A portable SSD hard drive or a USB flash drive?

Mobile solid-state hard drives and USB flash drive have their advantages and disadvantages. Mobile solid-state hard drives perform better in many tests, but USB drives are more convenient.

Hundreds of researchers from Samsung Electronics have gone to Micron

And the Korean government has begun to crack down

Last week, the American storage manufacturer Micron Technology suddenly announced the mass production of 24GB 8H HBM3E, which will be used in Nvidia’s H200 GPU and will be shipped in the second quarter.

SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, which have been leading in HBM products, were shocked. After a week of investigation, the Korean government began to take action, after all, HBM chip technology has been listed as a strategic core technology in Korea.

Statistics show that in the past five years, the Korean government has dealt with as many as 96 cases of core technology leakage. By industry, semiconductors are the most common, with as many as 38 cases, followed by displays with 16 cases, and electronic products and automobiles with 9 cases each.

The estimated economic losses exceed 26 trillion won, and the number of cases per year is increasing, from 14 cases in 2019 to 23 cases in 2023.

Court orders prohibit working for Micron

Amidst the intensifying competition in the memory chip industry, a few days ago, the Seoul court made a ruling to prohibit former HBM researchers from SK Hynix from working for Micron Technology before July 26th, including employment, work, or providing consulting and labor services for Micron’s subsidiaries, offices, and affiliates.

If the injunction is violated, the individual will be fined 10 million won (about $7,511) per day.

This employee has been signing non-compete agreements with SK Hynix every year since 2015, including clauses prohibiting employment in rival companies, and also pledging not to disclose any trade secrets before leaving the company.

In July 2022, the employee chose to resign and signed a non-compete agreement with SK Hynix, prohibiting them from switching to the same industry within the next two years.

Subsequently, the employee joined Micron Technology, and upon receiving the news, SK Hynix immediately filed a lawsuit in August 2023.

The court believed that the technology leakage would benefit Micron Technology, as it could significantly shorten the time to acquire technology capabilities comparable to SK Hynix in the same field, while causing significant damage to SK Hynix’s core competitiveness.

It is widely believed in the industry that Micron Technology’s successful strategy, skipping the production of the fourth-generation HBM3 and directly transitioning to the fifth-generation HBM3E, has strengthened its position in the HBM market, largely due to because Talent poaching.

Micron Technology announced the mass production of HBM3E, but whether it passed Nvidia’s quality tests is still unknown. Meanwhile, in terms of yield and stability, there is a significant gap between Micron Technology and Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

Hundreds of employees jumped to Micron Technology

It is reported that hundreds of employees from Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have already gone to work for Micron Technology.

For Korean companies, the departure of a large number of key employees in the advanced semiconductor technology field to their competitors, such as Micron, poses a significant threat to Korea’s storage industry’s technological secrets and competitiveness.

According to data statistics, publicly available information indicates that at least 110 SK Hynix employees have joined Micron, and the actual number may be even higher.

Meanwhile, hundreds of researchers from Samsung Electronics have also joined Micron. With local recruitment included, it is expected that the number of resignations from these two Korean companies will be even higher.

Not only is Micron Technology poaching talent, but even Intel is also eyeing employees from these two companies, posing a high risk of talent loss for Korean technical personnel.

In July of last year, a Samsung Electronics engineer who was preparing to work for Intel was sentenced to 18 months in prison because this person attempted to leak 33 files containing core technology of Samsung Electronics’ foundry, which were eventually discovered.

Samsung Electronics set up a company in the United States to focus on HBM research.

However, an employee of Samsung Electronics working in the United States, who had been involved in HBM project development, subsequently joined Micron, continuing to research HBM products.

SK Hynix has an even more exaggerated case. A former employee once received awards from the Korean government for contributing to the development of HBM2E and played a decisive role in ensuring the source technology for 3D stacked HBM and participated in the development of double data rate DDR5 prototypes. However, this employee is now about to join Micron Technology.

Currently, SK Hynix is on high alert against Micron Technology, as the latter is rapidly catching up with Korea’s advanced storage industry technology.

Micron’s HBM3E will be manufactured using 1β technology, equivalent to 12nm, which SK Hynix also adopts. Samsung relies on 14nm node 1α manufacturing.

Reports show that last year, SK Hynix hold a 53% market share in the HBM market, Samsung Electronics hold 38%, and Micron hold 9%.

This year, SK Hynix has invested 1.3 trillion won in advanced packaging to increase production capacity, using MR-MUF (massive reflow underfill) packaging technology. This technology injects liquefied protective material between stacked chips to protect the equipment and prevent heat dissipation, which is SK Hynix core competitiveness in HBM.

