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BTW, intel reports tomorrow.
IMO, If they were to buy a company like IDCC and pay a lot. I'd think they want to wash it down with a CC, explaining the value to intel.
I've been thinking the same thing.
I think MSFT reports tomorrow, too.
Samsung seeks to merge smartphone operating platforms
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/17/us-samsung-tizen-idUSTRE80G02V20120117?feedType=RSS&feedName=innovationNews&rpc=43
By Miyoung Kim and Tarmo Virki
SEOUL/HELSINKI | Tue Jan 17, 2012 8:24am EST
(Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co plans to merge its own 'bada' mobile phone operating software with an open-source Tizen platform as the world's biggest smartphone maker seeks alternatives to Google's Android in its devices.
The new platform will have to go further than Nokia and Palm which have both failed with developers and device makers in the last year or so as the market became increasingly consolidated by Google and Apple.
A Samsung spokesman said the company was working on merging bada and Tizen, confirming comments from senior vice president Kang Tae-jin in a Forbes magazine interview last week.
"With a strong leadership from a major vendor such as Samsung, I think the OS may have a chance, as most vendors based on Android now are looking for an alternative to Google's dependency," said IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo.
Support by many handset manufacturers resulted in a more than 50 percent market share for Android, which then faded after Google unveiled its $12.5 billion offer for phone maker Motorola Mobility last year.
Samsung, which emerged as the No 1 smartphone manufacturer on the back of booming demand for Android models in the third quarter, joined forces with Intel last year to strengthen its mobile software push.
TIZEN-BADA
In September two Linux software groups, one backed by Samsung and another by Intel, agreed to jointly develop Tizen, a new operating system for smartphones and other devices, by merging their LiMo and Meego platforms in a bid to gain wider industry and consumer support.
The open-source Tizen platform could be used for devices like smartphones, tablets, Internet-enabled TVs, netbooks and in-vehicle infotainment systems.
Tizen is still in development, with its predecessor MeeGo used in a few devices, including Nokia's N9 smartphone.
Samsung's dominant role could also help to quickly kick-start the new platform, but runs the risk of failing if it does not offer other manufacturers the opportunity to have their input.
"This is a logical step but it's strategic importance to Samsung is likely to discourage others contemplating Tizen as an Android alternative," said Geoff Blaber, analyst at British wireless research firm CCS Insight.
Google's Android accounted for 53 percent of the global smartphone market in the third quarter and Samsung's bada platform just 2.2 percent, still ahead of Microsoft's Windows Phone, which Nokia picked as its sole future platform.
Earlier on Tuesday, parent Samsung Group, South Korea's largest business group, said it was raising its 2012 investment to a record $41.4 billion as it banks on logic chips and OLED displays to repeat its success in flash chips, computer memory chips and LCD flat-screens.
Good stuff....thanks.
Cache SSD Shipments Expected to Explode (INTC) (OCZ)
http://www.streetinsider.com/Trader+Talk/Cache+SSD+Shipment+Expected+to+Explode+(INTC)+(OCZ)/7079403.html
January 12, 2012 3:13 PM EST
OCZ Technology (Nasdaq: OCZ) is moving higher in afternoon action Thursday following research from IHS saying cache SSD shipments will explode, driven by Intel's (Nasdaq: INTC) Ultrabook initiative.
IHS sees shipments jumping a hundredfold by the end of 2015. "Fueled by rising sales of ultrabooks, shipments of cache SSD units in 2012 are projected to reach 25.7 million units, up from 881,000 units in 2011 when the technology first appeared", according to an IHS iSuppli Storage Space Market Brief.
A cache SSD looks like a regular solid state drive made up entirely of NAND flash, IHS explains. However, a cache SSD is not an independent storage drive and must run alongside a separate hard drive. Cache SSDs make PCs more responsive, allowing faster boot-up times than hard disk drives.
The mention of OCZ in the research was not related to its cache SSD offerings, but OCZ does have cache SSD. Here's what they said: "Cache SSDs are also less expensive than solid state drives, making them a more economical means to enhance system performance than by the wholesale replacement of hard disk drives with solid state drives. For instance, the Vertex 2 SSD from California-based OCZ Technology Group with 120 gigabytes costs about $160—the same price as Intel’s 311 Series cache SSD paired with a 500-gigabyte hard disk drive, suggestive of the kind of appeal that cache SSD solutions might offer for today’s price-conscious consumers."
"The mobile revolution simply cannot continue without more and better use of the limited range of usable spectrum, a crucial natural resource for the 21st century. So even if Congress does sort out incentive auction legislation quickly, the spectrum crunch will be far from over. In fact, it's only just starting."
IDCC's more pipes, bigger pipes, better pipes to the rescue!
January 11, 2012, 3:06 PM ET.OCZ Ups Competition With FIO, Says Sterne Agee.
By Tiernan Ray
Sterne Agee’s Alex Kurtz today reiterates a Buy rating on shares of enterprise storage vendor OCZ (OCZ), and a $13 price target, writing that a meeting with the company’s management here at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas suggest the company may be able to take business away from Fusion-IO (FIO), and may already be doing so.Kurtz writes OCZ CEO Ryan Petersen was asked if he’s stealing Fusion’s business with Facebook.
“From his response it sounded like they are in a strong position to contend for business in the Social Media space but he wouldn’t directly comment on Facebook,” writes Kurtz.
“Our discussions with contacts close to the social media website have always suggested additional suppliers would be qualified, and we believe OCZ has competitive products for this market.”
