JEDEC has published its UFS 3.1 specification (aka JESD220E), which adds several performance, power, cost-cutting, and reliability-related features to the standard. The new capabilities promise to increase real-world device performance, minimize power usage, potentially cut costs of high-capacity storage devices, and improve the user experience.

Devices compliant with the UFS 3.1 standard continue to use MIPI's M-PHY 4.1 physical layer with 8b/10b

Western Digital and Kioxia have announced the successful development of their newest generation of 3D NAND flash memory. Their fifth-generation BiCS 3D NAND has commenced production in the form of a 512 Gbit TLC part, but will not ramp up to "meaningful commercial volumes" until the second half of the year. Other parts planned for this generation include 1Tbit TLC and 1.33 Tbit QLC dies.

The BiCS5 design uses 112 layers compared to 96 for BiCS4. BiCS5

ASRock Rack has revealed a rather interesting Mini-ITX motherboard for AMD’s Ryzen 2000 and 3000-series processors with Intel’s X550 10 GbE controller. The X570D4I-2T platform can be used both for high-performance desktops and for small form-factor servers/NAS with robust storage capabilities.

The ASRock Rack X570D4I-2T motherboard is based on AMD’s X570

Historically, EKWB has been best known for its custom, open-loop liquid cooling systems designed for experienced enthusiasts. But as closed-loop factory-assembled cooling systems are increasingly popular among many DIYers, EKWB has also previously branched out into its modular EK-MLC Phoenix coolers, which combine ease-of-assembly and ability to customize them. Now, to cater to even more mainstream audience that tends to use prêt-à-porter coolers, EKWB is unveiling a new lineup of all-in-

EnGenius has unveiled a new series multi-gigabit PoE++ L2+ networking switches with multiple NBASE-T ports. The EnGenius ECS2512FP and ECS2512 switches are designed for small and medium businesses as well as large living environments, and along with their fast switching capabiltiies, one of the models is also capable of Power over Ethernet to deliver power to remote, high-performance devices like Wi-Fi 6 access points. Both models can be managed remotely using EnGenius cloud-

Update 1/30/2020 : The Samsung Galaxy Book S with Snapdragon 8cx is now available for pre-order, starting at $999 . The device is set to be available from February 13th .

Samsung has introduced its new always-connected PC based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon platform and featuring Microsoft’s Windows 10 OS. This time around the company went with the Snapdragon 8cx SoC, a clamshell form-factor, and a 13.3-

For consumer storage, CES 2020 brought a new wave of competition for PCIe 4.0 SSDs and promise of faster portable SSDs, but the most intriguing product demo was from Enmotus. They are planning a profound change to how consumer SSDs work, ditching drive-managed SLC caching in favor of host-managed tiered storage.

Enmotus is a well-established provider of storage management software. Their most familiar product to consumers is probably FuzeDrive, a limited edition of which is bundled with recent generations of AMD motherboards

In the summer of 2019, Crucial was among the first brands to demonstrate 32 GB unbuffered memory modules, which were based on Micron’s 16 Gb DDR4 chips. Now after a bit of a wait, those 32 GB UDIMMs as well as 32 GB SO-DIMMs have finally hit the retail market.

Crucial’s 32 GB unbuffered DIMMs and SO-DIMMs are rated for DDR4-2666 with CL19 at 1.2 V and DDR

Matrox Graphics is one of the oldest graphics card manufacturers still in business today. It started to make video cards in 1978, several years before ATI, and 15 years before NVIDIA. While the company's own internal GPU development efforts petered early this century, the company has continued on as a specialist card maker, using other vendors' GPUs to make special-purpose multi-monitor solutions. Since 2014 the company has been using AMD’s GPUs for its boards, and earlier

Zhaoxin, a joint venture between Via Technologies and the Chinese government, has been selling processors for various client systems for years, but recently the company rolled out its latest CPUs that some of the local PC makers position as solutions for DIY enthusiasts. At least initially, Zhaoxin’s KaiXian KX-6780A will be available only in China.