Micron is also trying to use this technology, but it appears that it will take some time for Micron to catch up with SK Hynix.

Samsung Electronics faces a double setback

To demonstrate its technical capabilities, Samsung Electronics will continue to strive to become a partner of Nvidia.

At Nvidia’s GPU Technology Conference on March 18th, Samsung Electronics will showcase HBM3E chips and introduce CXL technology, hoping to become an open industry standard for improving product performance and efficiency.

For Samsung Electronics, this is a challenging task. It will be difficult to become a new supplier for Nvidia without significant technological breakthroughs. Of course, Samsung Electronics has just begun to make efforts, and there is no apparent progress for the time being.

Samsung Electronics has decided to make the HBM division a permanent division under the chip department. This department includes product design, solutions, and other exclusive development teams for HBM, which will also strengthen the early stable yield of the product.

Samsung 3nm advanced technology

One Samsung engineer was responsible for 3nm advanced technology and worked until July 2021, then switched to work for Intel in August of the same year.

Another engineer worked for Samsung Electronics until the end of 2023, and now works at Intel’s wafer foundry, previously responsible for mass production using the 14nm process at Samsung.

A certain employee of Samsung Electronics, working in the NAND department, went directly to Micron Technology’s NAND department in 2018.

In addition, Samsung Electronics also faces threats of employee strikes. It was revealed that negotiations between Samsung’s union and the company were not going well, and both sides were angry.

The union demanded an 8.1% wage increase, while Samsung only proposed a 2.5% increase. Later, Samsung increased the base salary increase to 2.8%, extended long-term service holidays and remaining holidays, provided comprehensive medical examinations for employees’ families, and the second round of negotiations began on March 8th, ending without agreement.

Union members stated that during negotiations for the 2024 wage increase, a senior Samsung representative

Analysis of the Global External Storage Market in Q3 of 2023

Huawei Overtakes Dell in All-Flash array by Q3

Global External Storage Market in Q3 of 2023

In the past, I used to prefer using images of beautiful ladies on the cover because most of our readers were male. Today, let’s change the style and cater for our female readers.

Over the weekend, I spent some time on the latest market data for external storage in third 2023 quarter, which is released by Gartner. Now I’m sharing my analysis with everyone.
Firstly, let’s take a closer look at the global External Controller-Based (ECB) storage market in 3Q23.

We observed that global ECB storage in Q3 had declined by 12.8%, it was a challenging situation. Refer to the data, leader Dell had declined by 27.6%, with a market share of 23.1% only. On the one hand, it should be a lowest record for Dell year-on-year. On the other hand, Huawei had grown by 7%, achieving a market share exceeding 20% for the first time. It was possibly the best performance so far. Upon closer inspection, the Q3 sales of Huawei in China market experienced a slight decline. However, its overseas markets were generally growing, maintaining a positive growing trend. Huawei has firmly secured the second place, and left NetApp far behind. Moreover, it is starting to threaten Dell’s dominant position.

According to the data from Solid State Arrays (SSA) or an all-flash array, the global market has declined by 3.5% in 3Q23. However, Huawei had been increasing by one-third, while Dell declined by 26%. This marks history that Huawei surpasses Dell by the first time, and hits the first place of all-flash Array by 3Q23.

Of course, the most valuable reference is to check the overall situation from Q1 to Q3 in 2023

Comparing to the first three quarters of the 2023, i.e., 3Q23YTD, global ECB storage declined by 9%. Dell maintained the top spot but declined by 14%. Meanwhile, Huawei caught its second place, growing by 11%, with a market share exceeding 15%.

If we only focused on SSA all-flash, there was a global decline of 2.5%. Despite Dell was declining, its first position remains relatively stable. NetApp, Huawei, and Pure Storage all had shares around 15%, statistically we considered thaty they tied for second. Therefore, the ultimate winner for the year will depend on the fourth quarter.

Now let’s explore into the performance of storage based on different purposes.

In terms of primary storage, there was an overall decline of 10.7%. Dell, Huawei, and NetApp are the top three.

For secondary storage, there was a slight decline of 0.3%. Dell and Huawei are taking main share, both of them exceed 20%.

In the backup and recovery market, there was a decline of 11.8%. Dell maintains an absolute monopoly with a market share of 68.8%. Huawei is growing rapidly, but its share is close to 9%.

Finally, let’s compare the situations in China with United States.

In the first three quarters of 2023, the ECB storage in US had declined by 14.4%, indicating a terrible situation. Dell’s market share was 38%. Pure Storage surpassed NetApp and took the second place.

