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  • SanDisk Develops Tech That Allows 64GB Flash


    SanDisk has announced plans to ship an ultra-dense form of NAND flash memory that could herald a breakthrough in storage.

    Called X4, the technology uses a special memory controller that maintains data traffic speed while still fitting four bits of data per cell.

    The method allows SanDisk – and Toshiba – to place 8GB of memory on a single chip, twice as much as before.

    It does this while still maintaining a transfer speed of 7.8MB per second.

    Since it is common to find four of these chips stacked together in a single package, the technology potentially doubles the amount of storage available on a high-end flash memory die to 64GB.

    But it should remains small thanks to SanDisk’s more recent 43 nanometer manufacturing process.

    Toshiba began making 32GB packages at the end of last year.

    SanDisk expects the first X4-based products to be available in the first half of 2009, with memory cards being the most immediately recognizable offerings.

    It’s not clear if the technology will be adopted in third-party products containing the larger-capacity flash.

    Toshiba has supplied Apple with memory for the iPhone and iPod touch as well as other competing device makers.

  • NEC Develops 3D Chip-stacked Memory for SoCs Hardware


    NEC Corporation has announced the development of chip-stacked flexible memory, which can be used to achieve a new system-on-chip (SoC) architecture.

    The new SoC’s architecture consists of separate logic (excluding embedded memory cores) and memory chips (chip-stacked flexible memory) that are closely stacked by using a three-dimensional packaging technology.

    NEC developed both a reconfigurable-memory technology that enables the memory chip to change its configuration flexibly, in addition to a memory-data transmission technology that reduces chip-area and latency caused by memory reconfiguration mechanisms.

    The memories of conventional SoCs are categorized into two types; embedded memory, such as embedded SRAM or embedded DRAM, which is integrated with logic circuits in an SoC chip; and the second type, general-purpose memory, such as DRAM or Flash memory, which is placed outside of an SoC chip.

    The chip-stacked flexible memory developed by NEC is a third kind of memory that features both fast access in the embedded memory and large memory size in the general-purpose memory.

    It also enables dynamic memory allocation during LSI operation that is effective in SoC’s multiple functional IP-cores (functional blocks), which reduces SoCs’ design and fabrication costs.

    NEC is targeting large-scale SoC or high-performance tiled core designs, such as those found in Terascale and even GPU-like designs.

  • Scott Cleland to Lead Worldwide Marketing Efforts for Adaptec-branded Products


    Adaptec has appointed Scott Cleland as its director of marketing.

    With nearly 25 years of storage experience and nearly 10 years of senior-level marketing experience, Cleland will lead Adaptec’s global marketing activities for the company’s Adaptec-branded products.

    Prior to joining Adaptec, Cleland served as the director of worldwide marketing for AMCC’s storage division, 3ware.

    At 3ware, he was responsible for coordinating and leading comprehensive global inbound/outbound product marketing and channel marketing efforts.

    He served as the primary product and technology evangelist to customers, industry press and analysts.

    Cleland was a key contributor in 3ware achieving the number one serial storage channel vendor status for two consecutive years.

    Before joining AMCC, Cleland was director of product marketing and technical marketing for IBM’s Mylex storage division, and previously held marketing positions at Archive, Exabyte, BusLogic, and Conner Peripherals.

    Vipul Mehta, vice president of marketing for Adaptec, said extensive storage industry experience and a strong track record of conceiving and executing successful marketing programs made Cleland an ideal candidate to lead global marketing efforts for Adaptec.

    "As Adaptec continues to provide high-performance, innovative solutions to leading channel partners, OEMs, system builders and IT integrators, his industry knowledge and proven leadership will be instrumental in Adaptec’s ongoing success," he said.

  • Overland Storage Launches Tape Libraries With Embedded Functionality


    Overland Storage has announced the availability of the first models in its next-generation NEO SERIES line of scalable, automated tape libraries.

    The NEO E-Series libraries, which provide embedded functionality, are geared at meeting a wide range of demanding data protection and long-term archive requirements.

    According to Overland, the new NEO E-Series enables embedded SCSI, FC and SAS connectivity, easing installations while ensuring connectivity with future interface technologies. Other embedded capabilities include:

    • Improved performance and feature support with enhanced processing power,
    • Further investment protection via Integrated partitioning,
    • More efficient data access due to improved mailslot functionality,
    • Ease of management via remote diagnostics with proactive monitoring,
    • Superior reliability and serviceability through the use of enhanced robotics, more efficient power supply and innovative library/drive interface.

