We have been seeing more M.2 SSDs lately, a lot of which are companies’ first steps into the market since the form factor is so new. They have been designed to meet strict size requirements and allow for greater flexibility in product development. They are the perfect fit for mobile devices with their compact size and light weight. Transcend was …

KINGMAX started off back in 1989 and has been committed to becoming a leader in global memory technology since. They manufacture an array of memory products from DRAM to USB drives to SSDs. They have been offering 2.5″ SSDs since 2008 and the release of their M.2 2242 and M.2 2280 SATA SSDs marks their first step into the M.2 world. …

SSDs have been around for several years now, but some could argue that they have yet to hit mainstream.  When you compare SSD sales today to the hard drive, we could make a case when we state that they are still in their infancy.  The biggest reasoning for this, of course, has been industries lack of ability to find that …

Being niche in a dog eat dog tech market can be very risky. Being niche in the SSD industry is straight up crazy as NAND manufacturers price their SSDs so low that 3rd party SSD manufacturers find it very hard to compete; or they shut down.  More than a few companies have slowed, or shut down their SSD production and, …

Silicon Motion (SMI)  has met with success as of late with release of their  SM2246EN SATA 3 SSD controller.  It was just under a year ago that we sat with Robert Fan to discuss the future of SM2246EN, while today it can be found in the PNY Optima, Corsair LX, as well as the ADATA SP610 of this report. Our …

Typically, just before major technology conventions such as CES or Computex, one can expect that new product releases will be few and far between. Luckily, there are a few companies that leave some products as a teaser before the big show, and with just a few days before the Taiwan-based convention, Corsair has done just that with the release of …

Some time ago, Silicon Motion had sent us a new SSD controller they were working on  a prototype SSD for review.  The SM2246EN controller that we looked at was a four  channel SATA 3 controller, capable of 510MB/s read and 410MB/s write with up to 80K IOPS, also capable of 256-Bit AES encryption.  Up until this report, that was as …

The continuing evolution of flash storage is producing a variety of new form factors, often trending towards ever-smaller devices.  One of the smallest we have encountered yet is the DOM (disk-on-module) form factor.  A SATA-DOM is a DOM with a standard SATA data connection incorporated, such as the DIY series of SATA-DOM SSDs from Mach Xtreme Technology, with a footprint …

Perhaps one of the best mindsets I have seen in my six years in the SSD industry is the ambition to not only improve SSD technology, but to also take them to the next level.  Selling a consumer SSD as an enterprise one will always be a shot in the dark, but the appetite of SSD manufacturers to push their …

AN EARTHQUAKE OF A DISCOVERY Where we believed this year to be a very quiet year in the world of SSD technology, Computex 2013 has become one of the largest and most important SSD news events to date.  We should have known.  From 32 stories up  on our day of arrival, we experienced a level 6.5 earthquake first hand with …