|
Thursday, 14 December 2006 05:32 |
Pioneer has unveiled its DVR-A12J DVD writer. The Pioneer DVR-A12J can write Dual Layer DVD+/-R media at up to 10x write speed and single-layer DVD media at 18x, even DVD-RAM at 12x. It comes with the Labelflash technology which is similar to LightScribe. The DVR-A12J lineup comes in piano black, silver, and white colors.
Other technologies of the new drives include the "UltraDRA" (Dynamic Resonance Absorber), buffer under run protection, the "Precision recording technology", and the "PowerRead" function. The later technology has been developed by Japanese Buffalo and allows scratched DVD media to be read correctly by the drive.
The Japanese retail package includes Cyberlink PowerDVD v6 for DVD playback, PowerProducer v3 for DVD/CD authoring, Power2Go v5, InstantBurn v5 for packet writing, PowerBackup v2 for personal backup, Medi@Show v3, LabelPrint v2 software that supports the Labelflash technology and Pioneer's Quiet sound utility, which limits the disc's rotation speed for quiet playback.
Pioneer will not release the DVR-A12J series overseas, but a variation of the same drive dubbed DVR-112 (for OEMs) should be expected early 2007 in Europe and U.S.
|
|
Wednesday, 13 December 2006 11:19 |
Fujitsu has announced a massive 2.5-Inch, SATA, 4200 RPM, 300GB notebook hard drive just in time for Windows Vista - once again raising the bar for notebook storage.
The new 300GB MHX2300BT 2.5 inch Serial ATA notebook hard disk drive utilises perpendicular magnetic recording and will be available in late February 2007. A 250GB model will also be released. Fujitsu is targeting users running audio/video applications such as gaming, video editing, audio recording and digital video recorders.
Key specifications of the 2.5” PMR hard disk drives include best-in-class read/write power consumption at 1.6W, whisper-quiet operation, and high shock tolerance. With these benefits, the new Fujitsu mobile series is well-suited for the audio/video computing market.
Fujitsu has also announced sales goals of 1.5 million units during fiscal 2007 for both the 300GB and 250GB models combined (Fujitsu’s fiscal year ends March 2008).
|
|
Sunday, 12 November 2006 06:30 |
Here's another James Bond item from the Sony collection. The 007 edition of Sony's Micro Vault line of USB drives is the same as the regular ones, but with a 007 logo on the side (and undoubtedly a higher price tag). The drive comes pre-loaded with a trailer of Casino Royale and four related wallpapers.
The 007 edition only comes in a 1GB version, and it has the piano black finish as seen above. It's got the same retractable USB connector that the other Micro Vaults have, along with the Virtual Expander compression software to help you pack a little more data onto it. No word on a release date, but we're assuming it'll be before the movie comes out.
|
|
Friday, 10 November 2006 20:47 |
Hitachi is planning to introduce new laptop hard drives into the market in 2007, all based on perpendicular recording and, most importantly, hybrid hard drive technology.
A "hybrid" drive is basically a hard drive with a little bit of flash memory built into it, so that most of the reading and writing can happen on the flash memory. This way, the hard drive itself can stay off most of the time, which saves plenty of power and gives you an added boost in battery life.
Currently, the largest laptop drive Hitachi has is a 160GB, but they plan to release a 200GB, 7200RPM hybrid laptop hard drive within the first half of next year, followed by a 250GB, 5400RPM drive in the second half. They also claim to be able to make a 750GB laptop drive by 2010, which is as large as desktop drives get right now.
|
|
Friday, 10 November 2006 20:40 |
Flash memory seems to be getting bigger and bigger every day. Recently Samsung announced a new process they have developed that enables them to mass-produce much larger flash chips than they already have. The new technology allows them to stack 16 individual chips together as one single multi-chip package (MCP). Combined with their current maximum single chip capacity of 1GB, that gives you a 16GB flash chip, which cold be used in all sorts of different portable products.
