Transcend continues their effort into the embedded systems applications with their most recent announcement of the SATA Flash Module. The high-speed SATA flash modules specifically designed for use in thin clients, blade servers, ultra-compact sub-notebooks and space-limited industrial installations allows Transcend to offer up their lightweight and compact SATA flash memory modules.
With solid-state flash memory being non-volatile and more robust than spinning hard disk solutions, it makes the SATA flash module ideal for harsher environments with more demanding applications, such as embedded systems, medial instruments, factory automation equipment, network infrastructure and other industrial equipment.
What I like most about flash memory modules is the low power consumption, shock and vibration resistance, longer data retention durability and instant access time (no spin up or seek times we traditionally see in HHDs).
Transcend’s SATA flash modules are offered in 1GB and 2GB capacities, in both vertical and horizontal versions to satisfy industrial application requirements.
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I have my reasons for watching the flash memory market. One of the key elements I look for is falling flash memory prices. For me, dropping memory prices’ is an indicator other activities I’m in will continue to grow. Today I read an interesting article which gave some great detail about the continued drop of flash memory.
I’ll start off with a quote to the article, then you can click through for more:
Prices of NAND flash memory could plummet this year because of weak demand and an oversupply of NAND flash in the market, analysts said on Wednesday.
If concerns about the U.S. economy deepen, consumers may reduce spending on the phones and other devices that use NAND flash, weakening demand for the chips and depressing prices, said Nam Hyung Kim, director and chief memory analyst for iSuppli. He predicted that prices could fall by as much as 55 percent this year.
Up to 90 percent of NAND flash is sold as storage for MP3 players and cell phones, or as cards such as the MicroSD that are slotted into digital cameras and other devices.
The reduced price for flash could lead to cheaper products for consumers. Apple already dropped the price of its 1G-byte iPod Shuffle this week, to US$49 from $79, partly because of the falling prices of flash memory, said Shaw Wu, an analyst with American Technology Research.
While forecasting strong sales and profitability in 2008, Silicon Motion projects that demand for low-density NAND flash will beat that for the high-density segment, driven by demand for microSD cards and embedded memory, said company president and CEO Wallace Kou.
Silicon Motion guides that annual sales will grow by 25-35% on year with gross margins to stay in the range of 52-53% in 2008. Although memory makers strive to migrate NAND flash applications to higher density under sales and profitability concerns, that makes no difference for controller makers, Kou said. For a controller IC design house, he stressed that memory density has no relationship on controller sales, given that any NAND flash application (such as USB drive or memory card) only requires one controller, regardless of memory density.
In light of global economic trends, Kou said demand for low-density NAND flash products should be better, partially due to sales spurred by the bundling of memory cards with handsets. Demand for microSD cards will continue to expand in 2008, Kuo said. Out of the 96.3 million units of controllers shipped in the fourth quarter, 89.3 million were for memory cards and USB drives, he detailed.
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SanDisk announced today a massive 12GB microSDHC card which is 50% larger in storage capacity than it’s previous model (8GB).
So what does this mean? It means our mobile devices are getting one step closer to becoming a storage medium for all sorts of data, phone related or not. From MP3 files, video and data files … with 12GB of flash memory, quit a lot can fit. To put things into perspective, the microSDHC can hold [about] 1,500 MP3 songs, 3,600 photos and 24.5 hours of video.
If you haven’t used or seen a microSDHC card, make sure you stop off at your local computer store and take a look. The size is incredibly small. About the size of your pinky fingernail.
Some background info: The SDHC format applies to SD flash memory which is larger than 2GB is storage space. The new 12GB microSDHC card conforms to the SD 2.00 specification and has the theoretical maximum storage capacity of 32GB.
On a closing note, the new SanDisk microSDHC card has a transfer speed compatible with the Class 4 specification. Too geeky for ya – let me sum it up:
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So you drop $1,200 on a Nikon digital SLR camera, buy vacation airline tickets to Hawaii and now want a water tight case for underwater picture taking. Well, save that large roll of cash and purchase the Liquid Image, 5 megapixel underwater scuba mask. Slap in some microSD memory and you’re set for more pictures than your air tanks can hold.
New this year at CES is the Liquid Image underwater scuba mask. The small digital lens/camera can take still pictures or record video at VGA quality with either a 5 MP or 3.1 MP lens. The $99 price point is for the 5 MP version.
