storage News - Page 10 of 12 - CNX Software

February 3, 2020February 3, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

UFS 3.1 Storage Devices to Deliver Better Performance, Lower Power Consumption

JEDEC first introduced UFS 3.0 embedded flash in September 2017 with promises of 2.4GB/s transfer rates, and somehow this was bumped to 2.9GB/s (23.2 Gbps) when UFS 3.0 specification was published in January 2018. JEDEC has now published UFS 3.1 specification with the same theoretical performance, but some new features that should improve write performance, random read performance, as well as lower power consumption and costs. Precisely two documents are now available for purchase, unless you work for a JEDEC member, in which case those are free downloads: The Universal Flash Storage (UFS) version 3.1, JESD220E. An optional new companion standard, JESD220-3: UFS Host Performance Booster (HPB) Extension. The first defines three main improvements as part of UFS 3.1: Write Booster – an SLC non-volatile cache that amplifies write speed DeepSleep – a new UFS device low power state targeting lower-cost systems that share UFS voltage regulators with other functions […]

December 8, 2019February 27, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 46 Comments

ROCK Pi SATA HAT Targets ROCK Pi 4 & Raspberry Pi 4 NAS

Radxa ROCK Pi 4 is a single board computer (SBC) powered by Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor and inspired by Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+. The company has now designed ROCK Pi SATA HAT expansion board to design 4-bay NAS based on Raspberry Pi 4 and ROCK Pi 4. There are 3 models with support for 2, 4 or 5 drives: Dual/Quad SATA HAT connected over two USB 3.0 ports and working with both boards Penta SATA HAT connected over PCIe and compatible with ROCK Pi 4 only ROCK Pi Dual/Quad SATA HAT Specifications: 2x or 4x SATA connectors supporting 2.5″ or/and 3.5″ HDD/SSD 2x USB 3.0 port to connect to RPi 4 via one or two JMS561 USB to SATA controllers Storage Features – HDD suspend mode, UASP, software RAID 0/1/5 Misc Fan and heatsink header for Raspberry Pi 4 CPU cooling Optional PWM control fan for HDD heat dispatching […]

November 22, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

STMicro Introduces the World’s First 4Mbit SPI EEPROM

EEPROM chips are often used to store configuration information and connected over I2C. But there are also SPI EEPROM, and STMicro has just announced one of the largest ones with M95M04-DR 4-Mbit serial SPI EEPROM. M95M04-DR key features: Capacity – 4 Mbit (512 Kbytes) of EEPROM with 512 bytes page size and additional write lockable page (Identification page) Host Interface – Serial peripheral interface (SPI) bus Write time – Byte Write within 5 ms, Page Write within 5 ms Write protect – Quarter array, half array, and whole memory array More than 4 million Write cycles More than 40-year data retention Max clock frequency – 10 MHz Single supply voltage: 1.8 V to 5.5 V Temperature range – -40°C to +85°C Enhanced ESD protection (up to 4 kV in human body model) Packages – SO8N, TSSOP8, and WLCSP The company explains their latest high-capacity EEPROM enables equipment such as smart […]

October 9, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Fujifilm LTO Ultrium8 Magnetic Tape Can Store up to 30TB of Compressed Data

What year is this? 2019. So I was a little surprised when I saw the news about Fujifilm recently releasing a 12TB magnetic tape, as I truly thought those were relics of the past. But apparently, magnetic tapes are still a thing in some countries such as the United States in applications where a large amount of data needs to be stored over an extended period of time. Fujifilm LTO-8 (Linear Tape-Open Ultrium8) data cartridge was unveiled last month with 12TB native capacity, up to 30TB compressed capacity, and data rates of 360 MB/s. Fujifilm is said to be the world’s largest manufacturer of magnetic tapes, and since there’s virtually no demand in Japan, most of the tapes are exported. Nikkei Xtech reports the maximum capacity of the new magnetic tape is double the one of Fujifilm’s LTO-7 previous generation magnetic tape. The LTO-8 cartridge includes a 960m-long, 1.265cm-wide magnetic […]