    The new NEO E-Series has been designed t integrate easily with Overland’s REO SERIES of disk-based backup and recovery VTLs, Snap Server NAS appliances, ULTAMUS RAID SAN storage as well as other disk-based products.

    Ravi Pendekanti, VP of worldwide sales and marketing for Overland Storage, said the latest enhancements to the NEO tape family provided mid-range customers with affordable, scalable end-to-end data protection solutions.

    "Over the past decade, the NEO tape libraries have proven themselves as important assets in our customers’ end-to-end data protection and archiving strategies," he said.

    "Therefore, it is imperative that we continue to add new features and functionality while leveraging NEO’s highly regarded and trusted tape technology and proven product architecture."

    The NEO E-Series adds support for LTO HH tape drive technologies and direct-connect interfaces, which Overland said lowers initial expenditures and enables customers to add new capabilities over time while protecting their investments in tape-based backup and recovery.

    Overland’s NEO 2000E scales from 30 to 240 cartridges per module while the NEO 4000E scales from 60 to 240 cartridges.

    NEO2000E and 4000E can be scaled with each other in an almost limitless combination, providing a variety of capacity points to meet end user needs.

    Both tape library models are available now from Overland’s channel partners worldwide with a starting MSRP of USD $12,333.

    Robert Amatruda, research director at IDC for tape and removable storage, said the mid-range tape automation market is expected to exceed USD $1 billion in annual sales, with more than 100,000 units shipped in 2008.

    "The majority of companies still depend on tape for long-term archive and disaster recovery," he said.

    "Overland’s new NEO E-Series, with its increased functionality, should integrate well with a company’s existing disk-based solutions, and help companies meet recovery time and recovery point objectives (RTO/RPO) in both SAN and NAS environments."

  • Growth of Mobile Content and Services Sector Threatened


    The UK’s mobile content and services market could be in for tough times if research from mobile research and analyst house Direct2 Mobile bears out.

    Its survey found that over 7 per cent of consumers have stopped, or intend to stop, their spend on content and services until better economic conditions emerge.

    D2M said that figure represents 3.96 million users – or almost 50 per cent of the existing mobile content and service user base.

    Nearly a fifth of respondents (17.8 per cent of men / 16.3 per cent of women) – or around 10 million users – said they will not subscribe to mobile content and service subscriptions, such as mobile Internet access, mobile TV and mobile music services, until the economic environment changes.

    Nick Lane, chief researcher at D2M, said the glass is half full for the mobile operators and half empty for the mobile content and service industry.

    "As almost half the advanced data users are reverting to talk-and-text only usage, the mobile entertainment companies should remain vigilant for the foreseeable future," he said.

    "And with 20 per cent of the UK’s mobile population unlikely to subscribe to mobile data subscription services during the recession, it threatens to seriously impact on growth in the mobile content and services sector."

    The UK mobile entertainment market was worth approximately UKP£505.8 million in 2008, according to D2M.

    The survey, conducted by Lightspeed Research, asked a representative sample of 1,000 UK consumers about their changing spending attitudes and habits on mobile.

  • Paid Apps Imminent For Android Market


    Google’s Android Market is expected to begin accepting paid applications this week for the first time.

    The move could provide a much-needed boost to the platform, which currently has around 800 applications.

    This is far below what Apple’s App Store had achieved in its early months. Incidentally, the App Store has just passed the 20,000 mark for apps, with over 500 million downloads.

    While Android Market’s position can partly be attributed to the G1 not being as popular as the iPhone, that’s not the whole story.

    Another key element could be the fact developers haven’t been getting paid to come up with shiny new apps for Android.

    With the incentive of remuneration thrown in, the desite to create software for the G1 and soon-to-be launched handset additions to the Android platform is likely to be much stronger.

    Interestingly, Google is deviating from Apple’s revenue model in that it receives nothing from the downloading of paid apps.

    Both app stores will give developers 70 per cent of the revenue, but whereas Apple pockets the other 30 per cent Google is passing it on to the carriers and to pay settlement fees.

    Anything that gets the Andoid Market rolling has to be welcome, expecially as others – including RIM, Microsoft and Palm – are expected to launch their own app stores very soon.

  • Subscriptions and Video Drive Mobile Adult Revenues To $ 2.2bn In 2008


    Increasing demand for streamed subscriptions services and video chat earned the global mobile market for adult content USD $2.8 billion in 2008.

