Pocket-Sized Mobile Storage from Seagate

• Seagate unveiled a new portable hard drive that wirelessly streams data to a mobile phone, allowing stored data to stay in a pocket or backpack.
• The company's new Digital Audio Video Experience (D.A.V.E) technology, introduced the credit-card-size (3.5 by 4.7 by .47 inches) mobile storage device that weighs just 2.5 ounces.
• Its embedded 1-inch Seagate hard drive can store between 10 and 20GB of data.
• Perhaps more intriguing, however, is the fact that it can communicate with your phone via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.
• DAVE also uses Seagate's power-saving Storage Management Module to run for up to 10 hours (streaming media) and for 14 days in standby mode, and in return can also store data collected by your phone and other mobile devices.
• The storage device is built on an open API and Seagate will start selling the DAVE Developer's kit this spring.
  
• DAVE will go on sale sometime late this year to carriers who will likely rebrand the device and sell it with their own mobile phones and services. It will list for approximately $150 to $170.

Source : http://www.pcmag.com

Dell, Microsoft launch ‘unified storage’ Dell PowerVault NX1950

• Dell and Microsoft have joined forces to debut the first integrated hardware and software system based on Microsoft’s Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003, the latest addition to Microsoft’s family of storage-specific operating systems.
• The resulting product is the Dell PowerVault NX1950, which is a hybrid, or unified storage, system that supports both file- and block-level I/O. Prices start at less than $20,000.
• The PowerVault NX1950 with Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003 does pack a lot of storage management software and capacity into a small price point. The system can be used to store files and blocks of application data, operates in CIFS and NFS environments, and features a redundant architecture, multi-node cluster configurations, file- and block-level snapshots, and local and remote replication.

Source: http://www.infostor.com

Toshiba to Launch 56-Nm, 16-GB NAND Flash Memory

• Toshiba Corporation announced the introduction of 16Gb (2 gigabyte) and 8Gb (1 gigabyte) NAND flash memory, fabricated with cutting-edge 56-nanometer process technology co-developed with SanDisk Corporation.
• The 16Gb is the highest density single-chip NAND flash memory yet achieved.
• Toshiba is now increasing shipments of commercial samples of new 8Gb (1 gigabyte) single-chip, multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memories
• Toshiba intends to start shipping commercial samples of 16Gb (2 gigabyte) NAND flash memories in the late first quarter of this year.
• The adoption of MLC technology and improved programming efficiency allows the new chips to offer high density and write performance. Application of 56nm process technology realizes 16Gb, twice the memory density per chip achieved with 8Gb 70nm technology, achieving the largest single-chip density in NAND flash memory.
• A write performance of 10-megabytes a second, twice that of Toshiba's present MLC products, reflects the efficiency obtained with advanced process technology and doubling page size, the amount of data that can be written at one time, from 2,112 bytes to 4,314 bytes.

MDS 9124: 4Gbps switch from cisco

• Cisco is taking a crack at the small and medium-sized business (SMB) SAN market with the launch of a new entry-level, 4Gbps fabric switch as part of its MDS family of storage networking products.
• The MDS 9124 Multilayer Fabric Switch is an entry-level device packed with security services, support for Cisco’s Virtual SAN (VSAN) architecture, and a “pay-as-you-grow” pricing model.
• Actual pricing will be set by Cisco’s partners, some of which have already begun shipments of the new switch.
• The MDS 9124 starts with eight active Fibre Channel ports and can scale up to 24 ports in a 1U form factor. Ports are added through a port-activation license.

Source : http://www.infostor.com

World's Densest Memory Chip

• In a breakthrough that suggests the continuing validity of Moore's Law, researchers have developed a memory chip as small as a human blood cell that sets a record for integration density in a man-made object. The memory circuit is a "milestone in manufacturing," the scientists
• Researchers say they've created the world's densest memory circuit, about 100 times denser than today's standard memory unit and as small as a human white blood cell.
• Although mass production could still be a decade away and the chip contains only a modest capacity of 160,000 bits of information, the achievement points to the possible exponential growth of computing power.
• The memory circuit is a "milestone in manufacturing," said the team led by chemistry professor James Heath of the California Institute of Technology and J. Fraser Stoddart, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, in announcing their achievement in the journal Nature.
• "It's the sort of device that Intel would contemplate making in the year 2020," said Heath, who is the Gilloon Professor at Caltech. "But at the moment it furthers our goal of learning how to manufacture functional electronic circuitry at molecular dimensions."

Source : http://www.technewsworld.com

Sumsung released 1.8-inch Drives with 60 GB capacity

• Samsung announced its first 1.8-inch drive with a 60GB capacity on Thursday as a part of the company's new line of N-series of HDDs.
• Measuring 5-millimeters tall and with a super-slim form factor, Samsung's N-series will come in 20-, 30-, 40-, and 60 GB capacities and are available in both internal and external HDD types.
• According to Samsung the new N-series drives will be ideal for use in small portable media centers and mobile devices.