Kurtz also likes the company’s acquisition of privately held Sanrad of Mahwah, New Jersey, announced on Monday. Sanrad’s “application acceleration” gear may help propel OCZ’s competitiveness, as it helps alleviate problems enterprises encounter when running VMWare’s (VMW) software “vSphere” and “vMotion”:
The challenge of IO contention within vSphere is creating new challenges for PCIe-based storage in the host […] The SANRAD/VXL architecture works at the host level to provide application acceleration in lieu of a software agent in the OS approach that ioTurbine is pursuing with Fusion-io. SANRAD’s approach creates a pool of virtualized cache which enables seamless vMotion support that in turn provides scalable cache coherency across physical clusters. We would also note that SANRAD’s background as a virtual storage appliance company provides SANRAD with a technical skill set around storage virtualization that appears somewhat unique in this market.
OCZ shares today are up 6 cents, or 0.8%, at $7.68.
http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2012/01/11/ocz-ups-competition-with-fio-says-sterne-agee/?mod=yahoobarrons
Cloud computing company selects Suaad Sait as its first-ever CMO
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Rackspace-Names-Chief-bw-508560542.html?x=0
OCZ Technology at CES 2012
a portion of the article:
"The SANRAD software caches VM data intelligently to the Z-drives, using their proprietary algorithm. One of the killer features that is unique to this OCZ system is the fact that VMs can be moved to different physical servers, even while the cache remains on the original Z-drive it was written to. This means only one of the servers in your VM cluster needs to have the Z-drive in it and all of the servers will cache to it using an iSCSI link. We watched in real time as the tester moved 8 VMs to a different server, while the performance merely “blipped” for a moment, it came right back up to the 500mb/s level it had been running at.
The demo was basically jaw-dropping, which is a rare occurrence at CES. OCZ continues to make smart acquisitions that show they are clearly positioning themselves to be a future leader in enterprise storage."
http://icrontic.com/article/ocz-technology-at-ces-2012
Schmidt-Storm Alert: The Google Chairman Didn’t Like Your Question
January 10, 2012 at 7:16 pm PT
Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt stopped by CES today and sat down with CNET’s Molly Wood for a discussion on the “Next Big Thing” in tech, with a focus on connectivity between devices.
Schmidt is known for his candid (and sometimes odd) remarks, and today’s event didn’t disappoint.
“Google TV’s doing well,” he said to Wood, when asked about the company’s Internet TV efforts (an assessment with which Logitech’s CEO might disagree). Schmidt and Wood talked about the handful of electronics makers announcing Google TV plans this week, and Schmidt said a “whole bunch” of additional partners are expected later this year.
Schmidt then touted Google Music, and said that Larry Page is leading the effort to standardize the user interface throughout Google’s properties.
But when asked about Microsoft as a competitor, Schmidt dismissed the company’s efforts. “Microsoft is trapped in an architectural problem they may not get through. Oh, I’m so sorry,” he said, feigning chagrin.
Apple, Schmidt said, has done very well, and said as a former board member he’s proud of that fact. But he still emphasized Google’s openness compared to Apple’s controlled system. Schmidt said Google is seeing 700,000 Android activations a day, totaling more than 200 million Android phones in the world today. “Just do a little math with the numbers I just told you, and Android is on a billion unit plan.”
In terms of Google’s core strategy for mobile, Schmidt said Google’s plan is to get everybody using the Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, and stressed, “We absolutely allow our partners to change the interface, as long as they don’t change user compatibility.”
Regarding the early success of the Kindle Fire — and how the device skirts the Google Android marketplace — Schmidt said, “Kindle Fire has also done well, but they chose — and they did so legitimately — they chose it not to be compatible with Android guidelines and the Marketplace. So it comes with some limitations; on the other hand, it comes with a very low price point.” He noted that, as with the original Kindle, Amazon seems to be taking a books-first strategy.
Later on in the event, Wood asked Schmidt what he thought the most important part of the tech ecosystem is, whether it’s services, hardware or software.
Schmidt seemed slightly flustered, answering, “It’s all of them,” before going on to suggest, “I’ll answer another question for you, which is, what was the most surprising thing in 2011?”
That got a big laugh from the audience.
But Schmidt paid no mind. He just forged full steam ahead to say that the increasing focus on the cloud platform model means everyone’s a winner, and said the “secret” in computing in these platforms is to make them “as open as possible.
http://allthingsd.com/20120110/schmidt-storm-alert-the-google-chairman-didnt-like-your-question/?reflink=ATD_yahoo_ticker
Quite frankly, all these alliances are making my head fog. Where the heck is IDCC news in all of this?!
The fruit company??
Mr. Softy??
Anyone.......?
"IBM/Facebook Rumors 10-Jan-12 04:39 pm Just heard back from someone at the analyst day. He talked to Craig Hallum himself. R4 is at both IBM and Facebook for testing.
This is as close as we're probably going to get from a "confirmation" for a while. I'm sure the company is bound by NDA's."
(follow this thread on yahoo)
http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks_%28A_to_Z%29/Stocks_O/threadview?m=tm&bn=102097&tid=21196&mid=21196&tof=1&rt=2&frt=2&off=
--------------------
On another note: Rather gigantic volume today, eh?
Are there bona fide links for either IBM or Facebook "deals"? Thanks in advance....
"aww man.. I just heard they strike a deal with IBM from CES"
----------
Someone is posting it as news coming from Craig Hallum attending CES (no link, tho').
This was posted here in the past couple days:
"OCZ's enterprise showcase demonstrations will include, among others, an IBM System x3650 M3 highlighting the performance potential of the new Z-Drive R5 PCIe Gen 3 in a Linux server environment, as well as a HP ProLiant DL370 G6 server equipped with two Z-Drive R4 RM1616s delivering 1,400,000 IOPS per card with Windows Server 2008. In addition, drives based on the next-generation Indilinx Everest 2 platform will be demonstrated, as well as a prototype of "Lightfoot," an external Intel Thunderbolt™ SSD unveiling a new generation of high-performance portable storage."
