Dedicated USB Type-C flash drive marks maturing of connector

By Nick Flaherty www.flaherty.co.uk

SanDisk has launched its first dedicated USB Type-C flash drive, pushing up read speeds to 150Mbit/s.

The company had already launched a dual drive that combined a USB Type-C and the existing Type-A connector, but the dedicated Ultra USB Type-C (USB-C) flash drive is designed specifically for next-generation devices and marks the maturing of the Type-C connector.

The need for a dual device came from the difference between the incompatible Type-A and Type-C connectors, while the underlying embedded controller for USB3.1 is the same for all the drives.

The first dedicated USB Type-C flash drive from SanDisk 

“We expect to see many new USB Type-C supported devices released in 2016,” Dinesh Bahal, vice president of product marketing at SanDisk. “As more consumers purchase ultra-mobile PCs, smartphones and tablets that feature this new, more advanced USB standard, it is critical to offer a complete ecosystem of compatible products. New offerings, like the USB Type-C Flash Drive, will give consumers the capabilities they’ve come to expect from traditional Type A ports, but with the added benefit of better performance.” 

 The new SanDisk Ultra USB Type-C Flash Drive is available in up to 128GB and delivers USB 3.1 performance of up to 150MB/s read speed, making it SanDisk’s fastest and highest capacity USB Type-C offering. The USB drive features a slim, retractable design to protect the reversible connector and is compatible with the SanDisk Memory Zone app for Android. The app, which is available for free through the Google Play Store, auto-launches upon insertion of the drive into a compatible device, allowing immediate access to the user’s content and easy file management3.

“USB Type-C connectors could be a game-changer, as they offer significant benefits to consumers, such as a slim design and reversible plug orientation," said IDC research VP Shane Rau. "We’ve already seen a considerable increase over the past year when the connector began showing up on new products from major devices manufacturers. As demand increases, we expect more and more solutions to hit the market, such as the SanDisk Ultra USB Type-C Flash Drive.”

The drives have a five-year warranty and come in capacities of 16GB, 32GB, 64GB and 128GB with U.S. MSRPs of $19.99, $29.99, $49.99 and $79.99, respectively.

Sony has launched a dual Type-A and Type-C drive that ships this month

Several flash drive makers, including SanDisk, already have dual drives that combine the Typee-A and Type-C connectors. Sony last month launched its USB CA1-series with 130MB/s read transfer speeds and densities up to 64Gbytes. The sleek connector is tailored to fit multiple devices such as your smartphone, yet robust enough to also fit a tablet and laptop for quick sharing and easy back up. The drive is available this month.

Lexar also launched a dual JumpDrive, the M20c, last year. This has read speeds up to 150Mbit/s and write of 60Mbit/s for its highest density 64GByte drive.

SanDisk already had a dual Type-C and Type-A drive

Kingston Digital, the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology, last year also launched its DataTraveler microDuo 3C USB Flash drive that combined both USB Type-A and Type-C connectors. This provides up to 64GB of extra storage with read speeds up to 100MB/s and write speeds up to 15MB/s. 

Kingston Digital's dual Type-A and Type-C drive

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SanDisk moves automotive smart storage features into industrial and IoT

By Nick Flaherty www.flaherty.co.uk

SanDisk has developed remote monitoring capabilities for its SD cards for the connected car market that it is also moving into the industrial market for the Internet of Things (IoT). The new cards, with densities up to 64Gbytes, includes a suite of built-in smart features that enhance reliability and allow original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to better manage their storage in data-intensive environments

“The ‘Internet of Things’ is the most dynamic force to impact the automotive and industrial markets in a decade, driving exciting new opportunities for connectivity as well as new challenges for how to store, process and manage the data it creates,” said Oded Sagee, senior director of connected solutions at SanDisk. “Our newest SanDisk Automotive and SanDisk Industrial flash storage solutions are ideal for connected applications in these markets, offering exceptional dependability and performance as well as new smart features that enable our OEM customers to better maximize their storage.”