Source : http://www.extremetech.com

Future HDD technology : 1 TB store per square inch

• Fujitsu of America announced another advancement in its research of magnetic recording.
• Using patterned media technology, Fujitsu was able to achieve a one-dimensional array nanohole pattern with a 25 nanometer pitch. This process could one day enable one terabit per square inch recording on HDDs.
• A density of one terabit per square inch is about five times greater than the current drive technology on the market. Applying a one terabit areal density figure to today’s drive sizes would give us 3.5” drives capable of storing 5TB or 2.5” notebook drives holding 1.5TB.

Source : http://www.dailytech.com/

AMS1000 : Midtier Storage System with improved performance

• Hitachi Data Systems on Jan. 22 introduced a significant performance enhancements in its mid-range Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage AMS1000 that it claims boosts the system's processing power by about 20 percent.
• Hitachi's new multi-processor design in the AMS1000 augments the storage system's business-enabling capabilities first unveiled in April 2006, which include 32 logical cache partitions, non-disruptive "on-the-fly" data movement across multiple tiers of storage, and enterprise-class RAID-6 data protection.
• The AMS1000 also offers 4G bps Fibre Channel SAN connectivity, which aims to enhance the performance of high-end applications such as video-on-demand and medical imaging.

Source : http://www.eweek.com/

Savio 15K - New hard drive from Seagate

• Seagate announced this week that it has begun shipping the next generation of its fastest hard drive—the 2.5-inch, 15,000rpm Savvio 15K—which is based on the Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) interface.
• Designed for a range of applications in both large data centers and small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), the Savvio 15K drive includes a number of improvements over previous-generation drives.
• Savvio 15K is 70% smaller and consumes 30% less power than existing 3.5-inch, 15,000rpm drives.
• Hewlett-Packard is the first Seagate partner to qualify and ship systems with Savvio 15K drives, which are available in 36GB and 73GB capacities. IBM and Sun are also in the process of integrating the new drives.

Source : http://www.infostor.com

Savvio 15K : Fastest Hard Drive from Seagate

• Seagate introduced what could likely be the world's fastest hard drive -- the Savvio 15K.
• The new drive boasts a 2.9-millisecond seek time and a spindle speed of 15,000 RPM, also its cusming very low energy.
• According to Seagate, the Savvio 15K uses 30 percent less power than any other 15K drive.

Source : http://www.data-storage-today.com

Paches for BrightStor ArcServe backup software

• A stack of vulnerabilities has surfaced in Windows versions of CA's BrightStor ArcServe backup software. The holes are rated 'moderately critical' by Secunia, and CA has now released patches for them.

• Some of the vulnerabilities were first reported as long ago as last November, when ISS X-Force and TippingPoint updated their firewalls to block them.

• ISS said the vulnerabilities it found involved using specially-crafted RPC requests to cause a stack-based overflow in Windows versions of the widely-used backup program. It added that ArcServe users need to apply the CA patches, even if any attack should in theory be stopped by their firewall.

Source : http://www.techworld.com

High-Speed Solid State Drive from SanDisk

• SanDisk introduced a 32GB, 1.8-inch solid state drive that can be used as a drop-in replacement for a standard spinning-disk hard drive.
• The SSD represents the fifth generation of flash-based solid state drives developed by M-Systems.
• Using NAND flash enhanced by SanDisk's own TrueFFS flash management technology, SanDisk SSD delivers 2 million hours mean time between failures.
• The new SSD achieves a sustained read rate of 62M bps and a random read rate of 7,000 IOPS (inputs/outputs per second) for a 512-byte transfer.

Source : http://www.eweek.com/

New recovery systems from Double-Take and Dacoll

• Double-Take Software and Dacoll have announced systems that claim to dramatically improve the recovery prospects of failed laptops, desktops and servers.
• Server Recovery can restore an entire failed server, including the operating system, applications and data, and even to servers with different hardware configurations.
• There is a specific version of the product, ShadowCaster, for Microsoft's Windows Small Business Server Edition. It continuously sends changes from a production system to a secondary server. If the production server fails or is unavailable, ShadowCaster fails over to the second system.
• For laptops and desktops Dacoll has launched a continuous protection service. It guarantees to provide next day replacement of both hardware and data from lost, inaccessible, damaged or corrupted laptops and desktop PCs. The secret sauce is remote online data backup using Atempo technology.

Source : http://www.techworld.com

Mythos iSCSI Storage Server for MAC OS.

