Stories by: Lucas Mearian

A decreased demand for NAND flash-related applications has led DRAMeXchange Technology and others to lower their outlook for 2009 NAND flash chip sales.

Samsung Electronics announced Tuesday that it has developed a 2.5-in., 100GB solid-state disk (SSD) drive with enhanced performance for use in servers running applications such as video-on-demand, internet data centers and online transaction processing.

Seagate is now shipping its densest desktop hard drive, the Barracuda 7200.12, which offers 1TB of capacity on two disks. The drive is a 3.5-in. disk that spins at 7,200 rpm and has an areal density of 329 gigabits per square inch. Seagate said it expects to add platters using the same technology later this year to achieve even larger total capacity.

Audiophiles have long argued that vinyl records offer better sound quality compared to CDs or MP3s, but their stoic loyalty in the face of change was seen as little more than nostalgia over the 25 years digital recordings has dominated the music industry. In recent years, however, sales of LPs -- that's short for long-playing records -- have more than doubled online and are regaining overall market share, thanks to new converts looking for more than they can find in an MP3 selling for 99 cents online.

Last month, Kanguru Solutions announced the first USB flash drive that also offers External Serial ATA (eSATA) connectivity. This month, OCZ Technology also announced an eSATA-enabled flash drive with up to 32GB capacity, as did Advanced Media's Ridata-brand.

The inventor of a car slightly wider than a strand of DNA took the top prize in nanotechnologies this week. James Tour, a professor of chemistry at Rice University, won the Foresight Institute Feynman Prize for experimental nanotechnology for his nanocar, which is four nanometers across and includes a chassis with an engine, a pivoting suspension, and rotating axles attached to rolling buckyball wheels each made of 60 carbon atoms.

Intel has announced it is expanding its X25-M 2.5-inch and X18-M 1.8-inch SATA solid-state drive (SSD) family with a 160GB drive in a 2.5-inch form factor.

Researchers at Rice University have demonstrated a new data storage medium made out of a layer of graphite only 10 atoms thick.

IBM's Rational Software unit Wednesday announced several new applications that provide collaboration, automation and reporting features that take advantage of Web 2.0 technology.

HDS Monday announced it will offer flash-based solid-state drives (SSDs) for its high-end Hitachi Universal Storage Platform V and VM storage arrays.

After announcing this week that it is cutting revenue expectations for the current quarter, Seagate Technology expanded a companywide unpaid holiday furlough from one to two weeks.