Apple vs. Samsung and the reality of the Android ecosystem
http://gigaom.com/2012/01/10/apple-vs-samsung-and-the-reality-of-the-android-ecosystem/
By Om Malik Jan. 10, 2012, 5:22am
A winter ago, I postulated that thanks to Samsung’s ability to build and source mobile components — from memory to processors to screens — the company would be able to become one of the leaders in the smartphone ecosystem. The battle, in fact, would be between Samsung and Apple, something that we have reported multiple times over the past year or so. Lately that battle is actually between the iPhone and the Galaxy brands.
Last week my colleague Erica Ogg wrote that Samsung sold an estimated 87.6 million to 94.6 million smartphones in 2011 (though it made a lot less money than Apple, which sold about 58 million iPhones during the first nine months of 2011).
Of course, people didn’t believe me when I pointed out that HTC was about to hit the skids — it eventually did — and that Motorola is going to become an albatross around Google’s neck. It will — and the missing profit targets are only a start.
“A Googorola vertically-integrated smartphone line could counterbalance Samsung’s influence,” said Jean-Louis Gassée, a former Apple employee and more recently an investor in technology companies. I don’t buy his argument. How is it that the company that was perpetually in trouble starts doing well because someone else bought it?
It may not seem obvious today, but in a few years, as the rest of the world moves away from feature phones to touch-enabled, Internet-connected phones, we will see Huawei and ZTE, two Chinese companies, go head-to-head with Samsung. And they are so dominant in Africa and parts of Asia that we are going to see them become major players in the low-to-medium end of the market.
With the emergence of Huawei (which launched a really thin and cool Android phone on Tuesday) and ZTE, which have their roots in the telecom equipment business, one should expect HTC and Motorola (and the rest of the wannabes like Sony and LG) to get squeezed out of the market. Samsung will become the high-end Android leader while the two Chinese companies will become low-end giants before they start their eventual march up the smartphone food chain.
Antonio Rodriguez, an entrepreneur turned VC (with Matrix Partners), writes on his blog:
What all of the talk of Android momentum and inevitability obscures though is that the dream of a common Android that developers can write/deploy apps to and users can become familiar with is burning. More specifically, three events in 2011 burned it and we’re now holding on to a charred corpse that is quite different: an Android so splintered that it will make the glass on your Galaxy Nexus S2 Prime Pie dropped on concrete look like an ice skating rink.
The three events: 1. Google buying Motorola and alienating all of the tier one handset makers (none of which to this day have the spine to state it publicly but all of which have now come up with their “plan B”), 2. Microsoft extracting licensing fees from these same handset makers in the form of IP indemnification and 3. Amazon shipping a wildly successful, yet unidentifiable, version of an old Android build over the holiday . . . and making it a wild success. Of the the [sic] three, #1 was completely avoidable but the other two may just have been the name of the game when there is so much at stake in the fight of who paints the interface for the next generation of computing.
These changes mean challenges for the developers who now need to make some tough choices. Over the holidays a developer friend asked me which Android his startup should focus its energies on. Since his company is making apps focused primarily on the U.S. and European market, it makes no sense for him to start obsessing about Huawei or ZTE, at least in the near term. Motorola and HTC are slip-sliding away.
My answer to him was to go for Amazon’s Kindle Fire for tablets and Samsung for the phones. Samsung and Amazon are both spending an incredible amount of advertising dollars to promote their platforms, and it makes perfect sense for small startups (depending on their regional focus) to tie their lot with them. Between those two platforms, he would be backing winners that would bring the highest return on investment for his little company.
That is, and will be, the reality of the Android ecosystem.
Not over bought in my book.
It's tough to see days like this, but there are three anyalysts reiterating 'buy' with price targets of $13. $14 and $16. I'm prepared to wait. Did you read the transcript of yesterday's call? There is big growth on the way.
They're having an analyst day at CES today, and a new demo with SANRAD vMotion. I expect another PR or so during the rest of CES.
OCZ Technology's Earnings Call Transcript
F3Q12 Results -
http://seekingalpha.com/article/318438-ocz-technology-s-ceo-discusses-f3q12-results-earnings-call-transcript?source=yahoo
"....We’ve recently announced a multitude of new client wins. However, in the interest of remaining brief, I won’t go into detail on this call. Our OEM and enterprise pipeline is stronger than ever. From laptop and server makers to Fortune 500 companies, we continue to rapidly expand our client base across segments, and our OEM clients continue to ramp, becoming an increasingly large percentage of our business.
Additionally, we continue to bill direct to the enterprise sales force, who enable our products with our enterprise clients by going into enterprise accounts alongside our OEM partners to ensure that we not only win the business, but that our end customers are satisfied with the result."
--------------------
"....For our shares outstanding, with the SANRAD acquisition we now have approximately 54 million shares outstanding and 10 million shares subject to warrants and options. Weighted basic shares are estimated to be 53 million in Q4 and weighted diluted shares are estimated to be approximately 56.5 million at the current price levels.
Turning to guidance, we are starting some quarterly revenue and gross margin guidance. We expect that our fourth quarter ended February 29 to be in the range of $105 million to $120 million, and revenue for our fiscal year ending Feb 29 to be in the range of $360 million to $375 million. GAAP gross margins are expected to be between 23.5% and 25.5% in the fourth quarter.
For expenses, the SANRAD acquisition is expected to add approximately $700,000 of cost per quarter and as Ryan described, there are multiple revenue opportunities. We expect this deal to be accretive in the last half of fiscal 2013...."
Thanks, magilla for posting all this Nokia CES info....interesting, to say the least.
"3:32PM Elop: "Our principal competition is the other ecosystems.""
January 9, 2012, 5:50 PM ET.OCZ Off 5% Despite FYQ3 Rev Beat, Upbeat Forecast.
By Tiernan Ray
Shares of solid-state storage maker OCZ Technology Group (OCZ) are down 38 cents, almost 5%, at $7.72 this despite the company this afternoon beating fiscal Q3 revenue expectations and forecasting Q4 above expectations as well.
Revenue in the three months ended in November nearly doubled, year over year, at $103.1 million, yielding EPS of 6 cents.
