SK Hynix has announced the company completed recently the development of enterprise SATA SSDs built using its 72-layer 512Gb 3D NAND flash chips. SK Hynix combined the 72-layer 512Gb 3D NAND flash with its in-house developed firmware and controller to provide the maximum density of 4TB, and makes the most of its 72-layer 512Gb 3D NAND chips to double the biggest density of the SSD of the same size with 256Gb NAND chips. A single 4TB SSD could contain 200 UHD (Ultra-HD) movies, each of which is generally as large as approximately 20GB, according to the vendor. The new eSSD supports sequential read and write speed of up to 560MB/s and 515MB/s, respectively, and can perform 98,000 random read IOPS (input/output operations per second) and 32,000 random write IOPS. SK Hynix also improved the esSSD read latency.

Samsung Electronics has introduced the 860 PRO and 860 EVO solid state drives (SSD), the most up-to-date additions to the company's SATA interface lineup. Building on the launch of the 850 PRO and 850 EVO - the industry's first consumer SSDs with V-NAND technology - the 860 PRO and 860 EVO achieve industry-leading performance for SATA SSDs, offering enhancements in speed, reliability, compatibility and capacity, the vendor said. The 860 PRO is available in 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, 2TB and 4TB capacities, with the 4TB memory storage holding up to 114 hours and 30 minutes of 4K Ultra HD video. The 860 PRO is available in a widely compatible 2.5-inch form factor, which is ideal for PCs, laptops, workstations and NAS, said Samsung. The 860 EVO comes in 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB and 4TB capacities, in a 2.5-inch for PCs and laptops, as well as mSATA and M.2 form factors for ultra-slim computing applications. The 860 EVO has up to six times longer sustained performance than its predecessor due to enhanced Intelligent TurboWrite technology, with read and write speeds of up to 550 MB/s and 520 MB/s, respectively, according to the company. The 860 PRO and 860 EVO SSDs are available with manufacturer's suggested retail prices starting at US$139.99 and US$94.99, respectively.

Samsung Electronics has unveiled removable memory cards based on the JEDEC Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 1.0 Card Extension Standard for use in high-resolution mobile shooting devices such as DSLRs, 3D VR cameras, action cams and drones. Samsung's UFS cards come in storage capacities of 256, 128, 64 and 32 GB. The new 256GB UFS removable memory card provides more than five times faster sequential read performance compared to that of a typical microSD card, reading sequentially at 530MB/s which is similar to the sequential read speed of the most widely used SATA SSDs. With this UFS card, consumers have the ability to read a 5GB, Full-HD movie in approximately 10 seconds, compared to a typical UHS-1 microSD card, which would take over 50 seconds with 95MB/s of sequential reading speed. Also, at a random read rate of 40,000 IOPS, the 256GB card delivers more than 20 times higher random read performance compared to a typical microSD, which offers approximately 1,800 IOPS. When it comes to writing, the new 256GB UFS card processes 35,000 random IOPS, which is 350 times higher than the 100 IOPs of a typical microSD card, and attains a 170MB/s sequential write speed, almost doubling the top-end microSD card speed. To shoot 24 large/extra fine JPEG photographs (1,120MB-equivalent) continuously with a high-end DSLR camera, the 256GB UFS card takes less than seven seconds, compared to a UHS-1 microSD card which typically takes about 32 seconds, at 35MB/s.