The production process works by allowing the company to make their flash wafers about 35% thinner than before, which lets them put more chips in the same package. The height of the overall chip is lowered largely due to a thinner adhesive layer between chips, reduced from 60 microns down to 20 microns.
There is no word on when these new chips will be commercially produced.
|
|
Friday, 10 November 2006 20:22 |
In the age of Blu-ray and HD-DVD, all the new burners and players seem to be only for high-definition formats. It’s a shame, because, personally, I don’t have the money for a Blu-ray or HD-DVD drive. Well, Plextor has always been there for me…this time, it’s a DVD burner that can burn DVD+R DL discs at 10X.
The PX-755UF is an external drive, supporting both FireWire and USB, and it supports any format you can imagine (except Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs, of course). It’s also compatible with both Windows and Mac OS X systems, so you can use it with either a Mac or a PC. While DVD+R DL discs burn at up to 10X, DVD-R DL discs are still limited to 6X, not that that’s really slow.
The PX-755UF will be available in mid-November, for a price of $159.
|
|
Monday, 06 November 2006 00:00 |
Seagate has announced a new hard drive with hardware- and software-based data protection built into the drive itself. The security platform, known as "Drive Trust," meets the security specifications of the Trusted Computing Group (TCG), and should be available early next year.
Seagate says Drive Trust is very easy to manage, since it's pretty much all done automatically. All the data on the drive is always protected, not just some of the data, and only at certain times. And the security features are independent of the drive itself.
It is unclear at this point just how far this technology will go. It's being offered first in consumer hard drive, so it's possible it'll be used as an extension of DRM...let's all cross our fingers and hope that doesn't happen.
|
|
Monday, 30 October 2006 13:39 |
Samsung didn't hold a monopoly on these for long...Super Talent Technology has released new IDE solid-state drives (SSDs) for use in any computer. Encased with either plastic or aluminum, these drives fit into a 1.8" form factor, so they'll pretty much go anywhere a conventional hard drive could go. It's available in 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB capacities--so Samsung still makes the only 32GB drive on the market.
In all there are six models available, with your choice of capacity and casing around the drive (the aluminum casing allows it to operate at higher temperatures for industrial settings). All of the drives feature the usual low power consumption of flash memory, but the transfer rate is about 17MB/s, which isn't as fast as some we've seen. As for pricing, the 16GB drive with a plastic casing goes for around $500, which isn't bad.
|
|
Tuesday, 24 October 2006 07:01 |
It doesn't look like much, but the picture above is of a Samsung Hybrid Hard Drive (HHD). This Samsung drive and others by companies like Seagate are expected to launch at the beginning of next year, about the same time Windows Vista is released.
HHDs are capable of using Windows Vista's SuperFetch feature to load commonly accessed data on flash memory built into the drive. This way, you don't have to access the drive itself as often, which leads to faster access times, less power consumption, longer battery life, and less heat, noise, and vibration. Does it get any better? (I guess a completely solid-state disk is better.)
|
|
Tuesday, 24 October 2006 04:49 |
Super Talent
Technology, a leading manufacturer of memory modules and flash products, today
announced a 16GB solid state disk (SSD) that is fully compatible with industry
standard 1.8" notebook IDE drives.
Super Talent SSD's employ an industry standard 44-pin IDE
connector that is pin compatible with laptop IDE drives. Moreover, they have
the same physical dimensions as standard 1.8" IDE laptop drives, making them an
easy drop-in replacement for a conventional hard drive. But unlike conventional
hard drives, SSD's are built with solid state NAND flash chips, and therefore have
no moving parts. The result is a storage device that is far more rugged and
reliable than a conventional hard drive with no risk of a head crash. These
characteristics make SDD's superb for industrial and military applications
where reliability is critical. And since SDD's use only a fraction of the power
of standard hard drives they are perfect for extremely low-power environments
as well.
Super Talent offers these flash drives in 4GB, 8GB and 16GB
capacities.
|
|
|
!!! Go Console Crazy !!! 