Analysts on average had been modeling $98.6 million in revenue. Estimates for earnings per share are slightly confusing. FactSet had 5 cents consensus, which would suggest the company beat by a penny, though some other sources have the company merely meeting a six cents consensus.
For the current quarter, the company sees revenue in a range of $105 million to $120 million. That is ahead of the consensus $105 million estimate.
http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2012/01/09/ocz-off-5-despite-fyq3-rev-beat-upbeat-forecast/?mod=yahoobarrons
OCZ Technology Group Reports Fiscal 2012 Third Quarter Results
Revenue Nearly Doubled to $103M, SSD Revenue up 130%,
Fifth Consecutive Quarter of Gross Margin Expansion Drives non-GAAP Earnings
SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 9, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, reports its third quarter results for the fiscal year 2012 (Q3'12), which ended on November 30, 2011.
Q3'12 Financial Highlights
Net revenue in Q3'12 was a record $103.1 million, and increased 94% compared with net revenue of $53.2 million reported in Q3'11, and increased 31% compared with net revenue of $78.5 million reported in Q2'12.
SSD revenue reached a record $95.5 million, an increase of 130% compared with Q3'11 SSD revenue of $41.5 million, and a 34% increase compared with Q2'12 SSD revenue of $71.1 million.
On a trailing twelve month basis, SSD revenue was approximately $294 million, up 237% compared with $87 million in the prior trailing twelve months period.
Gross margin increased to 22.5% compared with 14.4% in Q3'11, and 21.6% in Q2'12.
GAAP net loss for Q3'12 was $0.9 million or $0.02 loss per share compared with a GAAP net loss of $8.3 million or $0.29 loss per share in Q3'11.
Non-GAAP net income for Q3'12 was $3.0 million or $0.06 income per share as compared with a non-GAAP net loss for Q3'11 of $0.9 million, or $0.03 loss per share.
"We are pleased to report another quarter of record revenue and increased margins. This trend is being driven by an increase in market adoption of our SSDs, and is supported by OCZ's substantially increased investments in R&D and the ability to execute on bringing new leading-edge products to market ahead of the competition," said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology. "Looking forward, we believe OCZ's momentum positions us well to continue to increase market share in what is widely regarded as one of the fastest growing markets in technology."
"Exiting the quarter, we saw a material increase in demand for our higher margin products, specifically our PCIe line. This trend, when taken together with the continuing expansion of OCZ products now being shipped with our Indilinx controllers, supports an increase in the rate of our gross margin expansion on a go forward basis," added Petersen.
"Also, today we announced the acquisition of flash virtualization pioneer Sanrad Inc. Sanrad's field proven virtualization products have numerous enterprise deployments and the VXL software platform delivers application optimized caching and virtualization technology for VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Citrix Xen-based server virtualization platforms. This acquisition can be transformational for OCZ as, by integrating the Sanrad virtualization software with products such as our Z-Drive series of PCIe SSDs, we can now offer a complete solution for the virtualization of even the most intensive applications," concluded Mr. Petersen.
Recent Business Highlights
Demonstrated at Storage Visions our next generation Z-Drive R5, the world's first PCIe Gen 3 Solid State Storage Solution, running in the IBM System x3650 M3. The Z-Drive R5 utilizes the Kilimanjaro Native PCIe SSD controller platform to deliver in excess of 2.5 Million IOPS and 7GB/s of bandwidth.
Announced the Z-Drive R4 CloudServ equipped HP ProLiant DL370 G6 Server running more than 3 Million IOPs with up to 16TB of PCIe-based flash storage per PCIe device.
Launched several Indilinx Everest platform based products including the Petrol SATA 6 Gbps Series of SSDs, utilizing the next generation NAND flash technology and reduces SSD per gigabyte costs by as much as 30%, and the Octane SATA 3.0 and SATA 2.0 SSD series SSDs which are the world's first 1TB capacity SSD in a compact 2.5 inch format.
Completed the acquisition and integration of the Abingdon UK-based storage team from PLX Technology, and substantial associated intellectual property.
Announced the acquisition of certified VMware partner, Sanrad Inc. for $15 million in OCZ common stock.
Signed a proposal letter with Wells Fargo Capital Finance ("WFCF") for a $50 million senior secured credit facility to replace the current $25 million credit facility with Silicon Valley Bank ("SVB") which expires in early February 2012. As in the current SVB facility, borrowings under the WFCF facility will be limited to the borrowing base based on OCZ's receivables. This new credit facility is subject to finalization of a definitive agreement and final WFCF approval. It also provides for a potential expansion to $75 million if certain conditions are met.
Recent Sales Highlights
OCZ Indilinx SSDs based on the acclaimed Everest Series SATA 3.0 (6Gbps) platform are the default storage solution for the newest LG Electronics' notebook, the XNote Z300 based on the Intel® Ultrabook™ initiative.
OCZ's range of mSATA SSDs have recently been certified by Intel® for integration into Intel Ultrabook thin form factor notebooks.
OCZ SSDs were selected by Voxel for managed hosting in custom, on-demand dedicated servers.
OCZ Deneva 2 SSD Series was qualified by PSSC Labs for integration into workstations, HPC servers, and datacenter appliances.
OCZ PCIe SSDs were selected by CIARA for integration into the Company's premium KRONOS S Line Workstations.
OCZ Deneva 2 was qualified and integrated into OliveHD's award winning O4HD and O6HD music servers.
