[PC Watch]

Seoul, Korea – July 9, 2008: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, announced today that it has begun mass producing 1.8- and 2.5-inch multi-level cell (MLC)-based solid state drives (SSD) with a 128 Gigabyte (GB) storage capacity. Mass production of the Samsung MLC-based 64GB SSD also began this month.

“With the 64 GB and 128 GB MLC SSDs, we are satisfying the density requirements of most business users and many PC enthusiasts, who will appreciate not only the performance gains and added reliability, but also the more attractive pricing,” said Jim Elliott, vice president, memory marketing, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc.

Samsung SSDs feature far greater reliability, faster boot times and faster application start-up times than hard disk drives. Power consumption for the Samsung SSD is exceptionally low in standby mode at approximately 0.2 watts and in active mode at 0.5 watts.

The Samsung MLC-based SSD has a write speed of 70MB/s and a read speed of 90MB/s – performance levels that approach those of single-level-cell (SLC)-based SSDs now in mass production. Moreover, the new 128GB SSD will last approximately 20 times longer than the generally accepted 4-5 year life span of a notebook PC hard drive.

Featuring a 3.0 gigabit-per-second interface, the 128GB MLC-based SSD consists of 64 MLC NAND flash memory chips of 16 gigabits each, optimised single-chip controller technology and advanced flash-management firmware technology. Enclosed in a brushed metallic casing, it measures 100mm x 69.8mm and is only 9.5mm thick.

Samsung is aggressively expanding its SSD market offerings. It introduced a 64GB SSD in the second half of 2007, and plans to begin producing a 256GB at the end of this year. Samsung’s mass production of 128GB SSDs helps it to maintain its position as the leading producer of SSDs in the world, with capacities ranging from 32GB to the highest available today.

Samsung expects sales of SSD units to increase 800 percent between now and 2010, keeping SSDs on pace to be the largest growth segment in the NAND flash market over the next few years.

They took a Gateway T-6828 with Vista Home Premium SP1 and tried it with it’s native Western Digital Scorpio WD2500BEVS and two SSDs: a Samsung SATA II 64GB, and a SanDisk SATA 5000 32GB.

And guess what? Both SSD’s resulted in an extra 10 minutes of battery life, versus the native hard drive. That’s not a huge difference, sure, but it’s a completely different story to the Toms hardware study which showed worse battery performance.

Laptopmag admit that the absolute hardware choices both studies make may have a large impact, but they conclude “in real-world use, SSDs offer a small improvement in battery life.” And of course there’s the potentially faster loading times you get from SSD’s, meaning your laptop’s uptime may be more productive. [Laptopmag]

While moving hard drives have higher power requirements on paper, in reality, those peaks are only reached when random data is being searched out. On average, these drives have become very power efficient and rarely peak even when data is being accessed.

SSDs, on the other hand, pretty much have an “on” mode and an “off” mode. That’s it. So while you are using your hard drive, that mode is pretty much always going to be the “on” one. SSD manufacturers haven’t focused on other power saving principles at this time. And until they do, don’t expect things to get any better.

Note: the benchmarks were all completed on the same Dell laptop. A 5400 RPM hard drive would have even lower power consumption than the 7200 RPM model tested.

As for buying that new SSD for your notebook…I’d suggest you wait a bit longer, even if you have the cash. [Tom's Hardware via Crunchgear]

Jul 01, 2008 04:00

OCZ Technology Announces Core Series SATA II 2.5 Solid State Drive Delivering the World’s First Truly Affordable High-Performance SSD for Consumers at Price Points Less Than 50% of Comparable High Performance SSDs

SUNNYVALE, Calif. –(Business Wire)– Jul. 1, 2008 OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (LSE:OCZ), a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and computer components, today unveiled the OCZ Core Series SATA II 2.5″ Solid State Drives (SSDs). OCZ has gained momentum in this pioneering technology, which uses NAND flash instead of rotating platters as the storage medium, and is a high-performance, highly reliable and energy-efficient alternative to conventional hard disc drives.