In China, there was also facing a decline of 5.4%. However, Huawei maintained growth, its market share had increased to 48.7%.

Suddenly China’s SSA market also declined by 3.6%. Nevertheless, Huawei continued to rise in a downward trend, the market share was reaching 56.4%.

Conclusion

Based on the Q3 data, Huawei is maintaining steady growth while Dell is experiencing a significant decline. If this trend continues, it’s highly possible for Huawei to take the first place of global storage one day. However, my preliminary judgment is that it might not happen in the short term. The U.S. stock market is currently going well, and economic indicators are favorable. The storage market might rebound next year. Nevertheless, Huawei’s achievement of acquiring the top spot for all-flash in Q3 has brought pressure to Dell. Even though Huawei cannot enter the largest storage market in US, its share in storage market continues to grow steadily. Regardless of the changes in the external economic environment, it is not surprised that Huawei may far beyond Dell one day.

Is mobile phone bulk micro SD cards expansion necessary?

The new mobile phones in 2022 supporting external storage were few, such as the Sony Xperia 1 IV and Huawei Mate Xs 2. These new models support to use bulk Micro SD cards. I’m not sure when mobile phones started progressively losing the ability to support such expansion. Ordinary consumers can only purchase phones with higher capacity if they wish to increase their memory space. Is it true that we don’t require bulk Micro SD cards expansion? A questionnaire study on memory card expansion for mobile phones gets start recently.

bulk micro sd cards 256gb u1 class10

Bulk Micro SD Cards

In the first, users were asked how important SD memory card expansion is to them, and we can see that 45% of the respondents said it was “very good but not very significant”. And nearly 40% said: “I will not buy a mobile phone without SD memory card expansion.” About 15% of the respondents selected “I don’t need it”

how important is the micro SD slot to you?

How important is SD memory card expansion to you?

In the second poll question, “How much storage is in use on your mobile phone right now?” , 128GB to 256GB accounts for up to 35.58% of the respondents, and 64GB to 128GB is the second-largest group. Those who have more than 256GB make up the third group, and the remainder is in smaller proportions.

how much storage is in use on your phone right now?

What is your phone’s storage capacity like?

Manufacturers of mobile phones are gradually discontinuing SD memory card expansion. On the one hand, each additional hardware on phone will raise its price and weight due to the cost. On the other hand, supporting SD memory card expansion will restrict sales of versions in high capacity. Another reason is that the read and write speeds of SD memory cards are very slow. Even the fastest SD memory cards in the market only have one-tenth of those of today’s mobile phones. Comparing to some latest phones, the speed of storage cards is even slower than that. The user experience will suffer in such a circumstance. As a result, manufacturers of mobile phones have every right to control the weight issue. The solution is not to use SD memory card as expansion.

The following are some of the user comments:

Comment 1

The speed of the mobile phone is not the reason for missing SD card slot. It is entirely a matter of price! When a domestic mobile phone increases to 128G, the price gets extra 300 yuan. While buying a 160MB/S 128G SD card, it costs only a few dozen yuan. It is clear that including a SD card slot, the net profit will get 200 yuan less. It all depends on the pricing, mobile phone suppliers will not care if customers desire high capacity or not. Invest less money with a phone with less memory. People expect additional phone storage when take pictures and videos. Also, WeChat images and videos take up a lot of memory. The 128G smartphone is insufficient! Therefore, internet users should avoid from the tricks and not purchase a mobile phone with a large capacity.

Comment 2

Mobile phone memory is expanding. Furthermore, chip updates and replacements are taking longer, and users save more content in mobile phones than ever before. When you switch phones, it takes hours for transferring more than 100 GB of content to the new phone. Then you need to spend hours on uploading and downloading data. That is just a phone of around 100 GB. How will you manage a smartphone that has larger storage than 500 GB and 1 TB in the future? The data in mobile phone is not 100% safe, you may accidently lose it or suffer damage. Therefore, it is necessary to get a backup on memory. In fact, memory cards work quite fine. You can complete this process in a minute when you replace the memory card.

Comment 3

I enjoy listening to songs, and I need to download music tracks. I never make a phone purchase if there is no memory card, as the space is not enough.

Comment 4

The availability of a memory card is practical. The data may be disappearing if the mobile device gets breaks. Some people say that you can store your data in online disk. However, there is a download speed limit of the network if you are not a member.

Comment 5

Type-c connector is gradually replacing old USB port. Also, the detachable battery has altered to an integrated battery. You may barely find headphone jack in new phones, and only the charging port is available. In this way, it is convenient for selling blue tooth headphones. Additionally, the universal charger is no longer available, while the power banks are getting popular. It is a revolution of phones, why we still need keep micro-SD slot for storage?

