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ICY News: Build a custom soild state drive using microSD cards

"Do you have a collection of old microSD cards sitting around collecting dust? Wouldn’t it be cool if you could actually put them to good use instead of giving them away or even worse, tossing them in the trash?  Well now you can thanks to this neat looking microSD SSD Creator Kit.

The kit arrives with what is essentially a solid state drive board without the memory. There are four slots available to plug in microSD memory cards (also available for CF cards). Simply connect the cards to the mainboard (max of 32GB per card, class 10 recommended and all cards need to be the same capacity) then connect the board to your computer."

Would you $80 for the converter kit or spend a little more for a real SSD?

Entire Article: Build a custom solid state drive using microSD cards

ICY News: Understanding SSDs: Why SSDs hate write amplification

"In today’s solid state drives, the NAND flash memory must be erased before it can store new data. In other words, data cannot be overwritten directly as it is in a hard disk drive. Instead, SSDs use a process called garbage collection (GC) to reclaim the space taken by previously stored data. This means that write demands are heavier on SSDs than HDDs when storing the same information."

Read the entire article from TechSpot: Understanding SSDs: Why SSDs hate write amplification

ICY News: SSDs Protected From Data Loss Due to Power Failure by Innodisk Power Secure Technology

"It is an hardware and firmware-based power failure protection system, which helps ensure SSD data integrity after sudden power outages.

SSDs are more robust than traditional HDDs; they are faster, more durable, and have lower operating costs. However, all storage devices are vulnerable to potential data loss caused by a sudden shutdown due to external power failure. Power Secure offers a combined hardware and firmware power-down recovery system that reduces the probability of data loss or corruption.

Power Secure is integrated in the storage device and requires no user intervention. Therefore it is always ready to protect data, no matter what the cause of the unexpected power loss: power outage or brownout, power supply failure, battery exhaustion, and even inadvertent disengagement of a live drive."

StorageNewsletter: SSDs Protected From Data Loss Due to Power Failure by Innodisk Power Secure Technology

ICY News: sTec s260 mSATA SSDs Announced

"sTec, a WD company, has announced their latest SSD, the s260 in mSATA form factor. The sTec s260 will find its way into embedded applications and compute situations where space is at a premium. The s260 uses a SATA 6Gb/s interface and features a modest power draw of 1.5W. sTec not content to just float out "another mSATA SSD" has added power fail protection to protect in-flight data in the event of unplanned power loss. They've also included environmental specs that support extreme altitudes and temperatures; something that ruggedized computing gear often requires given the intended use cases.

The s260 will ship in a variety of configurations using both SLC and eMLC NAND. The SLC drives come in capacities up to 64GB and offer read and write throughput of up to 500MB/s and 250MB/s respectively with endurance of 10x drives writes per day for 5 years. The eMLC drives are available in capacities up to 200GB and offer throughout of up to 500MB/s read and 150MB/s write, with support for 10x drive writes per day for 3 years."

For the more detailed specification, visit StorageReview: sTec s260 mSATA SSDs Announced

ICY News: Intel Debuts New Business-Class Solid-State Drive.

"Intel SSD Pro 1500 family is based on Intel’s MLC NAND flash memory produced using 20nm process technology and LSI SandForce SF-2281 controller. The drives provide up to 540MB/s sequential read speed and up to 490MB/s write speed. Intel declares up to 41K read IOPS and up to 80K write IOPS for the SSD Pro 1500 family. The new solid-state drives will be available in 2.5”/7mm and M.2 form-factors. The Intel SSD Pro 1500 series also protects data from unauthorized access with enterprise-grade security features, including hardware-based 256-bit AES encryption2 and industry-standard Opal key management protocols. The Intel SSD Pro 1500 series is designed to work with processors with Intel vPro technology. Intel SSDs offer industry-leading reliability with annualized failure rates (AFR) well below 1%, according to the company." 

