Today PNY announced the latest in its OTG Flash Drive assortment, the DUO LINK V3 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C & Type-A. Encapsulated in a premium metal housing are extensive storage and extreme performance capabilities, ideal for professionals. Paired with dual USB-C /USB-A connectors for maximum compatibility, this contemporary matte black swivel design drive is the ideal choice for on-the-go users looking for ultimate versatility, speed, and storage.

Lightning-Fast Performance
Experience professional-grade performance with PNY's DUO LINK V3. Engineered with the latest USB 3.2 Gen 2 technology to achieve extreme speeds up to 1,000 MB/s read and up to 800 MB/s write, an astounding 265x faster transfer speed than standard USB 2.0 flash drives. Transfer files in a flash with this blazing-fast performance, ideal for advanced tech users and the most demanding applications.

Kioxia announced its medium to long-term growth strategy and as a part of its growth strategy, the company is betting on advanced SSD technology to capture more market share. The company's most ambitious project is a breakthrough SSD that combines their XL-FLASH memory with a brand-new controller design. "We're taking our ultra-fast XL-Flash memory chips, which use single-level cells, and pairing them with a completely new controller," a company representative explained. "This combination should give us unprecedented performance for small-scale data operations. We're targeting over 10 million IOPS, and we plan to have samples ready by the second half of 2026." The company is also working closely with major GPU manufacturers to optimize performance for AI and graphics-intensive applications.

Meanwhile, Kioxia is rolling out its current generation of SSDs built on 8th generation BiCS FLASH technology. The CM9 series targets AI systems that need both blazing speed and rock-solid reliability to get the most out of expensive GPU hardware. On the other end, the LC9 series focuses on massive storage capacity, hitting 122 terabytes per drive for applications like large-scale databases that power AI inference systems.

TrendForce's latest investigations reveal that continued AI investments by major North American CSPs are expected to drive a significant increase in enterprise SSD demand in the third quarter of 2025. The enterprise SSD market is likely to shift toward undersupply with finished product inventory levels remaining low, supporting a potential price increase of up to 10% QoQ.

TrendForce notes that earlier this year, suppliers adopted a conservative production strategy as they gradually brought the NAND Flash market back into supply-demand balance. However, the introduction of new U.S. reciprocal tariff policies in early April disrupted the market's momentum in Q2 and introduced volatility into price trends. Although some PC manufacturers accelerated shipments in Q2, it failed to substantially boost overall demand for NAND Flash products. Meanwhile, persistent weakness in the retail market has prompted suppliers to tighten capacity controls even further.

KIOXIA America, Inc. today announced the development and prototype demonstration of its new KIOXIA CM9 Series PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSDs. These next-generation drives are the first enterprise SSDs built with KIOXIA's 8th generation BiCS FLASH TLC-based 3D flash memory, which incorporates CBA (CMOS directly Bonded to Array) technology - an architectural innovation that delivers significant advances in power efficiency, performance and density, while doubling available capacity per flash device.

As the demands of modern computing intensify, applications such as AI, machine learning, and high-performance computing require a sophisticated solid state storage infrastructure - requiring not only enterprise-class performance but also higher power efficiency to ensure scalability and manageable operational costs. Addressing these requirements is central to the design of the KIOXIA CM9 Series, which is purpose-built to support next-generation data center workloads.

Western Digital Corp. today reported fiscal third quarter 2025 financial results.

"Western Digital executed well in its fiscal third quarter achieving revenue at the high end of our guidance range and gross margin over 40%," said Irving Tan, CEO of Western Digital. "Even in a world marked by geopolitical uncertainty and shifting tariff dynamics, one thing remains constant: the exponential growth of data. When it comes to storing that data, at scale, no technology rivals the cost-efficiency and reliability of HDDs. With our rich portfolio of storage products, WD is uniquely positioned to meet our customers' mass storage needs."

On April 29, 2025, the company's Board of Directors authorized the adoption of a quarterly cash dividend program beginning with the quarter ending June 27, 2025 and declared a cash dividend of $0.10 per share of the company's common stock, payable on June 18, 2025 to shareholders of record as of June 4, 2025.

