Acer Chromebook Spin 15

The first convertible Chromebook with a 15.6-inch display

KIngston announced the UV500 SSD Line

3D NAND-enabled SSD featuring full-disk encryption

Logitech® G PRO Gaming Headset

For professional and competitive gamers

Transcend 500S and 300S series of SD and microSD cards

For the storage needs of today’s users

Kingston Reveals its first wireless headset

The HyperX Cloud Flight Gaming Headset

March 19, 2024

Innodisk Showcases Edge AI Integration at NVIDIA GTC

Innodisk, a premier global provider of AI solutions, is showcasing its expertise in edge AI integration at NVIDIA GTC in San Jose, USA. With a focus on customizable AI solutions scalable across various industries, Innodisk actively shares its research and practical implementation of edge AI worldwide, spotlighting how its camera modules seamlessly integrate with NVIDIA’s specialized AI visual technology.

Advancing Smart Factory Solutions

At GTC, Innodisk presents smart manufacturing solutions powered by NVIDIA Metropolis for Factories technology, featuring AOI defect detection. Highlighting the EV2U-SGR1 low-light USB camera module's capability to enhance smart factory efficiency by overcoming dim lighting constraints, the demonstration underscores its unique lens specifications and customized 3A functions (auto-focus, auto-exposure, auto-white balance). These features ensure clear product detail capture and precise quality inspection, even in low-light conditions typical of manufacturing environments. Moreover, its application extends to safety and security, enabling comprehensive and accurate factory monitoring for enhanced safety.

Randy Chien, Chairman of Innodisk, explained, "The AI tools and frameworks from NVIDIA drive innovation, complemented by Innodisk's customer-focused approach and deep integration experience, transforming AI into practical solutions. This customer-centric approach is key to bridging advanced AI technology with real-world industry solutions."

The AI applications showcased by Innodisk at GTC utilize key development tools from the NVIDIA AI Enterprise, an end-to-end, cloud-native software platform. This includes the NVIDIA TAO Toolkit for model training, the NVIDIA Triton Inference Server for model deployment and management, and the DeepStream SDK for AI inference, all packaged as microservices controlled by intuitive REST-APIs. NVIDIA AI Enterprise accelerates data science pipelines and streamlines the development and deployment of production-grade AI applications. This strategic adoption facilitated significant savings in validation and enabled highly flexible end-to-end customization services.

In response to the growing demand for edge AI hardware, Innodisk is presenting industrial-grade SSDs, memory products, and expansion modules at GTC. Emphasizing the durability and adaptability of its products, essential for maintaining edge AI system operations, Innodisk integrates Aetina’s AI equipment and leverages group resource integration to empower customers' AI applications to meet diverse industry demands.


March 8, 2024

Western Digital Announces Update on Company Separation

Western Digital Corp.today provided an update on its previously announced plan to separate into two independent, publicly traded companies. On track for the second half of calendar year 2024, significant progress towards the completion of the separation is underway with key transactional projects including global legal entity establishment, customer and supplier contract transfers, final stage preparation for government filings, and initial executive leadership appointments for both HDD and Flash companies post-separation.


Announced on October 30, 2023, Western Digital plans to separate its HDD and Flash businesses, creating two independent, public companies with market-specific, strategic focus. The company’s separation will better position each franchise to execute innovative technology and product development, capitalize on unique growth opportunities, extend respective market leadership positions, and operate more efficiently with distinct capital structures.

Implementing a standalone separation strategy is advantageous in creating shareholder value and driving long-term success for its businesses. Over the past several years, the company has laid important groundwork by building market-leading portfolios, enhancing the operational efficiency of each business, including the creation of separate Flash and HDD product business units and separating operational capabilities. Today, each business is solidly positioned to succeed on its own with strong product portfolio, operational and financial leadership in place.


In the current phase of its separation process, the company is making significant progress in a broad scope of projects critical to completing the transaction as scheduled. Currently, Western Digital’s separation teams are establishing legal entities in the 18 countries where operations are located, preparing independent company financial models, finishing final preparations for SEC and IRS filings, conducting a contract assignment process for global customers and suppliers, and designing company-wide organizational structures for both companies.