The OCZ Core Series delivers the performance and reliability of the latest SSDs at a 50% less price per gigabyte than other high speed offerings currently on the market. For the first time, OCZ is putting SSD technology within reach of the average consumer, and delivering on the promise of SSDs as an alternative to traditional hard drives in consumer targeted mobile applications.

“SSDs offer higher performance, reliability, and energy efficiency than conventional HDDs but the cost variance has limited adoption of vastly superior SSD technology, until now,” said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology. “It is our mission to deliver the highest performance products to consumers at reasonable prices, and with the release of the Core Series SSDs we have done exactly that.”

OCZ Core Series Solid State Drives enable enhanced productivity in everyday computing and intensive multi-tasking applications. Perfect for notebooks, the Core Series is ideal for energy-efficient mobile computing to extend battery life, increase access time, and provide a durable alternative to conventional hard disc drives with superior shock resistance. High capacities and low power consuming NAND flash technology provide the necessary performance and battery life boosts generated by the proliferation of mobile gaming and new ultra-thin laptops. With fast access and seek times combined with excellent reliability, the OCZ Core Series SSDs are the answer for consumers demanding this latest storage technology.

The drives feature a durable yet lightweight alloy housing, and because OCZ SSDs have no moving parts, the drives are not prone to damage from common mishandling. Designed for ultimate reliability, these SSDs have an excellent 1.5 million hour mean time before failure (MTBF) ensuring peace of mind over the long term. All Core Series SSD drives come backed a two year warranty and OCZ’s legendary service and support.

Core series SSD drives are available in capacities of 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB and deliver incredible 120-143Mbs/ 80-93Mbs read/write speeds and seek times of less than 0.35ms, making the Core series up to 10x as fast on a seek-time basis and up to 40% faster on a R/W basis that the best performing 2.5″ HDDs on the market, all while consuming 50% less power. MSRPs at time of launch are USD $169, $259 and $479 for 32GB, 64GB and 128GB models respectively.

LAS VEGAS, NV (April 13, 2008 ) – Panasonic unveiled here at NAB the AG-HPX170, a fully solid-state P2 HD handheld camcorder. A full production quality tool, the solid-state handheld camcorder enables high definition and standard definition recording, the widest zoom lens in its class, and a HD-SDI interface for connection to baseband production and distribution infrastructure, all in a lightweight 4.2-pound body.

Fully solid-state, the two-slot HPX170 is a 1080p capable camcorder that offers the compelling advantages of P2 technology including: no moving parts unlike tape, hard disk drive, or disc-based systems; instant random access to recorded HD or SD content; a faster IT compatible file-based workflow; and the ability to operate in harsh environments with resistance to temperature extremes, shock and vibration.

Building on the success of the AG-HVX200, the HPX170 is equipped with new advanced 1/3-inch 16:9 3-CCDs and a high-performance digital signal processor with 14-bit A/D conversion and 19-bit processing to deliver broadcast-quality, independent frame recordings. The HPX170 offers a 13X Leica Dicomar zoom lens with a 28mm wide-angle setting (the widest in its class) and a cam-driven manual zoom for smooth, easy and precise operation. For added flexibility, the camera provides auto or manual focus and iris.

The multi-format camera records in 20 HD and SD formats; in a variety of 1080i and 720p formats in DVCPRO HD, in 480i in DVCPRO50 and DVCPRO, and in 480i in DV. It’s switchable between 16:9/4:3 aspect ratios. The HPX170 offers a 20-step frame rate selection in 720p mode for variable-speed shooting in the 12fps to 60fps range to acquire fast- or slow-motion in-camera effects. For added creative flexibility, professionals can select from a variety of advanced gamma functions and settings including a CineGammaTM mode.