As a GPU supply chain gets regularly updated, NVIDIA quietly added a new memory partner to its GeForce RTX 50 series lineup, bringing SK Hynix on board alongside Samsung for GDDR7 modules. Early mentions suggested that SK Hynix memory would appear on standard RTX 5070 cards. Still, the first sightings were on RTX 5070 Ti models, especially in China, where these cards have arrived ahead of other regions. Users on Chiphell and Baidu, verifying their GPUs with GPU-Z, discovered that the SK Hynix chips, which officially run at 28 Gbps, can be safely overclocked to 34 Gbps. This shows that switching to a second supplier does not hurt performance or overclocking headroom, so enthusiasts can expect the same headroom they've enjoyed with Samsung-sourced modules.

That said, some owners have encountered an obstacle when cross-flashing BIOS files with SKUs that use Samsung memory. Flashing an RTX 5070 Ti BIOS from a Samsung-equipped card onto one built with SK Hynix memory sometimes prevents the GPU from booting. However, dual-BIOS designs let users switch back to factory firmware and restore normal operation without too much fuss. As VideoCardz pointed out, TechPowerUp's BIOS database indicates that current firmware versions from various board partners already include support for GDDR7 modules from Samsung, SK Hynix, and even Micron. This suggests that these flashing issues aren't simply a matter of unrecognized memory. It could be related to board-specific power settings or other configuration quirks, with every GPU maker designing their boards differently, yielding possible errors if the firmware is swapped. Since SK Hynix-based cards run fine out of the box, most users won't have any reason to flash different firmware.

Kioxia Corporation, a world leader in memory solutions, highlighted the critical role of Kioxia's next-generation high-performance storage solutions for AI applications at the China Flash Market Summit/MemoryS 2025 ("CFMS 2025") held on March 12 in Shenzhen, China.

At CFMS 2025, theme as "MEMORY LANDSCAPE, VALUE RE-SHAPE", Kioxia exhibited its eighth-generation BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory technology, for efficient and reliable storage solutions required by evolving cloud computing and large-scale AI models. Kioxia also presented its SSD product lineup which meets high performance, high efficiency, and high scalability required for AI applications. Kioxia's exhibition included its recently-announced KIOXIA LC9 Series, its first high-capacity 122.88 terabyte (TB) NVMe enterprise SSD which incorporates 2 terabit (Tb) QLC BiCS FLASH.

TrendForce reports that NAND Flash suppliers began reducing production in the fourth quarter of 2024, and the effects are now starting to show. In anticipation of potential U.S. tariff increases, consumer electronics brands have accelerated production, further driving up demand. Concurrently, inventory restocking is underway across the PC, smartphone, and data center sectors. As a result, NAND Flash prices are expected to stabilize in the second quarter of 2025, with prices for wafers and client SSDs projected to rise.

Client SSD prices to rise 3-8% while enterprise SSD prices to remain flat
After three consecutive quarters of inventory depletion, client SSD demand is rebounding as OEMs resume production early. The upcoming end of Windows 10 support and the launch of new-generation CPUs are expected to drive replacement demand for PCs. Meanwhile, the DeepSeek effect is accelerating the adoption of edge AI, further fueling client SSD demand. With production cuts and supply adjustments gradually restoring balance, client SSD contract prices are projected to rise 3% to 8% QoQ in Q2.

Supermicro, Inc., a Total IT Solution Provider for AI, Cloud, Storage, and 5G/Edge, announced a new optimized storage server for high-performance software-defined storage workloads. This first-of-its-class storage server from a major Tier 1 provider utilizes Supermicro's system design expertise to create a high-density storage server for software-defined workloads found in AI and ML training and inferencing, analytics and enterprise storage workloads. Supermicro worked closely with NVIDIA and WEKA to enable customers to create power-efficient high-performance storage systems for their AI factories.

"The Supermicro Petascale server with the NVIDIA Grace CPU Superchip highlights Supermicro's focus on innovation and customer choice," said Charles Liang, president and CEO of Supermicro. "We have developed the Petascale storage server using the NVIDIA Grace CPU with 144 Arm Neoverse V2 cores enabling high-performance I/O for software-defined storage workloads. We have demonstrated that the system can fully unleash the system's PCIe Gen 5 performance SSD bandwidth with linear scalability. Supermicro continues to bring to market the most advanced and optimized storage solutions available."

Infortrend Technology, Inc., the industry-leading enterprise storage provider, today announced the launch of its first NVMe all-flash expansion enclosure, or JBOF ("Just a Bunch of Flash") - the JB 4000U model. This new product provides an excellent storage expansion option for applications such as AI, Media & Entertainment (M&E), and Backup, where fast data access and large capacity are crucial.