The new SD card has enhanced power failure protection, a memory health status monitor, OEM customization capabilities, and enhancements for read-intensive applications, such as navigation. With these features, automotive manufacturers can designate and program a SanDisk Automotive SD card for use exclusively with a specific connected application. Manufacturers can also remotely and proactively monitor the easily removable SD card to ensure that it is operating at its ideal performance level or to identify when card upgrades or replacements are needed.

The new smart features will also be available in SanDisk Industrial and SanDisk Industrial XT SD card solutions. These industrial-grade cards are intended for use by OEMs in market segments that demand high endurance and reliability even in extreme temperatures, including factory applications, industrial computing, utilities, medical equipment, robotics, point-of-sale solutions, large-scale printing, and many other applications. The inclusion of the new features enables OEMs to better manage the intensive data demands of a variety of applications in the industrial market, from commercial drones to industrial gateway systems to security cameras and more.

This is driven by the high volumes from automotive connectivity, with more and more connected vehicles expected to be on the road over the next few years that will require storage. According to Gartner Research, by 2020:

• the connected cars installed base will be more than nine times larger than that of 2015'
• 80% of all new vehicle models in mature markets will have data connectivity; 30% of connected-vehicle models will have built-in, function-level, over-the-air software update capabilities;” and
• well over one billion connected automotive subsystems will be shipped.

The AEC-Q100 certified SanDisk Automotive SD card enables OEMs to bring intelligent, reliable and high-capacity data storage to a wide array of advanced, in-vehicle applications and systems, such as 3D and HD navigation and mapping systems, data event recorders, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), telematics and more. The automotive grade SD card is built to meet the intense reliability and quality requirements.

Samples of SanDisk Automotive, SanDisk Industrial and SanDisk Industrial XT SD card solutions with the new smart features will be available in March in the United States and Europe, in capacities up to 64GB

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ST teams with ClevX for wireless security for IoT

By Nick Flaherty www.flaherty.co.uk

Claim World’s First Wireless User-Authentication Technology Platform for IoT-Device Security

STMicroelectronics has teamed up with US encrypted flash-drive supplier ClevX to allow encrypted portable storage that is accessed with Bluetooth Smart wireless user authentication.

This means users can interact with secure portable storage (full-disk, XTS-AES 256-bit encryption) from their smartphones or wearable devices where all user data on the drive is encrypted and can be locked/unlocked using single- or multi-factor authentication. The technology is ideally suited for consumer and industrial applications such as healthcare, home automation and security, secure-access control systems, and portable data storage by providing a secure central repository for data.

“IoT-device authentication has long required trade-offs among security, convenience and mobility. The ClevX DataLock BT-secured portable storage provides the capability to actually enjoy the best of all worlds,” said Luca Difalco, VP of Marketing at STMicroelectronics’ Americas Region. “While we’re demonstrating the capability in an easy-to-use hardware-encrypted secure USB-Drive, the elegance and versatility of the solution is provided by an application that we can add to our BlueNRG device to make lock-down security accessible via Bluetooth Smart.”

ST and ClevX have reference designs for secure portable storage media, including Flash, hard-disk, and solid-state disk drives. These designs use ST’s BlueNRG Bluetooth Smart chips and ARM Cortex-M0+-based STM32L0 microcontroller that includes an AES encryption engine.The designs and software are immediately available for licensing and partnerships, including both ST/ClevX-based hardware and firmware in addition to the related smartphone and wearables apps.

The ST/ClevX reference designs are OS-host agnostic. USB drives with the DataLock BT technology operate across all computer platforms and embedded systems while providing various easy-to-use security layers (including a wireless lock/unlock mechanism, phone as an authentication factor, phone + PIN, or phone + PIN + userID/location/time). The reference designs support USB Remote Management, which can be critical for corporate deployments and remote password resets, drive disabling and erasing, and successful implementation of corporate-wide policies. 