Comment 6

Using an SD card has two main advantages. 1. Typically, the data will not get damage if you store it in card, it is a great protection in case the phone develops a problem. Moreover, you won’t be hesitant to reinstall the operating system after simply taking out the card. Second, you can simply change the card if you swift to another machine. Otherwise, how can you transfer anything 120G from the old phone to the new phone?

Comment 7

The bulk SD cards are in perfect working order. People love storing all important pictures and videos in the phone’s memory. While all unimportant music videos, TV shows and movies are stored on the SD card. If there isn’t an SD card, your phone is insufficient. And you’ll have to get a new one. This is how producers of mobile phones might generate revenue.

Comment 8

I like to take pictures, therefore I consider whether an SD card is available for a mobile phone. The storage of a mobile phone itself may not have enough room for the thousands of images, memory cards are the best solution. I was wondering if the SD card of the mobile phone can be exit and load with one key.

How ultrasonic flowmeter works with bulk SD cards

An optional built-in mass data memory for the TDS series of ultrasonic flow meters, these Bulk SD cards, which are developed by the Memory Range Technology Co. Ltd. And then it can automatically record the text-format data output by the flow meters on their internal serial bus.

Content

  1. The principle of operation
  2. The run core
  3. The flow meter settings

The principle of operation

Without opening the flow meter enclosure or removing the memory card, on the contrary, a user can still use the USB connector to copy the data file directly to the computer for further processing.

The MCU on this storage will automatically create a folder named LCEMB on the blank SD. Furthermore, the received data will be completely saved to the 0001.TXT file under the folder. A new TXT file, such as 0002.TXT, 0003.TXT, or 0004.TXT, computer will create them every time. Also, it is turning on or every 24 hours if the 0001.TXT file already exists on the bulk SD cards. Therefore, original files will not be overwritten. Instead, the newly generated file will be immediately updating with the data to be stored. Obviously consumers don’t need to be concerned that the TXT file’s size will prevent them from opening it.

The run core

Generally speaking the memory is speedier and more stable since it uses an industrial-grade 32-bit ARM series high-performance embedded processor. In addition, it can support a high-speed TF card with a capacity as large as 32G and completely support the user’s long-term use.

What’s more, the file system uses a special dynamic memory allocation algorithm to control memory consumption and release in order to improve data transmission efficiency, prevent data loss, support data storage rates of up to 14K bytes/second, and guarantee that no byte is lost over the course of prolonged operation.

The built-in memory card has a self-locking card holder as well as shockproof. On the other hand, data loss caused by unintentional poor contact between the memory card and the card holder can avoid it. And when there is no memory card or the memory card has poor contact, a buzzer will immediately sound a warning. When the memory card cannot be detected or is full, the warning will also sound eventually.

At first the memory controls a U disk and enables data copying from a USB. Secondly there is no need to install drivers because it includes a high-speed USB 2.0 interface with automated USB recognition. For instance, the power supply needs to be off before using a USB to copy data files. The memory cannot be powered simultaneously by the flow meter power source and the USB power supply.

In a word, the flow meter power supply is used by the card when it functions, negating the need for an external power source.

In order to prevent the data from being printed out simultaneously when a thermal printer is connecting to the bus, a switch to manage the printer’s power must be included.

S1 Pin definition 
Pin

Name

Specification

1

VCC

3.6V

2

GND

GND

3

NC

NC

4

Data(RX)

Data input

S2 USB Pin definition

Pin

Name

Specification

1

GND

GND

2

VCC

5V power source

3

D+

Negative data

4

D-

Positive data

Indicator light

State

Display

Working normally

Buzzer does not alarm

Data being stored

SAVE light flashes every 5 seconds

Abnormal condition

Buzzer alarms

The settings of the flow meter

In order to make sure the SD card work functionally, please follow the below configurations:

  1. Use the M50 menu to store the content you need.
  2. Use the M51 menu to choose when to start saving, how often to save, and how many times to save. Enter **:**:** for the start time of saving. When the number of storage cycles is entered as 9999, data storage is possible indefinitely.
  3. Sending the flow meter’s data to the “internal serial bus” , you need to choose it in the M52 menu.

why is my ssd getting slower ?

Many people find the computer’s operating speed gets slower after SSD is used for a long time. This is because SSD is over occupied or be erased and written for too many times. Try reinstall your computer to solve the problem.

Technological innovation From PCIe 4.0 vs 5.0

Based on the early evolution of PCIe and the key development of the applications behind it (big data, mobile internet, artificial intelligence), the demand for data traffic and technical capabilities promote each other, and the capabilities of computing, n

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