Designed as a scalability solution for high-performance EonStor GS U.2 NVMe unified storage systems, the JB 4000U all-flash expansion enclosure features a 2U form factor, supporting up to 24 U.2 NVMe SSDs in a single appliance. In a dual-controller configuration, it delivers an impressive throughput of up to 24 GB/s, approximately 50% higher than that of the Infortrend's highest-performance SAS SSD expansion enclosure. JBOF offers superior performance at a lower cost compared to expansion enclosures supporting SAS SSDs, as U.2 NVMe SSDs are generally more affordable. Users can expand storage capacity with the JB 4000U, offering up to 1.47PB in a single unit. Adding up to three JBOFs can further increase the capacity to 4.4PB.

ASRock, a global leader in motherboards, graphics cards, mini PCs, power supplies, and gaming monitors, has observed reports on Reddit from users experiencing unexpected boot issues and error codes when using ASRock AM5 motherboards paired with minority proportion of AMD Ryzen 9000 series processors. To enhance user experience, ASRock promptly released the latest 3.20 Beta BIOS for its AM5 series motherboards, further improving AMD Ryzen 9000 series processors boot issues.

Users can download and install the BIOS from the official ASRock website or use the BIOS Flashback function on their motherboard for a quick update. ASRock also promises to continue enhancing the compatibility of its products.

Kioxia Corporation and Sandisk Corporation have pioneered a state-of-the-art 3D flash memory technology, setting the industry benchmark with a 4.8 Gb/s NAND interface speed, superior power efficiency, and heightened density

Unveiled at ISSCC 2025, the new 3D flash memory innovation, together with the companies' revolutionary CBA (CMOS directly Bonded to Array) technology, incorporates one of the latest interface standards, Toggle DDR6.0 for NAND flash memory, and leverages the SCA (Separate Command Address) protocol, a novel command address input method of its interface, and PI-LTT (Power Isolated Low-Tapped Termination) technology, which is instrumental in further reducing power consumption.

TrendForce's latest findings reveal that the NAND Flash market continues to be plagued by oversupply in the first quarter of 2025, leading to sustained price declines and financial strain for suppliers. However, TrendForce anticipates a significant improvement in the market's supply-demand balance in the second half of the year.

Key factors contributing to this shift include proactive production cuts by manufacturers, inventory reductions in the smartphone sector, and growing demand driven by AI and DeepSeek applications. These elements are expected to alleviate oversupply and support a price rebound for NAND Flash.

PNY Technologies today announced the latest additions to their USB Type-C flash drive lineup, headlined by the extreme-performance PRO Elite V3 that delivers read speeds up to 1,000 MB/s and write speeds up to 800 MB/s, and offers storage options ranging from 256 GB - 2 TB. The expanded Type-C portfolio also includes the ultra-compact Elite-X Fit and Elite models, providing a storage solution for all Type-C and high-performance portable needs without requiring a Type-C adapter.

Extreme Storage Solution—PRO Elite V3 Type-C
The PRO Elite V3 leads PNY's latest generation of Type-C USB storage solutions, crafted for professional content creators, designers, and gamers demanding high performance while working with large files and resource-demanding applications. With extreme read speeds up to 1,000 MB/s and write speeds up to 800 MB/s, users can safely transfer their valuable content at blazing fast speeds up to 265 times faster than standard USB 2.0 flash drives. A huge storage size increase of up to 2 TB provides professional users ample space to store large project files, 4K video collections, and extensive gaming libraries on a single storage device.

Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. has begun shipping its fifth-generation 3D NAND memory chips, featuring 294 total layers and 232 active layers, according to an analysis from TechInsights. The new chips achieve bit density near 20 Gb per square millimeter (19.8 Gb/mm²), comparable to current offerings from SK Hynix and approaching Kioxia/Western Digital's latest products. YMTC's design uses hybrid bonding to connect the memory array with logic components, suggesting that Chinese memory makers are up to speed on the packaging standards that their non-sanctioned competitors use. The company has opted for a quiet release without formal announcements, a departure from typical industry practice. This low-key approach may be related to ongoing US trade restrictions on Chinese semiconductor companies.

