Tag Archives: sata

Slackware 14.0 now available, freshens and simplifies a Linux vanguard

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Slackware 14 now available, freshens and simplifies a Linux vanguard

When it comes to Linux distributions, Slackware could well be called the archetype. It's not just one of the longest-serving releases at nearly 20 years old -- it's designed to be "pure" and cut back on customized apps, many graphical interface assistants and the requirement to download anything during the installation process. Pat Volkerding and team have nonetheless given us a bit of a break with the launch of Slackware 14.0. While many open-source fans will be downloading a copy for the more recent Linux 3.2.29 kernel and other updated packages, ease of use is the guiding principle for the new build: there's now a graphical NetworkManager interface to manage wired and wireless connections, for a start. In tandem with the newer kernel, updated versions of the KDE and Xfce desktop environments also result in much broader hardware support than many veteran users will remember. Slackware is now much more savvy about removable storage, accelerated 3D video, SATA and other features that have sometimes demanded command line trickery. Anyone can download the revamped distribution for free, including for ARM-based devices like the Raspberry Pi, although we'd consider springing for the $33 subscription to CD-based copies of Slackware to fund Volkerding's long-term efforts.

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Slackware 14.0 now available, freshens and simplifies a Linux vanguard originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Sep 2012 19:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Slashdot  |  sourceSlackware, Slackware Store, ARMedslack  | Email this | Comments

Samsung SSD 840 Pro caters to speed seekers with faster random access

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Samsung SSD 840 Pro caters to speed seekers with 100,000IOPS, faster writes

It's difficult to thrive in the solid-state drive world. Unless you've got just the right controller and flash memory, most performance-minded PC users will rarely give you a second glance. Samsung muscled its way into that narrow view with the SSD 830 last year; it intends to lock our attention with the new SSD 840 and SSD 840 Pro. The Pro's 520MB/s and 450MB/s sequential read and write speeds are only modest bumps over the 830, but they don't tell the whole story of just how fast it gets. The upgraded MDX controller boosts the random read access to a nicely rounded 100,000IOPS, and random writes have more than doubled to 78,000IOPS or 90,000IOPS, depending on who you ask and what drive you use. The improved performance in either direction is a useful boost to on-the-ground performance, as both AnandTech and Storage Review will tell you. We're waiting on details of the ordinary triple level cell-based 840 model beyond its 120GB, 250GB and 500GB capacities, although there won't be an enormous premium for the multi-level cell 840 Pro over existing drives when it arrives in mid-October -- the flagship line should start at $100 for a basic 64GB drive, and peak at $600 for the ultimate 512GB version.

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Samsung SSD 840 Pro caters to speed seekers with faster random access originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Sep 2012 21:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink AnandTech, Storage Review  |  sourceSamsung Tomorrow  | Email this | Comments

WD Red HDDs aim to improve company’s NASty reputation, bolster reliability in networked homes

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WD Red hard drives aim to improve company's NASty reputation, bolster reliability in networked storage settings

Ever heard a story involving Western Digital Green hard drives within a NAS? It probably didn't end well. For whatever reason, the aforesaid outfit's Green portfolio never has been a hit in the network attached storage world, but the company's (in)directly addressing precisely that with its new line of WD Red HDDs. Specifically, these are called out as being "NAS hard drives" -- SATA interfacing spinners engineered to hold up under the continual pressures of serving information to home and small office NAS users. They're destined to end up in homes with "one to five drive bays," with the units available in 3.5-inch 1TB ($109), 2TB ($139) and 3TB ($189) capacities. WD's trumpeting the Red line's NASware technology, which is said to "reduce customer downtime and simplify the integration process." Those taking WD at its word can find 'em on store shelves this week; everyone else can hang tight for the eventual flood of torture test reviews.

Continue reading WD Red HDDs aim to improve company's NASty reputation, bolster reliability in networked homes

WD Red HDDs aim to improve company's NASty reputation, bolster reliability in networked homes originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 18:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RunCore rolls out Pro VI SSD for Ultrabooks in need of a jolt

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RunCore rolls out Pro VI SSD for Ultrabooks in need of a jolt

Not to be left out of the Computex party, RunCore has just unveiled a 7mm-thick Pro VI solid-state drive to give new Ultrabooks a swift kick. The company is aiming squarely at the sunnier side of mid-range SSDs through a speedy JMicron controller that hits 550MB/s in reads, and a less aggressive but still brisk 380MB/s for writes. The SATA 6Gbps drive doesn't have any special tricks up its sleeves, but there's no doubt that it fits just about any ultrabook category: capacities swing from a very modest 32GB to a 512GB drive meant to take over from ho-hum spinning disks. While RunCore's customer list isn't public material, we wouldn't be surprised if a lot of extra-thin notebooks wending their way out of southeast Asia this year carry the Pro VI inside.

Continue reading RunCore rolls out Pro VI SSD for Ultrabooks in need of a jolt

RunCore rolls out Pro VI SSD for Ultrabooks in need of a jolt originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jun 2012 18:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SATA-IO unveils USM Slim external storage jack for ultrabooks, tablets and ‘other portable devices’

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SATA-IO unveils USM Slim external storage jack for ultrabooks, tablets and 'other portable devices'So, how do you best improve upon the USM standard and boldly take it to new frontiers? Well, as with most tech, simply shrinking it down never seems to hurt. The new USM Slim standard has just been announced by the Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) as part of the SATA 3.2 Revision. It takes the ability to plug in powered, external storage with on-board SATA and slims down the port from 14.5mm to 9mm. By trimming the jack by of a third of its bulk the SATA-IO have prepped the standard for the next generation of products, including ultra-thin ultrabooks, svelte tablets and "other portable devices." What might those other devices be? Well, we can't help but hope for a smartphone that boots to Ubuntu when docked (or Ubuntu TV) and can connect to a sizable external hard drive... ah, pipe dreams. Check out the PR after the break.

