Samsung announces the next generation of 3D vertical NAND memory technology-- including the first 1-Terabit (Tb) V-NAND chip and a NGSFF (Next Generation Small Form Factor) SSD.

As the name suggests, V-NAND stacks memory cells on top of each other, allowing for more density than equivalents built on a single, 2D plane. The result also promises more speed and reliability, as well as less chance of breakdowns. The technology finds applications anywhere from smartphones to datacentres, and has already found its way in a consumer product, specifically 256 gigabit consumer SSDs.

The aforementioned 1Tb V-NAND chip was first mentioned back in 2013, during the unveiling of the technology itself. It launches next year, and will enable the creation of 2TB of memory on a single V-NAND package stacking 16 1Tb dies, making what Samsung claims is "one of the most important memory advances of the past decade."

Cohesity does not take long with updates-- following the April 2017 launch of Orion 4.0 hyperconverged secondary storage solution the startup announces version 5.0.

Orion is described as the first storage solution to combine end-to-end data protection and big data storage with distributed, "infinitely scalable" architecture. The platform spans on-premises and private and public clouds, with control from a single location, and the 5.0 update adds workload backup capability, as well as a searchable archive for large amounts of both structured and unstructured data.

The fully indexed and searchable platform gives admins better access and greater insight into data, and elminates redundant copies. Data is rendered accessible to any application and user via standard protocols, including NFS, CIFS/SMB and S3, driving more efficient data and infrastructure re-use across data protection, archive, content repositories, test/dev and analytic workloads.

Toshiba announces the development of next generation 4-bit-per-cell quadruple-level cell (QLC) 3D flash memory-- allowing it to produce "the world's largest die capacity" at 768Gb (96GB).

In comparison, 3-bit triple-level cell (TLC) 3D flash maxes out at 512Gb.

The technology involves a 64-layer stacked cell structure, and allows the creation of a 1.5TB device with a 16-die stacked architecture in a single package, making another capacity record. This represents a 50% increase in capacity per package, at least when compared to an earlier Toshiba device with 1TB capacity via 16-die stacked architecture in a single package.

Creating such a device poses a number of challenges, since increasing the number of bits-per-cell by one within the same electron count requires twice the accuracy of TLC technology.

The Drobo Direct Attached Storage (DAS) portfolio gets an addition-- the 5-bay Drobo 5D3, a storage solution featuring Thunderbolt 3 connectivity for a 2X performance boost over the previous Drobo 5D.

According to the company, Thunderbolt 3 connectivity also allows users to connect a pair a 4K monitors (or one 5K display) to the 5D3, or daisy-chain up to 6 Thunderbolt 3 devices, all with enough power to (slow) charge a laptop. It has two Thunderbolt 3 ports, together with a USB-C port.

Designed for prosumers and small businesses, the 5D3 fits up to five 3.5-inch SATA II/III drives. It also offers an mSATA accelerator bay for what Drobo claims is a performance boost of up to 30% on frequently accessed data. Further increasing speed and throughput is an upgraded processor, while BeyondRAID technology allows for simple storage and easy expansion.