“With the sensitive personal and corporate information that people carry on their USB drives, loss can easily lead to substantial financial penalties and undesired public disclosure,” said Lev Bolotin, Founder and CEO of ClevX. “Using ST and ClevX technologies, the DataLock BT Security solution protects data on a USB. Consumers, healthcare workers, mobile professionals, and corporations can improve their productivity and security on-the-go by using their phones to authenticate themselves to their USB drives and change security options, as required.”

Founded in 2005, ClevX is a Seattle-based IP/Technology development and licensing company with a secure, portable USB storage platform that is OS-agnostic, hardware-encrypted and bootable, as well as FIPS 140-2 Level 3 Certified devices and portable software applications.

www.clevx.com.

Hard drive market consolidation continues as Western Digital acquires Hitachi GST in $4.3bn deal

Deal creates drive giant

By Nick Flaherty www.flaherty.co.uk

Western Digital is to acquire Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi, for approximately $4.3 billion. The deal creates a global giant that will outship the current #1 supplier, Seagate.

Apparently WD tried to buy Seagate late last year for a rumoured bid above $8bn while Seagate was in negotiation to sell to a private equity firm. The Hitachi deal gives WD the scale it need to compete and be sustainably profitable. The next challenge is managing the transition to Solid State Drives.     

"The acquisition of Hitachi GST is a unique opportunity for WD to create further value for our customers, stockholders, employees, suppliers and the communities in which we operate," said John Coyne, president and chief executive officer of WD. "We believe this step will result in several key benefits-enhanced R&D capabilities, innovation and expansion of a rich product portfolio, comprehensive market coverage and scale that will enhance our cost structure and ability to compete in a dynamic marketplace. The skills and contributions of both workforces were key considerations in assessing this compelling opportunity. We will be relying on the proven integration capabilities of both companies to assure the ongoing satisfaction of our customers and to bring this combination to successful fruition." 

"This brings together two industry leaders with consistent track records of strong execution and industry outperformance," said Steve Milligan, president and chief executive officer, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. "Together we can provide customers worldwide with the industry's most compelling and diverse set of products and services, from innovative personal storage to solid state drives for the enterprise."

Hiroaki Nakanishi, president, Hitachi, Ltd. said, "As the former CEO of Hitachi GST, I always believed in the potential of Hitachi GST to become a larger and more agile company. This is a strategic combination of two industry leaders, both growing and profitable. It provides an opportunity for the new company to increase customer and shareholder value and expand into new markets. Additionally, it is important to us that WD shares common values with Hitachi GST to create a more global company that is well positioned to define a broader role in the evolving storage industry."

Deal details:

WD will acquire Hitachi GST for $3.5 billion in cash and 25 million WD common shares valued at $750 million, based on a WD closing stock price of $30.01 as of March 4, 2011. Hitachi will own approximately ten percent of Western Digital shares and two representatives of Hitachi will be added to the WD board of directors at closing. The transaction has been approved by the board of directors of each company and is expected to close during the third calendar quarter of 2011. WD plans to fund the transaction with a combination of existing cash and total debt of approximately $2.5 billion.

The resulting company will retain the Western Digital name and remain headquartered in Irvine, California. John Coyne will remain chief executive officer of WD, Tim Leyden chief operating officer and Wolfgang Nickl chief financial officer. Steve Milligan, president and chief executive officer of Hitachi GST, will join WD at closing as president, reporting to John Coyne.

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• WD works on hybrid drives (go.theregister.com)
• Hitachi unveils 500GB, razor-thin laptop hard drive (macworld.com)