While not setting records for active layers, SK Hynix's upcoming 321-layer chip leads in that metric, and YMTC's achievement in total layer count demonstrates continued technical progress. The chip uses string stacking technology, though the specific configuration of the layer arrays remains unclear. Other specifications show the new chip employs YMTC's Xtacking 4.0 architecture and triple-level cell (TLC) design. This matches major competitors' architecture type, though detailed performance metrics such as interface speeds have not been disclosed. The 5th generation NAND focuses on getting density on the right track. However, we expect YMTC to continue development at the same speed, match SK Hynix with 321-layer chips, and surpass it with Xtacking 5.0 in the near future.

Western Digital Corp. today reported fiscal second quarter 2025 financial results.

"As we finalize the separation of our businesses, we are confident that both Western Digital and Sandisk will continue driving innovation and providing compelling storage solutions to customers while delivering long-term shareholder value," said David Goeckeler, Western Digital CEO. "We expect that our strong performance in HDD and our strategic approach to managing our Flash business within the New Era of NAND will allow each company to capture the growing demand for storage driven by the AI Data Cycle."

TrendForce's latest research report highlights that the NAND Flash industry will continue to face dual pressure from weak demand and oversupply in 2025. In response, manufacturers including Micron, Kioxia/SanDisk, Samsung, and SK hynix/Solidigm have similar plans to cut production—a move that could accelerate industry consolidation in the long term.

TrendForce reports that NAND Flash manufacturers are primarily implementing production cuts by lowering utilization rates and delaying process upgrades. These actions are driven by three major factors:

Silicon Motion will expand its MonTitan lineup of SSD controllers—for datacenters and enterprise platforms—with the upcoming addition of a truly next-generation model. Wallace C. Kou (the company's founder and CEO) contributes to ChinaFlashMarket.com with a regular written column—his latest feature (posted on January 17) includes a short sentence dedicated to announcing his firm's new SM8466 design. This appears to be their first foray into PCIe 6.0-based interface territories—details are minimal (at this point in time), but the CEO divulged the very basics. Silicon Motion's engineering team is currently in the "development stage" with the SM8466 project—a: "4 nm PCIe Gen 6 SSD master chip."

It is not clear whether this next-gen PCIe 6.0 SSD controller will be heading to market anytime soon, but Kou's column mostly focused on current plans—likely signalling where priorities lie. Silicon Motion's "built-in PCIe Gen 5 SSD enterprise-level master chip" (SM8366) is in mass production—industry experts believe that the company's MonTitan PCIe 5.0 family has had a tough time keeping up with equivalent Phison products—in particular, the market leading PS5026-E26 (PCIe 5.0 x4) controller. The SM8366 could be potent enough to take the crown in higher-end enterprise segments, but the existence of a PCIe 6.0-based successor is bound to attract extra attention.

JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, the global leader in the development of standards for the microelectronics industry, today announced the publication of JESD220G: Universal Flash Storage 4.1. In addition, an update to the complementary JESD223F UFS Host Controller Interface (UFSHCI) version 4.1 standard has also been published. Developed for mobile applications and computing systems requiring high performance with low power consumption, UFS 4.1 offers faster data access and improved performance over the earlier version of the standard while maintaining hardware compatibility to UFS 4.0. Both standards are available for download from the JEDEC website.

"JEDEC members are continually innovating to shape the standards that will drive the next generation of mobile devices and advanced applications, and the committee's dedication to ongoing improvements to the UFS series is paving the way for future innovation," said Mian Quddus, Chairman of the JEDEC Board of Directors and the JC-64 Committee for Embedded Memory Storage and Removable Memory Cards.

An SSD from Chinese manufacturer Zhitai has demonstrated impressive performance metrics, reaching sequential read speeds of up to 14.5 GB/s. Under the hood, the TiPro9000 2 TB SSD combines domestic YMTC 5th Generation 3D TLC NAND technology with Silicon Motion's SM2508 controller. The drive's architecture features a 2 GB LPDDR4X DRAM chip and two 3D TLC NAND dies utilizing 232-layer YMTC's Xtacking 4.0 architecture. While initial testing revealed peak sequential read and write speeds of 14,527 MB/s and 13,869 MB/s respectively, these rates are sustained through the SLC cache for approximately 24 seconds. Performance testing showed distinct operational phases. After the initial burst speed period, transfer rates stabilize at around 4,000 MB/s for 325 seconds before dropping to 1,700-1,800 MB/s. The drive then demonstrates recovery capabilities, returning to 4,000 MB/s after 259 seconds.