• A new data storage software system exclusively for Mac OS X produced by a small and relatively unknown software developer and hardware integrator called Storage Elements, of Minneapolis.
• Mythos iSCSI Storage Server is an enterprise-ready hardware-software package designed specifically for Mac OS X servers.
• The Mythos server provides both file-level access as a NAS (network attached storage) appliance does and block-level access as does a SAN (storage area network) appliance.
• The Mythos software has the ability to "speak" both NAS and SAN languages, and due to this, storage administrators can easily get the type of access they need, when they need it.

Source : http://www.eweek.com/

next-generation Linear Tape-Open - LTO4

• New hardware based on the next-generation Linear Tape-Open (LTO) Ultrium format came one step closer to reality today with the news that licenses for LTO generation 4 (LTO-4) specifications are now available for storage device and media manufacturers.
• LTO-4 will feature twice the capacity of the previous generation 3 (LTO-3) technology, increasing cartridge capacity to 800GB native, or 1.6TB with data compression.
• Transfer rates are also improved—240MBps for LTO-4, compared to 160MBps for LTO-3.
• The native data rate of 120MBps translates to about 864GB per hour.

Source : http://www.infostor.comPublish

12GB USB drive from Verbatim

• Verbatim Corporation announced the newest Store 'n' Go USB Drive of 12 GB store capacity.
• The drive weighs one ounce and measures 1.38- by .38- by 2.8 inches
• The Verbatim 12GB Store 'n' Go USB Drives will be available in January 2007 for about $180.

Read complete story : http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2081660,00.asp

Dual-Format Disc from Warner Bros.

• Top electronics retailers are lining up behind a new universal DVD format created by Warner Bros. to bridge the gap between the competing HD DVD and Blu-ray camps.
• The new DVD media, dubbed Total HD, is the latest solution in the problem over dueling next-gen DVD standards: Blu-ray from Sony and Toshiba's HD DVD.

Source : http://www.data-storage-today.com

New Portable HDDs with Automated Backup from Toshiba

• Mobile storage provider Toshiba Storage Device Division launched Jan. 4 a new line of 2.5-inch USB 2.0 portable external hard drive in 100GB, 120GB and 160GB capacities with automated backup capability.
• Toshiba's new HDDs feature automatic power-on and save capabilities for backup of photo, video, music and data files and are aimed at users in the digital home and home office.
• The Toshiba USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive is automatically powered through a USB cable when the computer is turned on for switch-free on/off functions.
• Bundled with Toshiba's NTI Shadow software, the backup software eliminates the need to push a button or click an icon to activate back-up once parameters are set.

Source http://www.eweek.com

Dual-Format DVD Player from LG

• LG Electronics will begin selling a dual-format high definition player compatible for both HD DVD and blu-ray.
• The model BH100, dubbed "Super Multi Blue," will play discs in the Blu-ray format, backed by a group led by sony Corp. LG is a member of the Blu-ray consortium.
• It will also play discs in the rival HD DVD format, which is backed by a consortium headed by Toshiba Corp.
• LG also said it will make a multi-format disc drive for computers that also displays DVDs in both rival formats.

See complete news at http://www.data-storage-today.com

New portable storage devices from Seagate

• At the Consumer Electronics Show Seagate will show off a new line of pocket-size portable storage devices called FreeAgent.

• This will be the ideal tool for those who need all their computer data with them--but not necessarily their computer.
• Data storage capacity of this device is 750GB.
• The FreeAgent devices contain a drive as well as a software stack to manage and encrypt files.
• They can plug a fully synchronized FreeAgent device into a terminal at an airport or a PC at a hotel and work from the same files and applications through VPN.
• Seagate says FreeAgent devices won't leave passwords or data traces on remote computers.

Source : http://news.com.com

World's fastest DRAM Hynix

• Hynix has produced the industry's fastest computer memory - a 800MHz DRAM chip built using the 60nm process and offering 1Gbit capacity.
• The new chips will be built into 1GB and 2GB DDR2 modules available in volume in the fist half of 2007.
• Hynix expects that product costs will decline by half when compared to the equivalent first generation of 80nm memory technology.

You may visit http://www.techworld.com for complete news

Deskstar 7K1000 - 1 Terabyte Hard Drive

• Hitachi Global Storage Technologies going to release 1-tera byte hard disk Deskstar 7K1000.
• Expected to release in the first quarter of 2007.
• Market price of Deskstar 7K1000 is going to be $399. That works out to $0.40 per GB. A competitive per-gigabyte cost for a hard drive today.
• The company also plans to offer a CinemaStar version of the drive, for use in DVR and set-top boxes
• In 2007 first quarter Seagate also going to release 1-TB hard drive.
• 7K1000 is Hitachi's first 3.5-inch hard drive to use PMR technology; last year, the company released 2.5-inch PMR-based hard drives.
• The Deskstar 7K1000 will be a five-platter drive, each platter capable of storing 200GB apiece.
• In addition to the 1TB model, Hitachi is introducing and shipping a 750GB version of the drive as well. But the company focused its energies on achieving 1TB before its competitors.