Revenue I nformation
Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/company-news-story.aspx?storyid=20120109-01579&title=ocz-technology-group-reports-fiscal-2012-third-quarter-results#ixzz1izyb6lqk
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/company-news-story.aspx?storyid=20120109-01579&title=ocz-technology-group-reports-fiscal-2012-third-quarter-results
I noticed this cross Bloomberg wire the other day:
Ford to open R&D lab in Silicon Valley come 2012, wants to be closer to the action
By Dante Cesa posted Jan 6th 2012 12:01AM
Following in the footsteps of Verizon and AT&T, it's now Ford's turn to open up its very own research center here in Silicon Valley. A prudent choice too, as Dearborn's become more invested in advanced infotainment, not to mention bonafide smartphone apps. Slated to open in the first quarter of 2012, it reckons the center will help "prepare [Ford] for the next 100 years" as it scouts out new technologies and partnerships with local startups and universities alike. Mum's the word on exactly where the new R&D lab will reside, but those interested can learn more about it and its sister facilities -- whom Ford lovingly dubs its "innovation network" -
http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/06/ford-to-open-randd-lab-in-silicon-valley-in-2012/
OCZ Continues to Push the Performance and Capacity Envelope for Cloud Optimized Solid-State Storage
http://ih.advfn.com/p.php?pid=nmona&article=50672847
"...."Once again we have been able to leverage our increased R&D strength and our understanding of client needs to change the face of solid state storage and deliver innovative new solutions far ahead of our competitors, demonstrating technology leadership across all product categories."
OCZ will introduce next generation solutions designed to deliver higher performance, reliability, and storage capacity to meet the demands of the enterprise market with industry-leading products. OCZ products to be unveiled at CES include:
Z-Drive R5 – Utilizing the OCZ and Marvell co-developed Kilimanjaro platform, the fifth generation Z-Drive R5 is designed to accelerate "big data" like never before. As the world's first PCIe x16 Gen 3 SSD, which supports up to 16GB/s of total bandwidth, the R5 will be 2012's most advanced SSD, featuring performance that reaches up to an incredible 2.52 million IOPS and 7.2GB/s sequential transfers per card, with unlimited scalability and performance aggregation capability. With optional power fail protection the R5 will be available in a range of form factors including full height, half height, and 2.5-inch PCIe. The R5's industry-leading performance and storage capacities make pure flash storage in mission-critical applications possible.
Indilinx Everest 2 – The SATA 3.0-based third generation Indilinx controller is designed specifically for I/O-intensive workloads in a wide range of applications, supporting sequential speeds of up to 550MB/s, and up to 105,000 random read and 90,000 Random Write IOPS with the newest 2xnm flash technology. The Everest 2 platform supports up to 2TB capacity in a compact 2.5-inch form factor.
Z-Drive R4 CloudServ RM1616 – Making 16TB of storage on a single PCIe card a reality, the new Z-Drive R4 CloudServ RM1616 is the newest addition to the award-winning R4 Series. With performance of up to 6.5GB/s and over 1.4 million IOPS, the Z-Drive R4 CloudServ's level of concentrated performance and capacity enables system architects to design more productive infrastructures while lowering operating costs associated with hard drive technology.
Chiron 4TB SSD – The world's fastest and highest capacity SATA SSD for the enterprise, the Chiron Series provides a staggering 4TB in a compact 3.5-inch form factor. With performance exceeding SATA 3.0 bus capabilities, Chiron delivers speeds above 560MB/s and 100,000 IOPS. Eliminating the need for high capacity HDDs as anything other than backup devices, the Chiron Series enables mass SSD storage and is capable of deploying up to 96TB of storage in a 4U rackmount server chassis.
OCZ's enterprise showcase demonstrations will include, among others, an IBM System x3650 M3 highlighting the performance potential of the new Z-Drive R5 PCIe Gen 3 in a Linux server environment, as well as a HP ProLiant DL370 G6 server equipped with two Z-Drive R4 RM1616s delivering 1,400,000 IOPS per card with Windows Server 2008. In addition, drives based on the next-generation Indilinx Everest 2 platform will be demonstrated, as well as a prototype of "Lightfoot," an external Intel Thunderbolt™ SSD unveiling a new generation of high-performance portable storage."
OCZ Technology Acquires SANRAD Inc.
Ocz Technology Grp. (MM) (NASDAQ:OCZ)
Today : Monday 9 January 2012
OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced it has acquired SANRAD Inc., a privately held provider of flash caching and virtualization software and hardware.
"This transaction is an important step in OCZ's enterprise solid state drive strategy," said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology Group. "It significantly enhances the ability for customers to increase datacenter performance and efficiency by putting more virtual machines (VM) on a server without slowing down the VM's ability to access stored data, thus substantially lowering the overall cost of deployment. SANRAD's VXL has the ability to optimize caching strategies based on the application and support for VMware's vMotion, which sets the solution apart from others in the industry, allowing enterprises to finally realize the benefit of running a single unified virtualized environment," concluded Mr. Petersen.
"SANRAD's software is a wonderful complement to OCZ's Flash technology," said Oded Ilan, CEO of SANRAD Inc. "We are excited with the opportunity created by this unique combination between storage virtualization, caching and PCIe Flash storage. We are proud to join the OCZ development team and to establish its design center in Israel."
SANRAD was founded in 2000 and its R&D center is based in Tel Aviv, Israel. SANRAD currently sells its line of flash caching and virtualization software and hardware to storage and networking OEMs such as NEXSAN and Brocade as well as directly to the enterprise through its network of Value Added Resellers.
SANRAD transforms storage access in virtualized environments with NAND flash. Its technology allows data centers to fully leverage their flash based storage investments, extending the lifespan of the storage infrastructure and maximizing efficiency. Virtualized data centers gain the benefits of NAND flash performance while retaining the key benefits of server virtualization such as vMotion, high availability, and disaster recovery.
SANRAD's virtualization software and solutions are VMware, Microsoft, and Citrix certified and are expected to accelerate the adoption of OCZ's PCIe-based flash storage solutions in virtualized environments. These solutions include:
SANRAD's VXL software delivers SANRAD's flash caching and virtualization technology for VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix Xen into server virtualization platforms. VXL software enables efficient dynamic distribution of host-based flash resources to guest virtual machines via its application optimized cache engine. The VXL SCSI connectivity enables support of most modern operating systems including all variants of Windows, FreeBSD, Solaris and Linux servers, in contrast to other caching solutions which require an installation of an agent or driver on each VM.