Link to the Entire Article: Xbitlabs: Intel Debuts New Business-Class Solid-State Drive.

ICY News: Western Digital Releases 4 TB WD Green Drive HDD

"Western Digital has expanded its Green series to include a 4 TB option.

Western Digital has finally released the 4 TB iteration of its Green series HDD. The company's Green series is already home to 1 TB, 2 TB, and 3 TB models. WD's plans for a 4 TB model were revealed in a roadmap from late in 2012 which said a 4 TB option would be available in the third quarter. Though the arrival of a new 4 TB drive isn't exactly exciting, it does mean we're getting closer to those 5 TB models."

"We haven't spotted the WD Green 4 TB in stores or online but TechPowerUp reports that it is available and is priced between $170 and $190, depending on what package you choose."

Link To the Article: Western Digital Releases 4 TB WD Green Drive HDD

ICY News: Seagate's Shingled Magnetic Recording to bring 5 TB HDDs in 2014

"Seagate has tried its hardest to shrink the read/write heads of hard drives even further, but with the latest 1 TB 3.5-inch platters, the company believes they've hit a physical brick wall: the head simply can't get any smaller. The same goes for the tracks on the platters, which Seagate claims are as close together as physically possible.
Essentially this means that without increasing the amount of platters in a drive, producing drives with capacities above 4 TB (four 1 TB platters) has become rather hard. To get around these physical limits, Seagate has looked into changing the architecture implemented, coming up with Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR)."

Link to the Article: TechSpot: Seagate's Shingled Magnetic Recording to bring 5 TB HDDs in 2014

ICY News: USB Implementers to Develop Media Agnostic USB Specification

"The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) has announced the development of the media agnostic (MA) USB specification. The specification is designed to allow wireless devices and docking stations to communicate over the USB protocol, without the need for a physical USB connection at the speed of around 1Gb/s.
The WiGig Serial Extension (WSE) v1.2 specification from the Wi-Fi Alliance will provide the initial foundation for the Media Agnostic USB (MA USB) specification. The WSE specification has been formally transferred to the USB-IF from the Wi-Fi Alliance, and the WSE specification already incorporates the USB protocol. An important design goal of the specification is to achieve wireless gigabit transfer rates while leveraging existing USB infrastructure present in the form of:

• Open application programming interfaces in every major operating system;
• USB class specifications by USB-IF device working groups;
• A wealth of open-source/OS specific drivers for USB classes;
• Vendor-specific device drivers for a multitude of USB vendor-specific devices.

“We are pleased to see the USB-IF use the WiGig Serial Extension in its development of the Media Agnostic USB specification. Advanced wireless usages of serial bus technology have the potential to deliver great benefit to users,” said Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO of Wi-Fi Alliance.
Wireless devices implementing the Media Agnostic USB specification will be compliant with SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0) and Hi-Speed USB (USB 2.0). The USB-IF has established a Media Agnostic USB Work Group which is currently developing the MA USB specification 1.0."

Link to the Article: X-bitlabs USB Implementers to Develop Media Agnostic USB Specification

ICY News: Seagate Debuts Data Rescue and Hardware Replacement Services

"Seagate today announced its entry into the market for subscription-based consumer data recovery services with Seagate Rescue and Seagate Rescue and Replace. Both plans are available for internal and external HDDs and SSDs regardless of whether Seagate was the manufacturer, and are start at $29.99 for two years. The plans cover data recovery for data lost due to physical damage, corruption or accidental deletion, including a replacement drive for customers enrolled in the Rescue and Replace program.

In the case of a catastrophic failure, the cost of recovering data from a damaged or corrupted drive can reach into the thousands of dollars for technicians and lab expenses. While a data recovery service cannot replace good backup practices for ensuring the safety of critical data, the Seagate services work more like an insurance policy than an extended warranty for important drives and network storage devices." 

Would it be worth it to get the program? 

Link to the article: Seagate Debuts Data Rescue and Hardware Replacement Services