Intel updates Atom processor for storage with DDR3

DDR3 for higher speed transfers marks shift in embedded market

By Nick Flaherty www.flaherty.co.uk

Two new processors for embedded data storage are marking the shift to DDR3.  
Since launching the D410 and D510 Atom processors into the home networking space in March, Intel has updated the chip to be faster with the 1.8GHz D425 single-core and D525 dual-core devices that now support DDR3 for Network Attached Storage (NAS).
Intel says leading storage manufacturers, including Acer, Cisco, LaCie, LG Electronics, NETGEAR, QNAP, Super Micro, Synology and Thecus have announced products based on the Atom.
The new processors will support the new memory technology, double-data-rate three small outline dual in-line memory modules, also known as DDR3 SODIMM. The new Intel Atom processors (D425 and D525) are paired with the Intel 82801 IR I/O Controller that delivers the input/output (I/O) connectivity to satisfy the growing throughput demands of leading storage vendors. Both additions to the storage platform offer the flexibility to support Microsoft Windows Home Server and open source Linux operating systems.
“Networked storage appliances based on the Intel Atom processor platform enable consumers and businesses to organize, manage, protect and share documents, photos, videos and music throughout the home or office,” said Dinesh Rao, product line manager, Intel Storage Group. “The versatile Atom processor, which is at the heart of a growing variety of small, innovative, Internet-connected devices, makes it possible for storage vendors to develop low-power appliances that can innocuously sit on a desk or shelf while keeping digital content safe and available anytime, anywhere.”
Since March, storage manufacturers have adopted the Intel Atom processor D410 single-core and D510 dual-core, each paired with the Intel 82801 IR I/O Controller, to power these affordable network-attached storage (NAS) appliances for the home and small business. Storage vendor products featuring the Intel Atom processor-based platform are currently available and additional devices will be released later this year.
“LaCie recently introduced two storage servers that leverage Intel’s Atom processor technology to deliver enterprise-level storage capabilities to small and medium businesses that were previously only experienced in large, corporate environments,” said Erwan Girard, LaCie Solutions business unit manager. “The new servers include the perfect mix of corporate-grade features and intuitive management software, enclosed in an award-winning 5big design for your desktop, allowing these products to fit seamlessly into any business environment.”

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Western Digital and NEC collaborate on USB3.0

New Driver for SuperSpeed Connectivity for SCSI Hard Drives With Advanced Features

Western Digital and NEC Electronics are collaborating to promote the new SuperSpeed Universal Serial Bus (USB) 3.0 standard in storage devices supporting data transfer rates of up to 5 gigabits per second (Gbps), 10 times faster than the previous high-speed USB 2.0 transfer speeds.
The companies plan to develop a USB Attached SCSI Protocol (UASP) driver to deliver hard drives with very high performance, mass-storage capacity. UASP is a new industry-standard, high-performance mass-storage protocol being developed for SuperSpeed USB 3.0 to overcome the performance boundaries of the Bulk Only Transfer (BOT) protocol, which has been used for traditional USB 2.0 speeds. The new UASP driver will be used with NEC Electronics’ USB 3.0 xHCI (eXtensible Host Controller Interface) host controller (part number µPD720200), which appeared on the market as the world’s first USB 3.0 host controller in June 2009.
Key features of the new UASP driver
(1) Support for the UASP mass-storage protocol
(2) Data transfer rate is enhanced by 30 percent, with optimized power efficiency and smooth interoperability, compared to the existing BOT protocol
(3) NEC Electronics’ license program is available for any LSI (large scale integration) vendors who develop UASP-based LSI devices

“The wide adoption of external storage, for both expanding and backing up internal computer storage, highlights the need for faster interface transfer rates. The USB 3.0 interface offers a significant advance in data transfer speed,” said Robert Caddy, Jr., vice president of engineering for WD’s Branded Products Group. “We are pleased to collaborate with NEC Electronics as a leading supplier of USB host devices in the introduction of USB 3.0 technology to the storage market.”

“Partnering with WD enables us to combine our USB transfer technology with WD’s data storage technology and provide added value to our customers,” said Masao Hirasawa, deputy general manager, Home Multimedia Division, NEC Electronics Corporation. “Starting with the new HDDs, WD and NEC Electronics are working together as the industrial leaders to expand USB 3.0 marketplace offerings with the highest quality and performance solutions while speeding time to market.”

