from anywhere where there is internet access. Prices range from $200 to $400.
The base FreeAgent Desktop version, which comes with 250GB, 320GB and 500GB, is designed to be a pure back up device. Prices range from $149 to $249.
The FreeAgent Go is the portable version, coming with an 80GB, 120GB or 160GB hard disk drive, costing from $130.
CES 07: 1.5TB hard disk drives in 2008
Hard disk capacities have shot up over the past couple of years, and speaking with Hitachi today - which launched it 1TB drive a few days back - the company predicted we could be seeing 1.5TB or 2TB 3.5in drives next year.
A spokeswoman said the company was waiting to see customer reaction first to the 1TB - if it is well received then a bigger capacity will be arriving quicker.
She didn't know if the next drive would be a mere 500GB bigger or doubled to 2TB. But she said: "There will be another capacity jump in 2008."
CES 07: LG to launch hybrid Blu-ray and HD DVD PC drive
The dual standard high definition player announced by LG at CES has had a lot of attention, but it does have a smaller brother also due out soon – the Super Multi Blue internal Blu-ray Disc Rewriter and HD DVD Rom drive.
Like the BH100 Super Multi Blue Player, the GGW-H10N can also read both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs, as well as standard DVDs and CDs. It also, as the name suggests, writes to Blu-ray discs, although not to HD DVD discs.
It can write to a disc up to 50GB in size – holding nine hours of HD content or 23 hours at standard definition. LG claims its 4x write speed for Blu-ray discs is the fastest around.
Due out around March in the US – and shortly after that in the UK, it will cost around $1,199.
CES 07: TDK to release 200GB Blu-ray disc
TDK is showing off its 200GB Blu-ray disc at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas next week.
There are few details as yet (as it wants journos to turn up to its press briefing), but most likely you can expect the disc to be available in the US first before making its way to the UK. But at 200GB, it's going to be a mass storage device for those with heavy backup needs. It could also herald a new type of movie box set - as a single disc.
Being a new year, the Blu-ray camp must be hoping for a better 2007, as 2006 was fraught with set backs for their high definition standard, while HD-DVD managed to get products out on time, and with slashed prices, at a cost that attracted consumers.