VXL supports key enterprise-class storage datacenter requirements such as QoS, high availability clustering, mirroring, WAN replication, snapshots and multiple storage virtualization functions. Unlike many other virtualization and caching algorithms, VXL guarantees complete cache migration via vMotion, as cached data is treated as a virtualized storage entity and can be dynamically migrated between ESX servers along with the virtual volumes without performance loss and without powering down the server, interrupting service of the VMs.
SANRAD's StoragePro software provides comprehensive remote storage management and virtualization services and ensures simple, efficient use of storage resources for numerous connected servers. Its open, heterogeneous system architecture provides complete storage flexibility, enabling IT managers to manage a single virtual pool of storage which is critical in today's enterprise environments.
The aggregate purchase price of the acquisition was $15 million comprised of approximately 2.1 million shares of OCZ common stock that was issued on closing.
Merriman Capital, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Merriman Holdings, Inc. (OTCQX:MERR), served as OCZ's exclusive financial advisor for the transaction.
http://ih.advfn.com/p.php?pid=nmona&article=50669698&symbol=OCZ
"but the shorts are still in control!"
I know.
OCZ is a long term winner, imo. I'm not a trader and have accumulated a big position here for the long haul.
Earnings after the close today.
OCZ's Portable Thunderbolt SSD: Lightfoot
The Lightfoot is about a quarter away in terms of release, but it is going to be a Kilimanjaro based (OCZ/Marvell native PCIe SSD controller) Thunderbolt SSD. The drive will be available in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB capacities, priced at around $2/GB. It's still a bit premature in my opinion to really nail down pricing or performance, but OCZ is claiming the drive will be able to deliver up to 750MB/s (presumably for the highest capacity drives).
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5321/oczs-portable-thunderbolt-ssd-lightfoot
OCZ Technology initiated with an Overweight at Piper Jaffray
Target $16. :theflyonthewall
http://www.theflyonthewall.com/permalinks/entry.php/OCZid1554836/OCZ-OCZ-Technology-initiated-with-an-Overweight-at-Piper-Jaffray
OCZ SSDs Using Indilinx's Everest Platform Now Available in LG(R) Z330 Ultrabooks(TM
Indilinx, a leading provider of solid state drive (SSD) processors and a subsidiary of OCZ Technology Group (Nasdaq:OCZ), announces OCZ Indilinx SSDs based on the acclaimed Everest Series SATA 3.0 (6Gbps) platform are shipping in LG Electronics' thinnest notebook yet, the Super Ultrabook Z300 based on the Intel® Ultrabook™ initiative.
"We are excited to continue our partnership with LG Electronics and provide our Indilinx Everest based OEM SSDs for integration into the company's exciting new Super Ultrabook Z300," said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology. "These custom OEM Indilinx SSDs are the ideal solution for the Z300's ultra slim and stylish form factor, and help deliver a superior overall computing experience for customers with quicker transfer speeds and faster boot up."
LG will begin shipping its Z330 Series with the custom designed ultra-slim Everest-based mSATA SSD in 256GB capacities as standard equipment, providing a truly instant-on experience as well as a faster, more energy-efficient storage option than mechanical hard disk drives (HDDs). The custom developed Everest solution is 25 percent slimmer than traditional 9.5mm 2.5-inch laptop hard drives and SSDs, enabling the new breed of LG premium Z330 Ultrabooks to support lower height dimensions without sacrificing storage capacity, speed, or reliability.
As the market for slim form factor notebook computers continues to evolve, Indilinx based solid state drives address the demand for improved performance, increased battery life, and lightweight design functionality.
http://ih.advfn.com/p.php?pid=nmona&article=50667942&symbol=OCZ
OCZ Enterprise SSDs on Display [Storage Visions 2012]
http://www.storagereview.com/ocz_enterprise_ssds_display_storage_visions_2012
JANUARY 8TH, 2012 by Brian
OCZ showed off three unannounced enterprise storage solutions, along with a portable external SSD at Storage Visions. The showcase includes four high-speed connection types, including PCIe with the new Z-Drive R4 CloudServ, SAS 6.0Gb/s with the DRAM-powered æonDriv, SATA 6.0Gb/s with the new Everest-powered Chiron SSD, and even a consumer-targeted Lightfoot external SSD utilizing Intel's Thunderbolt.
OCZ Lightfoot Portable SSD
Lightfoot is an external SSD that leverage's Intel's Thunderbolt interface which is capable of up to 750 MB/s transfer speeds. Lightfoot will be available in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB capacities. Release date and pricing isn't immediately available.
OCZ Z-Drive R4 CloudServ
The CloudServ uses SandForce's latest SSD processor, the SF-2481, which is designed just for use in enterprise cloud computing environments. The R4 CloudServ offers up to 16TB of solid state storage on a single PCIe card. On the performance front this translates to throughput speeds of up to 6.5 GB/s and over 1.4 million IOPS. Other highlights include OCZ's VCA 2.0, two SuperScale accelerators and low CPU and DRAM usage.
OCZ Chiron SSD
The OCZ Chiron is a 3.5" enterprise grade SSD that offers capacity points up to 4TB with a SATA interface, a new capacity record for 3.5" SSDs. In practical terms, this means up to 96GB of SSD storage in a 4U rackmount server. Chiron uses an Indilinx processor to generate throughput of 560 MB/s and 100,000 IOPS.
OCZ æonDrive
The æonDrive is a drive that uses DRAM as NV memory instead of NAND, making endurance a non-issue. The æonDrive uses a SAS 6Gb/s interface to deliver ultra-low latency speeds and throughput of 140,000 4K IOPS and in excess of 500,000 512b IOPS. This drive is aimed at financial and high transactional type uses.