Continue reading SATA-IO unveils USM Slim external storage jack for ultrabooks, tablets and 'other portable devices'

SATA-IO unveils USM Slim external storage jack for ultrabooks, tablets and 'other portable devices' originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Jun 2012 16:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ADATA ships its Premier and Premier Pro SSDs to US, gives your laptop a dose of energy

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If you remember those Premier SP800 and Premier Pro SP900 solid-state drives that ADATA teased us with in February, you'll be glad to know that they've crossed the Pacific to reach the US and Canada. The two SSDs are meant to give a swift kick to the performance of laptops with regular-sized, 2.5-inch drive bays. Both use SandForce controllers, but are focused on very different areas: the Premier's SATA II interface, 280MB/s reads and 260MB/s writes suit it most to newcomers looking to escape the land of spinning hard drives, while the tangibly faster SATA III, 550MB/s reads and 520MB/s writes of the Premier Pro cater more to the speed junkie set. Tracking down the Premier's 32GB and 64GB flavors might be a challenge, based on our early checks, but we've already found the Premier Pro's 64GB, 128GB and 256GB varieties lurking on Newegg at pre-discount prices between $100 and $300.

Continue reading ADATA ships its Premier and Premier Pro SSDs to US, gives your laptop a dose of energy

ADATA ships its Premier and Premier Pro SSDs to US, gives your laptop a dose of energy originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 May 2012 05:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceNewegg, Premier SP800, Premier Pro SP900  | Email this | Comments

RunCore’s Mini DOM packs single-chip, SATA-based SSD into tiny places

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Fitting a truly quick solid-state drive into a small space isn't easy, and for that reason RunCore's new Mini DOM (Disk On Module) stands out from the crowd. It's billed as the first single-chip SSD to use a SATA interface (SATA II, to be exact), giving it that much more bandwidth than the pokey IDE and PATA DOMs of old while remaining under half the size of a regular mSATA drive. RunCore's own tests show it hitting about 113MB/s sequential reads and 47MB/s writes. Neither figure will knock the socks off even a mainstream budget SSD like Intel's SSD 330, but they're more than brisk enough for embedded gear. The drives can survive brutal conditions, too: an Industrial Grade trim level can survive temperatures as chilly as -40F and as scorching as 185F. So, the next time you pry open some military equipment and see one of these sitting inside, in three different formats and capacities from 8GB to 64GB, you'll know exactly what you're looking at.

Continue reading RunCore's Mini DOM packs single-chip, SATA-based SSD into tiny places

RunCore's Mini DOM packs single-chip, SATA-based SSD into tiny places originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 May 2012 14:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WD’s 1TB VelociRaptor HDD gets reviewed: substantial gains, moderate price

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Western Digital has expanded its line of desktop-grade VelociRaptors to include a 1TB model that's available now for $320, but those kidding themselves with that whole "250GB is enough" thing can get in for as little as $160. Top-level specs include a 10,000RPM spindle rate and a SATA 6Gb/s interface housed within a 3.5-inch heat sink -- useful for lessening the burden of the drive's thermal output on the rest of the machine. Storage Review's tests reveal that sequential read and write transfer speeds top out around 206MB/s, thermal dissipation is excellent with low power consumption, and that random access has improved compared with it's 600GB predecessor. They consider the new HDD to be a "very appealing value proposition" and "a blend of high performance, storage, capacity, and low cost."

Hot Hardware discovered virtually identical numbers with their tests, but wasn't quite as forgiving when it comes to the cost-per-GB versus 7200RPM hard drives. However, they call this VelociRaptor the "fastest HDD yet" at "nearly double the capacity of previous" model. You can find even more stats and impressions to chew on at the sources below.

Continue reading WD's 1TB VelociRaptor HDD gets reviewed: substantial gains, moderate price

WD's 1TB VelociRaptor HDD gets reviewed: substantial gains, moderate price originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Apr 2012 20:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceStorage Review, Hot Hardware, PC Perspective, Legit Reviews  | Email this | Comments

Micron ships RealSSD C400 mSATA SSD into slender Ultrabooks

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micron crucial realssd msata c400The only problem with mobile gizmos getting even more mobile? The cost of those bantam components squeezed within 'em. That said, at least we have the option to trim a few more millimeters from the chassis of our next-generation laptops, as Micron has announced a new mSATA solid state drive that's engineered specifically for the increasingly crowded Ultrabook market. The RealSSD C400 emanates realness, boasting a form factor that's around the size of a business card and arriving with capacities ranging from 32GB to 256GB with a SATA 6Gbps interface. Furthermore, Micron has tapped its 25 nanometer process technology to craft these things, with OEMs having access to the first lot; upgraders can look forward to a Crucial-branded version later this year, but who knows how much you'll have to pay.

Update: Looks like our pals at Storage Review have a full review up, replete with more benchmarks and charts than you could shake a 3- x 5cm stick at.

Continue reading Micron ships RealSSD C400 mSATA SSD into slender Ultrabooks

Micron ships RealSSD C400 mSATA SSD into slender Ultrabooks originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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