June 21, 2019June 21, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Ugoos X2 Cube Android 9.0 TV Box also Serves as a SAMBA Server

Ugoos X2 Cube is a tiny Android 9.0 TV box powered by the latest Amlogic S905X2 processor coupled with 2GB RAM and 16GB flash storage. The new Amlogic processor happens to have a USB 3.0 port which provides good storage performance, and the box is also equipped with a Gigabit Ethernet port, which should make the device especially suitable for network storage beside the usual 4K HDR video playback or streaming offered by any typical Amlogic S905X2 TV box. However in most cases, the firmware provided for such TV boxes does not offer an option to easily configure a SAMBA server (aka Windows network share), so you’d need to either mess up with the firmware configuration yourself, or install a paid app. Ugoos is different since they long have had the option to enable NFS & SAMBA client and/or server in the settings, and Ugoos X2 Cube is no different. […]

June 18, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

M.4 SSD with PCIe 3.0 x8 Interface Showcased at Computex 2019

M.2 SSD’s are now pretty common and rely on either SATA or PCIe interface, but apparently there’s a new form factor with an M.4 SSD showcased at the recent Computex 2019 exhibition, and with Silicon Motion SM2270 controller leveraging a PCIe 3.0 x8 interface for up to 3,200 MB/s sustained sequential reads, 2,800 MB/s sustained sequential writes, as well as up to 800K/200K IOPS for respectively 4K read/write random operations. Spotted by Anandtech at the event, Agylstor’s M.4 NVMe SSD come with the following specifications: Silicon Motion SM2270 controller with a three dual-core Arm Cortex-R5 processors with 2KB LDPC error correction and 16 NAND channels with 8 CE per channel (128 CE in total) Host Interface – PCIe Gen3 x8 Command Protocol – NVMe 1.3 Max Capacity – 16TB Anandtech explains the M.4 SSD is essentially two M.2 SSDs glued together with (8) NAND packages on each side of the […]

June 3, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

Silicon Motion SM3282 is a Single Chip Solution for Portable USB SSD Sticks

Portable USB SSD drives are nothing new, but they are usually implemented using a stand-alone SSD with its own SSD controller combined with a USB to SATA or PCIe bridge chip in order to interface the SSD drive with the host computer or board. Silicon Motion has recently unveiled SM3282 SSD controller that also comes with an on-chip USB 3.2 Gen 1 interface providing a complete single-chip hardware and software solution for portable USB SSD sticks. This should enable smaller and cheaper USB SSD drives. Some of the key features of the SM3282 controller include: Peak sequential read and write transfer speeds of over 400MB/sec Supports USB 3.2 Gen 1 type A and type C Crystal-less design for bill-of-materials cost savings Built-in 3.3V/2.5V/1.8V/1.2V voltage regulators Supports LED for indicating access status 68-pin QFN package Compatible with Windows 10, Mac OS 10.x and Linux kernel v2.4 and greater The chip also […]

May 25, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments

NODE Mini Server V2 is a Raspberry Pi Based Storage Server for the Decentralized Web

We’ve previously covered networked hard drive enclosures with Ethernet and/or WiFi running OpenWrt or Ubuntu that allows you to easily and fairly cheaply connect SATA drives to your local network with models such as Blueendless X3. NODE has done something similar with a DIY project featuring a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+. NODE Mini Server V2 connects the popular SBC to a 2.5″ SATA hard drive over USB and is designed to build out the physical infrastructure for the decentralized web (e.g. IPFS) that would allow users to replace remote servers with nodes that they themselves own and operate. Having said that nothing would prevent you from using this as a simple NAS although performance will not be as optimal as the aforementioned products due to the lack of SATA or USB 3.0 interface, as well as having “Gigabit” Ethernet limited to 300 Mbps. Having said that the design could […]