“Today’s announcement highlights the important steps we’re making towards the completion of an extremely complex transaction that incorporates over a dozen countries and spans data storage technology brands for consumers to professional content creators to the world’s leading device OEMs and the largest cloud providers,” said David Goeckeler, CEO of Western Digital. “I’m pleased with the exceptional work the separation teams have done so far in creating a spin-ready foundation that will ensure a successful transition to independent, market-leading companies for our Flash and HDD businesses.”

Establishing the executive leadership team for the Flash spinoff company also is progressing with Goeckeler today appointed CEO Designate.

“While both Western Digital’s businesses will have the strategic focus and resources to pursue exciting opportunities in their respective markets once the separation is complete, the Flash business offers exciting possibilities with market growth potential and the emerging development of disruptive, new memory technologies. I am definitely looking forward to what’s next for the spinoff team,” added Goeckeler.

Irving Tan, currently Executive Vice President, Global Operations at Western Digital, will step into the CEO role for the remaining standalone HDD company to continue operating as Western Digital.

“Since joining Western Digital two years ago, Irving has made a tremendous impact on the transformation of our global operations organization and plays an integral role in running our HDD business,” said Goeckeler. “He leads with global perspectives, diverse insights and deep industry expertise and I have full confidence in him as Western Digital’s chief executive when the separation is completed.”

The executive appointments announced today are subject to – and will be effective upon – completion of the planned separation following the satisfaction of customary conditions. Additional executive leaders for both companies will be named at a later date as appointments are determined. Western Digital will continue to provide updates throughout the separation process as key projects progress.

March 7, 2024

Kingston Technology Leads Channel SSD Market Share in 2023

Kingston Technology proudly declares its continued dominance with another year of success, retaining the top position quarter over quarter. This unwavering performance has led to a remarkable achievement of capturing a 23.8% share of the channel SSD market in 2023.

Data gathered by TRENDFOCUS confirmed Kingston as the number one client SSD vendor in the channel for unit market share, with 27.4 million client SSDs shipped in 2023. Q4 alone saw Kingston’s client SSD market share at 21.3% and 5.7 million units shipped. 


Continued effort in the development of high quality client drives like NV2, two options of Kingston FURY Renegade SSD, and KC3000 provide PCIe 4.0 NVMe solution for all, from the novice upgrader to power user who requires more from their system. Additionally in 2023, Kingston expanded its varied product lineup with XS1000 external and DC600M enterprise class SSDs.

Kingston offers its customers unrivaled best in class support, service, and reliability for its products, by the very engineers and experts who design them, a key contributor leading to Kingston’s strong standing in these ranking.

“As the year came to an end, SSD sales for PCs remain strong, with continued growth in the PCIe NVMe space. We’ll see this develop more through 2024” said Don Jeanette, vice president, TRENDFOCUS.

“Working closely with our suppliers, customers, and partners allows us to be flexible as market conditions and customer requirements change,” said Kingston. “We strive to present the latest SATA and NVMe solutions, offering a strong SSD portfolio to the channel client space to meet those needs, and these findings confirm our commitment to that effort."


February 2, 2024

ASUS Announces BR1204 Series with rugged designs for education segment

ASUS recently announced the launch of its latest BR1204, CR, and CZ series laptops at Bett UK 2024, marking the third consecutive year of ASUS Education launches at the Bett Show and demonstrating its dedication to educational technology innovation. The flagship BR1204 is engineered to withstand the daily challenges of classroom activity, meeting the highest standards of durability. Accompanying the BR series are the CR and CZ Chromebook series (CR1204, CR1104, CZ1204, CZ1104), which bring unparalleled versatility and mobility to hybrid-learning environments. 


Together, these series champion the ASUS commitment to reliability, user-centric design and safety, both online and offline — with easy-to-service designs that ensure IT administrators can maintain devices with minimal effort, enhancing the efficiency of education technology. With the comprehensive ASUS lineup for education, both teachers and students are equipped to excel in the digital age. 

