Windows 8 can go diskless
Subject: General Tech | September 13, 2012 - 01:53 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: win8, cloud, microsoft, Windows to Go, kingston, super talent
Installing Windows from a USB drive is old hat to many, both consumers and professionals, but booting to Windows from an external drive would be a new trick. Windows 8 has been designed with this type of usage in mind, which is unsurprising considering how much talk there is about the cloud. A proper implementation of this would mean that low cost computers, shipped without a hard drive, could be readily sold. Both Kingston and Super Talent have designed USB 3.0 devices which will have "Windows to Go" on them; fully able to boot to a full installation of Win8 on Intel powered machines. Unfortunately there is a problem with WinPE installations on ARM based devices, as that method requires a wired network connection which may mean ARM devices would have to be sold with a USB to ethernet dongle in order to allow for booting. Once the machine is booted and the wireless drivers load then the ARM devices could be unplugged. Check out the hurdles Microsoft had to pass in order to make this work at The Register.
"Such devices, Niehaus said, will have to be certified to run Windows to Go for two reasons, one of which is that in Microsoft's tests external storage ran dangerously hot.
The second reason is that external drives can't be partitioned in the ways Windows 8 requires, thanks to its use of BIOS-replacement Unified Extensible Firmware Interface(UEFI) that is an important contributor to the new OS' faster boot times. Niehaus explained that UEFI means Windows 8 needs four partitions in a disk. One is for recovery purposes, a second for the system, while UEFI uses a third invisible partition of 128MB to help it go about its work. The fourth partition holds the OS and user data."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- NVIDIA Performance: Windows 7 vs. Ubuntu Linux 12.10 @ Phoronix
- 4th Generation of Core Microarchitecture: Intel Haswell @ X-bit Labs
- AMD aims at big data crunchers with SeaMicro SM15000 @ The Register
- Intel shows off Seacliff Trail SDN-enabled switch @ The Register
- Canadian Scientists Bind High-Temp Superconductor Components With Scotch Tape @ Slashdot
- HGST's helium filled hard drive launch is just hot air @ The Inquirer
Super Talent's fast and inexpensive USB 3.0 flash drives
Subject: Storage | July 18, 2012 - 04:25 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: super talent, ST1, ST2, usb 3.0
If you need fast and portable storage then a USB 3.0 flash drive is the way to go as there is a large difference in speed when you compare it to the previous USB 2.0 standard. Super Talent currently offers two versions the the ST1 which uses ToggleMode DDR and has and advertised speed of 90MB/s read and 16MB/s write speeds as well as the ST2 which has dual channel MLC flash and 67MB/s read and 24MB/s write speeds. The other difference between the two models is the capacity, with the ST1 going from 8GB to 16GB and the ST2 available in sizes up to 32GB. Check out the real world results at Legit Reviews.
"The two drives we have to review today are the Super Talent Express 3.0 ST1 4GB and the Express 3.0 ST2 8GB. These two are the smallest capacity drives of their respective lineups. The ST1 ranges from 4GB-16GB, and the ST2 ranges from 8GB-32GB. The ST1 uses Super Talent’s ToggleMode DDR (double data rate) flash which claims 90MB/s read and 16MB/s write speeds. The ST2, however, uses a dual channel MLC flash, claiming 67MB/s read and 24MB/s write speeds..."
Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
- Kingston DataTraveler Elite 3.0 USB 3.0 Flash Drive @ TechARP
- Plextor M5S 256GB @ AnandTech
- Micron C400 256GB 6Gbps mSATA SSD Review - Crucial M4 mSATA SSD in Disguise @ SSD Review
- OCZ Vertex 4 SSD Review @ HardwareLOOK
- OCZ Vertex 4 256GB Review @ OCC
- Kingston HyperX 3K Series 240GB SSD @ [H]ard|OCP
- OCZ Vertex 4 SSD with 1.5 firmware @ Guru 3D
- Seagate Backup Plus @ The Inquirer
- Crucial Adrenaline Solid State Cache Review @ eTeknix
- Plextor M5S 256GB SATA 3 SSD Review - True Speed Through and Through @ SSD Review
- MyDigitalSSD Bullet Proof 3 SATA III 512GB SSD Review - A Force Behind SSD Affordability @ SSD Review
- Biwin NuvoDrive NX Novachips Bugatti Preview - World Exclusive @ Tweaktown
- OCZ RevoDrive X2 SSD Review @ HardwareLOOK
- Corsair Accelerator 30GB & 60GB Review @ OCC
- CoreRise Comay Venus 3S 120GB SATA3 MLC Synchronous SSD Review @ ModSynergy
- Corsair Force 3 240GB Laptop Upgrade Kit @ Pro-Clockers
- OCZ Vertex 4 256GB @ Bjorn3D
- Patriot EP Pro 32GB UHS-I SD Card Review @Hi Tech Legion
- Satechi 4 Port SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Hub Review @ Legit Reviews
- Western Digital My Passport 2TB: high capacity portable disk @ Hardware.info
- Kingston FCR-HS3 and FCR-MLG3 USB 3.0 Flash Card Readers Review @ Hi Tech Legion
- Synology DS412+ @ techPowerUp
- Western Digital My Passport 2TB Portable Hard Drive Review @ Techgage
- QNAP TurboNAS TS-869 Pro 8-Bay NAS Review @ eTeknix
- Netgear NV+ v2 and LaCie 2big NAS: A Second Look @ AnandTech
Super Talent Releases New RAIDDrive upStream PCI-E SSD
Subject: Storage | March 22, 2012 - 07:28 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: super talent, ssd, pcie
Super Talent, a Silicon Valley based company most well known for their RAM and SSD products, today launched a new Solid State Drive (SSD) that eschews the SATA interface for a PCIe x8 connector. The new RAIDDrive upStream upstream joins the RAIDDrive family of PCIe SSDs and utilizes MLC (multi-level cell) NAND flash to deliver between 220 GB and 960 GB of fast storage.
According to the company, their new RAIDDrive SSD is comprised of four Sandforce based SSDs in a RAID array using an LSI RAID controller to deliver up to 1 GB/s of performance. Specifically, access time of the upStream SSD is 0.1ms, and has a maximum read and write speed of 1.0 GB per second and 900 MB/s respectively. The 460 GB upStream drive was benchmarked (granted, by Super Talent) using HD Tune which showed an average sequential read speed of 832.9 MB/s and an average sequential write speed of 719.0 MB/s. As far as random 4 KB IOPS, the drive hit 3606 read IOPS and 5159 write 4KB IOPS.
Super Talent has further benchmarks and information on the new RAIDDrive upStream SSDs in this product data sheet (PDF). Unfortunately, there is no official word on pricing or availability yet, though Engadget has said the Super Talent upStream drives should be hitting store shelves in April.
If I had to guess; however, this drive is going to be expensive. Drives like these are a boon for businesses doing work that requires large amount of throughput (CAD work, animation, working and serving large databases, et al), but are still largely priced out of the market of most PC builders. Here's hoping that high performance PCIe SSDs trickle down to computer enthusiasts as fast as possible!
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