    That represents an increase of 36 per cent over the previous year, according to a report from Juniper Research.

    The mobile adult report found that the increasing prevalence of 3G handsets in many European markets had led to migration away from services offering only text and graphics towards video-based services.

    This has resulted in significantly higher average revenue per user (ARPU) levels for service providers.

  • Hundreds of TV Stations Switch To Digital Despite Delay Bill


    An estimated 40 per cent of US TV stations plan to make the switchover to digital from 17 February.

    This is despite the recent approval of a congressional bill supporting a four-month delay of the transition from analog to digital TV signals.

    The major networks – ABC, CBS and NBC – have agreed to continue broadcasting in analog and digital.

    However, the three networks only control around 100 of the total 1800 TV stations involved in the switchover.

    The Federal Communications Commission said some 681 – or 40 per cent – have either already ended analog transmission or plan to do so after 17 February.

    By deciding to become all digital, these local stations will free up some of the 700Mhz spectrum in those markets that companies such as Qualcomm have bought the rights to use.

    The switch is intended to free up spectrum for public safety and provide better television viewing.

    The US House of Representatives last week voted to delay the mandatory change by four months – to 12 June.

    President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill into law shortly.

    But the delayed bill gave television stations, which say they’ve spent millions of dollars preparing and educating viewers of the switch-over, the option to transition to all digital on the original date.

    Supporters of the delay were concerned that 20 million mostly poor, elderly or rural households were not prepared due to a shortage of government coupons meant to defray the cost of converter boxes.

  • ZTE to Unveil Range of Smartphones at MWC 2009


    ZTE Corporation is promising to reveal a full portfolio of smartphones at the Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona.

    All in all, 10 different designs are to go on show, including customised handsets for Vodafone and China Mobile.

    The highlight is expected to the the VF 1231 model, which has been developed especially for Vodafone. The smartphone is based on Windows Mobile platform and has a single chip for GSM and EDGE.

    Other handsets due to be paraded in Barcelona is the ‘XIANG’ series of 3.5G super slim HSDPA/HSUPA handsets, the e760 (a

    ZTE’s e760 smartphone

    GSM-based handset custom-made for China Mobile) and the D820/D810 (a CDMA-based handset custom-made for China Telecom).

    Also expected to go on show is the U981, a top-end smartphone that was deployed by China Mobile during the Beijing Olympic Games.

    Xiong Hui, vice president of handset division of ZTE Corporation, said the demand for smartphones has reached the point where they are no longer seen as a luxury or a strictly work-related item.

    He said ZTE recognised this trend early on and invested in developing a range of smartphones.

    "ZTE is meeting the specific requirements of leading mobile operators such as Vodafone and China Mobile, and helping smartphones become a popular item worldwide," he said.

  • Mobile TV Viewers to Rise to 500 Million In 2013


    The switchover to all-digital television broadcasting in the US and other major countries will create an unprecedented opportunity for the mobile TV market.

    A study from ABI Research forecasts that traditional and mobile TV broadcasters and cellular operators in many regions will launch mobile TV services that will attract over 500 million viewers by 2013.

    Its says that mobile TV will be seen as an extension of traditional broadcast TV services.

    The researchers stress the important distinction between content streamed to mobile handsets over cellular networks, and free-to-air broadcasting to mobile devices equipped with mobile TV tuners.

    Jeff Orr, senior ABI analyst, said that mobile TV users have yet to value the medium properly because it has not been validated as an independent product and service.

    "It has been primarily offered at the end of a long list of more preferred cellular services," he said.

    "However, Mobile TV will soon be positioned in a more proper role as an extension of traditional broadcast TV services."

    Orr said mobile TV viewing will not be done solely on cellular handsets.

    He said devices such as MIDs and automotive infotainment systems will also play a part.

    "I believe that once the content is available and the services launched, mobile TV will enable more classes of mobile devices that are "natural fits" for mobile entertainment."

    The report says that those most likely to benefit from the rise of mobile TV are:

    • Content developers and providers
    • Device vendors, especially MID and cellular handset OEMs
    • Service providers
    • Multimedia and security software
    • Semiconductor and network infrastructure vendors

    Once mobile TV users adopt the service at high growth levels, advertisers will also climb on board to target the significant number of new "mobile eyeballs".

    ABI Research also believes the timing of the mobile TV market’s emergence is good.

    It said that as 2009 progresses, signs of economic optimism may emerge, and allow the fledgling industry to establish a foothold before the holiday shopping season.