Google, Oracle Get Trial Date In Android Patent Dispute
1/4/2012 7:43:00 PM - Dow Jones Business News
By John Letzing, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- Google Inc. (GOOG) and Oracle Corp. (ORCL) have been scheduled to go to trial over an intellectual-property dispute related to Google's mobile phone software in March, a development that could start to draw the lengthy spat between technology giants to a close.
According to a filing Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the case is scheduled to go to a jury trial on or after March 19.
Oracle sued Google in August of 2010, alleging that Google's Android mobile software infringes on patents and copyrights associated with Oracle's Java technology.
Oracle has argued that it may be owed billions of dollars as a result of the alleged infringement, while Google has argued that companies such as Oracle are unfairly seeking to undercut Android's success by targeting it with misguided patent litigation.
The chief executives of both companies met face to face last year in an attempt to reach a settlement over Oracle's allegations, though that effort fell short.
A trial had originally been expected to begin in October, though it was ultimately pushed back due to a scheduling conflict with a criminal trial.
Oracle obtained Java when the Redwood Shores, Calif. software giant acquired Sun Microsystems in early 2010.
Google has complained that Oracle is among the firms waging war against Android with "bogus patents."
Google has meanwhile stocked up on its own patent arsenal in hopes of better protecting itself from infringement litigation.
The company announced in August it plans to buy Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. (MMI) for $12.5 billion, which would grant it thousands of additional patents, while it has also obtained thousands of patents from Oracle rival International Business Machines Corp. (IBM).
Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/company-news-story.aspx?storyid=20120104-00113&title=google-oracle-get-trial-date-in-android-patent-dispute#ixzz1ioQK9A2b
That FOTW piece has created a runaway freight train today.
i OS 5.1 beta reveals Apple’s plan to soon ship iPads, iPhones with quad-core chips
Mark Gurman Apple Inc
http://9to5mac.com/2012/01/06/ios-5-1-beta-reveals-apples-plan-to-soon-ship-ipads-iphones-with-quad-core-chips/
inShare.13January 6, 2012 at 6:00 am
Speed increases are an expected part of Apple’s iOS device hardware upgrades, but what Apple has up their sleeves for speed enhancements is typically up for debate. The first-generation iPad clocked around 1GHz with the single core A4 processor, and —a year later—Apple bumped the iPad’s chip to dual-core-speed with the A5 processor. While not quite confirming that a quad-core processor will power Apple’s third-generation iPad, we have obtained evidence that suggests Apple is currently working on quad-core iOS devices.
Hidden deep inside the latest iOS 5.1 beta is updated processing-core management software that not only supports the dual-core processing enabled by the A5 iPhone and iPad chip, but also quad-core processing. The references to quad-core iPhone and iPad chips come by way of a hidden panel that describes cores that are supported by iOS device hardware. The updated core management software includes an option of “/cores/core.3,” and this represents a fourth available processing core… more details after the break:
Extremely reliable and knowledgeable people familiar with iOS’s inner workings explained to me that core references begin at “0.” For example: A single core device would be limited to ”/cores/core.0,” and a dual-core device would come in at ”/cores/core.1.” A “core.2? (which is not referenced in iOS code) would be a triple-core processor according to this labeling method. iOS 5.1 beta 2 now includes core.3, a seemingly quad-core chip from Apple. Below, you can view a comparison between the pre-iOS 5.1 beta iOS core management software and the iOS 5.1 beta version. The dual-core A5 chip, on the bottom, has the “core.1,” and the quad-core chip, on top, supporting iOS 5.1 beta is marked with the “core.3.”
Apple leaving references to quad-core chips in the iOS 5.1 beta is notable because iOS 5.1 is the software currently being tested against the third-generation iPad. In addition, as we previously revealed, Apple is currently testing an unreleased “iPhone 5,1? against the iOS 5.1-beta software. We cannot conclude that due to iOS 5.1 including quad-core processor references, Apple’s next-generation iPad and iPhone will include a quad-core chip, but it seems reasonable based on Apple starting with a single core chip in 2010 and moving to dual-core in 2011. A quad-core chip in 2012 would fit the pattern. On the technical side, Apple is already rumored to be working on a quad-core “A6? processor, and such processors were said to be ready in 2012.
Also, Asus just released a quad core Android Tablet and it is unlikely that Apple would let Android tablets get a year out in front before matching the hardware.
The implications of an iOS device with a quad-core processor are vast. A quad-core processor can help devices power very high-resolution displays (such as the rumored iPad 3 with a Retina Display), and even power very advanced software like a rumored Final Cut Pro for iOS. Overall, a quad-core processor should add extra horsepower to gaming and overall operating system navigation, and —as we saw with the iPhone 4S— it will likely make actions like snapping photographs work even quicker. Steve Jobs told biographer Walter Isaacson that he would like to reinvent photography, and we think the ability for phones to snap photographs in an insanely quick fashion fits that dream.
yee-haw....there's a pop!
OCZ Technology and Marvell to Debut Next Generation PCI Express Z-Drive R5 Solid State Solution at Storage Visions 2012
Ocz Technology Grp. (MM) (NASDAQ:OCZ)
Today : Friday 6 January 2012
OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, and Marvell (Nasdaq:MRVL), a worldwide leader in integrated silicon solutions, today unveiled the industry's fastest and most versatile PCI Express (PCIe) storage system, the Z-Drive R5. The increased performance, reliability, and endurance of the Z-Drive R5 is designed to take PCIe-based solid state storage to the next level for enterprise environments.
The Z-Drive R5 features a jointly developed "Kilimanjaro" OCZ and Marvell native PCIe to NAND flash controller platform, allowing for completely scalable performance and redundancy while eliminating the need for a separate storage controller, thus reducing the cost to deploy high performance solid state storage systems in the data center.
