Seagate Technology LLC today is set to unveil an updated Momentus laptop disk drive that boosts capacity from 160GB to 250GB.

The new 2.5-in. Momentus 5400.4 version includes two disk platters and 8MB of cache, and it can spin at speeds of 5,400 rpm, the company said. The new version of the storage device is currently shipping, Seagate said.

The updated hard drive uses perpendicular magnetic recording technology and offers a 3Gbit/sec. interface — a sizeable jump from the Momentus 5400.3’s transfer rate of 1.5Gbit/sec., said Joni Clark, senior product marketing manager for Seagate’s personal compute business unit.

(Full article ‘Seagate boosts Momentus laptop drive capacity to 250GB’)

BitMicro Networks Inc. today will announce that it is putting the finishing touches on an 832GB version of its E-Disk Altima 2.5-in. Serial ATA flash solid-state drive.

Manufacturers can begin testing the new solid-state disk drive this summer, according to Fremont, Calif.-based Bit Micro. The device is slated to start shipping in volume by late-2008, the company added.

Bit Micro would not disclose pricing plans for the new drive.

The vendor was set to unveil the NAND flash storage drive Monday at the International Consumer Electronics Show 2008 show in Las Vegas.

BitMicro’s E-Disk Altima.

The new E-Disk Altima drive will provide sustained rates of up to 100MB/sec. and up to 20,000 I/O operations per second, BitMicro said. The device features a SATA 3Gbit/sec.

(Full article ‘CES: BitMicro preps 832GB solid state drive for launch’)

Rival memory, semiconductor and mobile device makers have joined forces to support the new Universal Flash Storage (UFS) specification — a standardized format for removable flash memory cards and embedded memory technology.

Samsung Electronics Co., Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, Micron Technology Inc., STMicroelectronics, Spansion Inc. and Texas Instruments Inc. jointly announced support for the fledgling UFS standard, which is being developed by the JEDEC Solid State Technology Association.

Work on the UFS standard is expected to be completed in 2009.

The new standard is expected to boost the performance and speed of flash card storage devices.

(Full article ‘Memory, handset makers backing flash storage standard’)

Intel Corp. and STMicroelectronics. won permission from the European Commission on today  to spin off and combine their flash memory units, backed by private equity firm Francisco Partners.

“The Commission found that strong competitors are present for each of these products and customers would be able to continue sourcing their needs from a sufficient number of alternative vendors,” the EU executive said in a statement.

The deal will help the combined group build scale and address fierce price competition for flash memory products, fitted in mobile phones, MP3 players and digital cameras.

The transaction will also enable the two chipmakers to offload businesses that weighed on their profit margins.

Under the terms of the transaction, STMicro, Europe’s leading chipmaker, will sell its flash memory assets to the newly formed company.

(Full article ‘Intel and STMicro combine flash memory’)