Random performance specifications are equally impressive, with the manufacturer claiming up to 2 million IOPS for reads and 1.6 million IOPS for writes. The TiPro9000's performance metrics position it competitively among top-tier PCIe 5.0 x4 drives. This shows the capabilities of Chinese-manufactured YMTC NAND memory technology paired with Silicon Motion's controller expertise, putting a lot of faith in China-made NAND Flash. With growing needs for AI and big data applications, performant storage systems are becoming key to many systems. However, Chinese companies still need a solid (pun intended) controller to compete with Western technology to complete storage manufacturing. Alibaba is working on a RISC-V-based controller, while InnoGrit has also been sampling controllers. We have yet to see commercial applications based on these two.

Sandisk Corporation today previewed its new corporate branding and creative direction, signaling a bold debut of the company's comeback launch as a standalone Flash and memory technology innovator, planned for early 2025.

Defined by a 'Mindset of Motion', Sandisk's new creative direction represents a future forward philosophy where by creating paths and possibilities for people to go without limits, the company unites the current moment and their aspirations. This mindset brings people closer to their ambitions and creates a circle of collaboration for progress and future growth.

Western Digital announced it has released several new Flash storage solutions to help pros and consumers get ready for the holidays. Whether looking for the perfect gift, or planning a new venture in the New Year, the innovative products from its award-winning SanDisk and WD_BLACK brands reach new levels of speed, reliability, and capacity, serving a diverse set of digital storage needs.

High Performance, Super Capacity Portable SSDs
The expanded SanDisk portfolio of portable SSDs includes two offerings that feature next-generation SSD speeds and help defy the limits of durability. The new drives are perfect for pros or creators and anyone else who needs to store large amounts of data on the go in the toughest of climates.

PNY announced today the newest additions to its Flash Drive assortment, the PRO Elite V3 USB 3.2 Gen 2 and Attaché X USB 3.2 Flash Drives. PRO Elite V3 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Flash Drives advance file management to the next level, boasting extreme speeds of up to 1,000 MB/s read and up to 800 MB/s write, with storage capacities ranging from 256 GB - 1 TB, while the Attaché X brings a sleek and modern design with boosted performance for mainstream users

Exceptional Performance Storage Solution
PNY's new PRO Elite V3 brings a new level of speed and reliability to its high-performance USB product assortment. Exceptional performance improvements boost maximum speeds up to 1,000 MB/s read and up to 800 MB/s write, achieving speeds 265x faster than standard USB 2.0 flash drives. Experience the elevated performance of the PRO Elite V3's USB 3.2 Gen 2 flash drive technology to enhance workflows with demanding applications. PRO Elite V3 was designed to be an invaluable asset for content creators, professionals, designers, and gamers who need to store, access, and transfer critical, high-density files such as movies, professional high-resolution photos, video gaming data, and full HD & 4K videos at incredible speeds.

KIOXIA America, Inc. today announced that it has begun mass production of the industry's first Universal Flash Storage (UFS) Ver. 4.0 embedded flash memory devices with 4-bit-per-cell, quadruple-level cell (QLC) technology.

QLC UFS offers a higher bit density than traditional TLC UFS, making it suitable for mobile applications that require higher storage capacities. Advancements in controller technology and error correction have enabled QLC technology to achieve this while maintaining competitive performance. KIOXIA's new 512 gigabyte (GB) QLC UFS achieves sequential read speeds of up to 4,200 megabytes per second (MB/s) and sequential write speeds of up to 3,200 MB/s, taking full advantage of the UFS 4.0 interface speed.

TrendForce's latest investigations reveal that the combined market share of the top five SSD module makers in the retail sector has surged from 59% in 2022 to 72% in 2023, reinforcing a trend of larger companies expanding their dominance. These major players are leveraging their scale to negotiate more favorable prices for NAND Flash, boosting their competitive edge and ensuring they have sufficient resources to stock up in preparation for market shifts.

TrendForce reports that shipments of branded SSDs in the retail market reached 180 million units in 2023, marking a YoY growth of 3.7%. Reflecting on the SSD market for that year, it appeared that many PCs purchased during the pandemic had entered their typical replacement cycle.