The native PCIe Z-Drive R5 offers an intelligent, hardware-meets-software managed solution designed to dramatically accelerate database, enterprise, and virtualization applications. Combining high-performance architecture with OCZ managed software, the Z-Drive R5 provides second-to-none performance, flexibility, durability, and enhanced reliability features, allowing datacenters to rely on a PCIe-based SSD as their primary Tier 0/1 storage solution and a viable end-to-end SAN replacement.The Z-Drive R5 is ideal for demanding computing environments and features:
•Incredible bandwidth capabilities and maximum transactional performance
•High capacities up to 12TB
•Ideal for all enterprise data types with both compressible and non-compressible files as well as large data sets
•Complete storage subsystem management with OCZ Virtualized Controller Architecture™ 3.0 software functions
•Compatible with VMware ESXi and ESX, Linux, Windows Server 2008, and OS X to support a wide range of systems and servers
•Complete power fail protection option for maximum data integrity
•Full height and half height sizes, ideal for space constrained 1U servers and multi-node rackmount servers
•MLC, eMLC, and SLC NAND Flash options
"We are continually pushing the envelope to deliver innovative PCIe SSDs to address challenges that our clients face when processing and managing ever growing amounts of complex data sets," said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology. "The Z-Drive R5, leverages the powerful Kilimanjaro platform to deliver superior performance, greater capacity, and an enhanced hardware and software feature-set that is unmatched in the industry. This best-of-breed next generation native solution enables clients to eliminate I/O bottlenecks for even the most data intensive server and enterprise storage applications."
"Marvell is excited to work with OCZ on this native PCIe to NAND flash controller platform, based on our 88NV9145 silicon," said Alan Armstrong, vice president of Marketing for the Storage Business Group at Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. "We believe the PCIe SSD market will rapidly shift to a native PCIe to NAND architecture, and the Kilimanjaro platform represents OCZ and Marvell's strong collaboration in bringing this highly scalable architecture to market."
The Z-Drive R5 will debut at Storage Visions 2012 in the OCZ booth (No. 13) and will also be showcased at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in the Marvell booth (No. 30542) located in the South Hall 3 on the upper level
http://ih.advfn.com/p.php?pid=nmona&article=50647632&symbol=OCZ
from the article: "however, the promise of Nokia’s smartphone patent portfolio is apparently leaving Microsoft execs’ drooling"
So what is IDCC's portfolio....chopped liver?
I think 2012 is going to be a big growth year for OCZ. I know you guys trade it a lot....I'm buying and holding for a good run into double digits.
Good luck with your trades.........
OCZ.....busy week, next week:
January 8, 2012 OCZ is proud to be a Silver Sponsor of this year's Storage Vision Conference in Las Vegas, NV!
SV 2012 explores the convergent needs of digital storage to support cloud content distribution and sharing, user generated content capture and use and professional media and entertainment applications.
Location
Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas,
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Jan 08 - Nov 13 Join OCZ as we take another CES by storm! We will be showcasing our industry leading SSD solutions by appointment only in the Aria hotel.
Location
Las Vegas, NV
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January 9, 2012 OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs), will host its fiscal 2012 third quarter conference call for the period ended November 30, 2011 on Monday, January 9, 2012 at 5:00 PM ET (2:00 PM PT). Ryan Petersen, CEO, and Arthur Knapp, CFO, will present the Company's financial results on the call.
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January 12, 2012-- OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced that Arthur Knapp, Chief Financial Officer, will present at the 14th Annual Needham Growth Conference, to be held at the New York Palace Hotel in New York on Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 10:00am eastern time. A live webcast, as well as a replay, will be available on the investor relations events section of OCZ website at www.ocztechnology.com.
January 5, 2012 10:26 EDT OCZ theflyonthewall.com: OCZ Technology to have positive news flow at CES conference, says Craig-Hallum
Crait-Hallum's checks indicate OCZ Technology will have significant news flow at next week's CES conference. The analyst expects major customer announcements and views risk/reward as favorable. Shares are Buy rated. :theflyonthewall
http://www.theflyonthewall.com/permalinks/entry.php/OCZid1553748/OCZ-OCZ-Technology-to-have-positive-news-flow-at-CES-conference-says-CraigHallum
OCZ Technology Signs Ingram Micro (UK) as a Distribution Partner
OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, has signed a distribution agreement with Ingram Micro (UK), a Division of Ingram Micro Inc. (NYSE:IM), to increase the availability of OCZ's SSDs for business and enterprise clients.
A Fortune 100 company, Ingram Micro is the largest global wholesaler of technology products and supply chain management services and will greatly expand the OCZ presence in the UK market.
"Ingram Micro is a recognized leader in the region for the distribution of premium storage solutions, and we are pleased to partner with Ingram to make our client and enterprise solid state storage products more available to customers throughout the region," said Richard Singh, CSO of OCZ Technology Group. "Ingram Micro's clients can now take advantage of the complete range of OCZ's best-of-breed SSD solutions which are designed to push the envelope in performance, reliability, and total cost of ownership."
"With the solid state drive market in steep growth, it is important to us that our portfolio of available product is meeting the needs of our SMB and Enterprise customers," said Mike Farrah, Commercial Director at Ingram Micro. "OCZ has a powerful focused offering, and we are pleased to take this opportunity to bring the products to a wide audience with immediate availability."
Ingram Micro will be distributing OCZ's complete line of performance solid state drive solutions to its expansive customer base. Flash storage continues to revolutionize many aspects of computing and IT including performance, durability, and power efficiency for enterprise applications over traditional hard drives.
http://ih.advfn.com/p.php?pid=nmona&article=50630415&symbol=OCZ
try this:
http://vimeo.com/25824624
OCZ Delivers Deneva 2 mSATA Solid State Drives for Intel(R) Ultrabooks(TM)
http://ih.advfn.com/p.php?pid=nmona&article=50611815&symbol=OCZ