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USB3 deal for ARC

Chip designer Initio is to use the ARC600 configurable core for a family of USB 3.0 and solid state drive (SSD) controllers. The ARC600 core, developed by ARC International of the UK, will be embedded within USB 3.0 bridge controllers and SSD controllers to provide a Serial ATA2 to USB 3.0 Bridge and/or individual SATA2 and USB 3.0 outputs, replacing an 8051 core. The ARC600 also has the advantage of occupying the same silicon area and operating at the same level of power as the 8051 it replaces.
The USB 3.0 (SuperSpeed USB) market is expected to begin shipping as discrete silicon this year with broad deployment of SuperSpeed USB-enabled products expected in 2010 according to market research firm In-Stat. The interface will target applications requiring high rates and volumes of data transfer, such as external storage, consumer electronics, and communications devices with increasing amounts of storage. The replacement potential for USB 3.0 is enormous. In-Stat counts more than 2.6 billion USB-enabled devices shipped in 2007 and expects annual shipment growth of USB-enabled devices through 2012 to be 8.3 percent. SSD unit shipments will also enjoy strong growth. IDC predicts a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 76 percent from 2007-2012.
"We're extremely pleased with the performance of the ARC 600 in our USB 3.0 chip design," said Jui Liang CEO at Initio Corp. "The core provides just the right silicon area and power consumption for the solid state disk controller and USB 3.0 application. It has more than enough processing power to handle the 5.0 Gbit/s data rate of USB 3.0 as well as the more complex USB 3.0 control logic."
Initio is a leading ASIC supplier for storage applications with offices in Taiwan, USA, and China. Initio's product lines including interconnect bridge controllers for USB, Firewire 400/800, eSATA, SATA 1.5G/3G, and SSD controllers.

Graceful degradation in encoding

An interesting element of the recent launch of a family of SD video codec cores from ARC is the use of 'graceful degradation' in the encoding process.
Depending on the resources available - and that can be power or memory - the cores can throw out various tools and reduce the quality of the encoding to extend the battery life or the recording time - this is all up to the designer and allows systems based on the cores to be differentiated through these engineering tradeoffs.

The five cores are based on the recently introduced VRaptor Multicore Architecture, each is programmable, encodes and decodes a wide range of popular video standards, and comes with optimized media processing elements including:
o Up to two 128-bit SIMD Media Processors
o A dual-channel media-optimized DMA engine
o Separate multi-standard encoding and decoding accelerators
o Programmable motion estimation accelerator
o SoC development tools
o Optimized video codecs:
o (encoders) H.264 BP, MPEG-4 SP/ASP, H.263 profile 0, and JPEG
o (decoders) H.264 BP, MPEG-4 SP/ASP, H.263 profile 0, VC-1 SP, MPEG-2 MP, MJPEG, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, and PNG



All this is very interesting when video becomes a key IP block for the next decade.

LSI shakeout continues with Infineon deal

The transformation of LSI Logic has settled down with the last remaining element - the GSM chip business - sold off to Infineon Technologies for what looks like a knock down price.
The E330m (£235m) deal is expected to close in Q4 and is for roughly the same as the project sales this year (the first six months saw sales of E150m), and Infineon expects a clearly positive EBITA contribution in 2008.
The 700 strong Mobility Products Group came from the April 2007 acquisition of Agere, and includes a design team and sales and marketing operation in Bracknell in the UK. Whether this becomes a standalone group for Infineon or merges with the Infineon design group in Bristol remains to be seen.
Another question is what this means for the comms element of the BlueOnyx strategy of a mobile server - that relied heavily on the Bluetooth and GSM element that came from the Mobility group, coupled with the storage capabilities of LSI. But buying in modules from a stronger player such as Infineon should not be a problem.
“Infineon’s strong commitment to the mobility market will ensure our customers continuity of the LSI product line, ongoing customer support and a broader portfolio of solutions to address their needs,” said Abhi Talwalkar, LSI president and chief executive officer. “LSI is fully committed to work with Infineon to provide a seamless transition for customers.”
Following the carve-out of Qimonda in 2006, Infineon is focusing on three key areas of business: Energy Efficiency, Communications and Security, having acquired Texas Instruments’ DSL CPE business earlier this year. In the Communication Solutions segment, Infineon has picked up new customers including Nokia, LG-Electronics, Panasonic and Samsung.