With its two P2 card slots, users can record up to 64 continuous minutes of the highest quality DVCPRO HD recording using currently available 32GB P2 cards. Record times will double with the release of Panasonic’s 64GB P2 card in the fall. Other user-friendly recording modes include hot swapping for non-stop recording, loop record, pre-record, interval and one-shot recording. A time/date stamp function makes it ideal for use in law enforcement environments.

The HPX170 is equipped with an HD/SD-SDI output standard for live feed productions as well as for editing and monitoring. It also has IEEE 1394 and USB 2.0 interfaces for fast P2 content transfer into NLE systems, and offers a composite output, component output (mini D-terminal) and a time-code setting via IEEE 1394. The camera also features a built-in stereo microphone and two-channel XLR audio input terminals supporting 48V phantom power supply with a selectable mic/line; and manual audio level volume (two-channel). Other convenient operational features include clip preview on the camera’s 3.5″ colour LCD monitor; instant recording startup, scene files, assignable user buttons, focus assist and a camera remote function.

The AG-HPX170 will be available in fall 2008. It will be covered by Panasonic’s five-year limited P2 HD warranty*.

[Akihabara News]

AU: Of course, Alienware is still MIA here in Australia – we’ve made repeated attempts to contact, and even local reps for Dell have indicated things are very thin here for that brand (it is still very much a separate entity). Considering the site still says ‘coming soon’ for P2 chassis desktops (as it has for many, many months) and it also ‘recommends Vista Home Premium’… lets just look on at the US and look forward to Dell whipping things into shape in future. -SB

The contenders:
Class 4
Delkin eFilm Pro 4GB C4 card they claim 150x speed – $60
PNY 8GB C4 card – $85
RiData Lightning Series 4GB C4 card – $50
SanDisk Ultra II 4GB C4 card with reader – $70

Class 6
ATP ProMax 4GB C6 card with included reader – $75
Dane-Elec 133 Xs 4GB C6 card – $35
Kingston 8GB C6 card with optional 15-in-1 reader – $100 and $15 respectively
Lexar Professional 133x 4GB C6 card with included reader – $100
Patriot 8GB C6 card – $75

I skipped Class 2, but as a basis for comparison, I threw in an old beater Lexar 1GB SD.

Even price turned out to be an unreliable measure of performance when put through my testing gauntlet. My street price searching found the Dane-Elec card to be the cheapest card of all, and it’s a fast Class 6.

Benchmark testing:
I ran tests using each card in each of the four included SDHC readers both on a generic PC desktop and a MacBook. On the PC side, I created a 188MB folder containing 20 Nikon Raw images and timed how long it took to write the files to the card. On the MacBook, I used the benchmarking software XBench to see who had the fastest writes. (Longer is better, since we’re talking bandwidth, MB/s, here. You can see how all Class 6 cards have 6 MB/s transfer speeds, but you can also see how some have maximums in the teens.)

Real world testing:
Finally, I wanted to see what difference all of this actually meant in the real world, so I loaded each card into a Nikon D80 and shot 20 raw images while timing it. The D80 can only shoot 6 raw images at full resolution before the buffer fills up, therefore the fastest card should allow for a faster 7th image, and that’s exactly what I found. The RiData card took over twice as long as the fastest card, the Lexar Pro. I was especially disappointed to see that old 1GB card beat all but three of the newer hotter cards in real-world usage!

Conclusion:
The clear winner in Class 4 is the SanDisk Ultra II, which managed to perform on par with the Class 6 offerings from Kingston and PNY. That should tell you that, if you’re going SDHC, go Class 6. The winner there is a close call with Lexar and ATP fighting for top spot. But when all is said and done, Lexar is King of Speed, and even though the price is a little high, the included memory card reader is a better product. If you’re strapped for cash, you might look at the ATP or better still, go with the Dane-Elec card. It has no reader, so you’ll have to figure that out on your own, but it does have a sweet price to performance ratio.