Take a close look at the diagram above and you’ll see a AAA battery pack, small storage area, shutter select option, cross hairs for centering and position of the lens along with microSD port & USB port for storing additional images or downloading what you have to PC.
The underwater scuba mask does look bulky but I personally think this is a great alternative to underwater cameras.
The SonyMini VAIO is getting a flash memory upgrade to 32GB which means (obviously) more storage, but more importantly faster boot times and energy savings as flash memory takes less power then a spinning disk hard drive.
Some other shinning features of the Sony Mini VAIO are wireless LAN & WAN, 4.5inch touch-screen, sliding keyboard and Windows Vista Basic. As being the first flash memory based VAIO the price tag comes in just at $2,500 USD – WOW.
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Shiro VE is a personal video player with some nice lines and curves. Large 2.4 display with MicroSD slot and 4GB of internal memory. PC interface is USB and plays a limited WMV and AVI files along with limited JPEG and BMP picture files. But as will all things gadget these days you can bank on the voice recorder and FM radio.
Two other models also available the Shiro MK and Shiro ME. If only the girl came with it. She looks clueless, perfect.
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Today SanDisk announced their largest Memory Stick Micro card the M2. At convenient 4GBs it’s the largest flash memory card for any mobile phone. The M2 was designed, in partnership, with Sony and their line of Ericsson mobile phones.
Norm Frentz, director of marketing believes, “this is the threshold at which mobile phones provide enough capacity to become the user’s all-in-one portable music player, camcorder, photo album and video player.â€
And I for one believe him. At 4GBs you can do just about anything and carry just about anything you could imagine.
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I thought I’d hit my wish list today, and also return to the audio end of the creative spectrum, as it has been a while since we last visited our ears.
One of the biggest screw ups in A/V production is bad sound, so getting the best possible field source will make a massive difference to a production. And this shouldn’t be just lip service! Get out there and do it right! You really will be happy you did.
To get a taste of just how good it can get, I’m highlighting the Aaton Cantar-X: truly the Ferrari of field recording, and it has a price to match.
This is a weather proofed unit featuring twin batteries you can rotate for unceasing record times, with a 127GB HDD plus an internal CD-R/DVD+R burner. The Cantar-X will give you up to 8 tracks simultaneous recording with individual control across up to 6 of them. Firewire connectivity will even let it record direct to your computer hard drive if you have it handy. And if the hard drive just isn’t enough, it also supports flash memory.All the specs on this amazing piece of hardware are right here. Drooling over the attention to detail in engineering this product could be a hobby.
If you have a spare $20,000 floating around (actually, more than that — but if you have $20k spare, you probably have a bit more), then one of these gorgeous babies can be yours.
Australian’s should get in touch with LEMAC for information on buying this or many other pieces of high-end creative kit.
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So it appears Toshiba and Oakley have teamed together to bundle one hell of a cell phone package. Take the Toshiba 911T multimedia slider cell phone and integrate Softbank’s OS for Bluetooth communication with Oakley glasses, this is what you get.
Digital TV, 3.2pm anti-shake camera with auto-focus, 3 inch wide VGA screen (480×480) MicroSD slot for another 2GB of storage on-top of the already liberal 1GB of internal storage and MS office reader for docs, pdfs etc. Thanks Toshiba! BUT, I don’t know what looks more ridiculous, sunglasses with earphones hanging down, or sunglass with a Bluetooth headset off on one ear. You decide.
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SanDisk announced today a massive 12GB microSDHC card which is 50% larger in storage capacity than it’s previous model (8GB).
So what does this mean? It means our mobile devices are getting one step closer to becoming a storage medium for all sorts of data, phone related or not. From MP3 files, video and data files … with 12GB of flash memory, quit a lot can fit. To put things into perspective, the microSDHC can hold [about] 1,500 MP3 songs, 3,600 photos and 24.5 hours of video.
If you haven’t used or seen a microSDHC card, make sure you stop off at your local computer store and take a look. The size is incredibly small. About the size of your pinky fingernail.
Some background info: The SDHC format applies to SD flash memory which is larger than 2GB is storage space. The new 12GB microSDHC card conforms to the SD 2.00 specification and has the theoretical maximum storage capacity of 32GB.
On a closing note, the new SanDisk microSDHC card has a transfer speed compatible with the Class 4 specification. Too geeky for ya – let me sum it up:
Continue Reading