The ASUS BR1204 series, designed for the K-12 education segment, features ruggedized construction for enhanced durability, making it an ideal choice for active young learners. Key aspects include a fingerprint-resistant finish, easy rubber grip, reinforced internal components and a spill-resistant keyboard, ensuring the laptops withstand daily classroom use. This model is crafted to minimize learning disruptions, adapt to various environments and is easy to handle, making it a reliable educational tool. 

In an era where educational needs are as diverse as the students themselves, ASUS responds with an expanded BR series — including the all-new BR1204, a new 12-inch model alongside the existing 11- and 14-inch laptops. This growth in the BR series exemplifies the ASUS dedication to providing tailored educational solutions, offering a range of display sizes to meet varying preferences and requirements. 

Complementing the Windows-based BR series, the ASUS Chromebook CR and CZ series present versatile options, catering to different learning and teaching methodologies. These Chromebooks, available in both 11-inch (CR1104, CZ1104) and 12-inch (CR1204, CZ1204) displays, provide an alternative operating system choice, broadening the scope of educational tools available. This diversity in hardware and software ensures that ASUS devices align with the varied instructional strategies found in modern classrooms. 

Equipped with up to 10 hours of battery life, Chromebook CR and CZ support extended learning sessions without the need for constant recharging. The inclusion of world-facing cameras and comprehensive connectivity options, like WiFi 6E and 4G LTE, empowers students and teachers to engage in education from anywhere. The versatile hinge design, enabling a range of uses from note-taking to collaborative projects, further enhances the adaptability of these laptops. 

With the introduction of new sizes and the Chromebook CR and CZ series, ASUS reinforces its commitment to facilitating flexible, engaging and innovative learning experiences in any environment. 

January 25, 2024

Samsung Launches SSD 990 EVO: Elevating Performance for Everyday Gaming, Business and Creative Workflows

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., a world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced the release of SSD 990 EVO — the newest addition to the company’s lineup of consumer SSDs — which delivers powerful performance with better energy efficiency. Designed to enhance everyday computing experiences like gaming, work and video/photo editing, the NVMe SSD is expected to be an ideal solution for a diverse range of users.


“Samsung has been leveraging its advanced memory technologies for optimized SSD solutions, and for our latest consumer product, we’ve combined both innovation and practicality to enhance the computing experiences for users,” said Hangu Sohn, Vice President of Memory Brand Product Biz Team at Samsung Electronics. “The 990 EVO balances performance, power efficiency and reliability, making it a versatile choice for the latest interface that is suitable for a variety of everyday tasks, including gaming, business workflow and creative endeavors.”

The 990 EVO offers enhanced performance of up to 43% compared to the previous model, 970 EVO Plus. Sequential read speeds come up to 5,000 megabytes-per-second (MB/s) and write speeds up to 4,200 MB/s. Random read and write speeds also get a boost with up to 700K input/output operations per second (IOPS) and 800K IOPS, respectively.

By using Host Memory Buffer (HMB) technology to directly link to the host processor’s DRAM, the SSD can achieve optimized performance even with a DRAM-less design. Users upgrading from previous mainstream SSDs will experience significantly faster loading speeds for games and swift access to large files.

The Samsung 990 EVO improved power efficiency of up to 70% when compared to the 970 EVO Plus, allowing users extended usage on PCs without the constant concern for battery life. It also supports Modern Standby,1 which enables an instant on/off function with uninterrupted internet connectivity and seamless notification reception, even in low-power states.

The 990 EVO’s heat spreader label effectively regulates the thermal condition of the NAND chip, allowing operations to consistently run at their highest levels without compromising drive integrity.

The 990 EVO is a versatile SSD created to meet current computing needs and in anticipation of future requirements. Users can experience seamless multitasking with a single SSD that caters to the demands of everyday such as gaming, business and creative workflow.

Supporting both PCIe 4.0 x4 and PCIe 5.0 x2 interfaces, the 990 EVO fits the needs for today’s PCs supporting PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots while it also offers compatibility along with thermal control and power savings for PCIe 5.0 interfaces in upcoming applications.

The 990 EVO comes in 1 terabyte (TB) and 2TB capacity options.