This week has been rife with new developments that will make the gadgets of the future faster, slimmer and better equipped. SATA-Io working group makes sure that next-generation SSDs will have a new connector while WildCharge plans to take over the world of gadgets with their plans. Intel has been very busy this week, coming up with a new connection standard, releasing new chips and starting a developer program.
Toshiba Debuts The First Ever SSD with mSATA Connector
SSDs have been coming in all sorts of different connectors all this time. Users have had to choose from all sorts of different connectors and find the one that suits their needs the best. But that means that they might not find a manufacturer they like. Now all of that is about to change, thanks to the SATA-IO working group. They have released a new connector standard called mini-SATA or mSATA that will be used in future SSDs.
Toshiba has become the first one out the gate with new 32nm and half-slim SSDs that use the mSATA connectors. The new connector makes it possible to have more compact SSDs and hence make devices carrying those SSDs much more compact than they are now.
WildCharge Aims At 500K Devices With Wireless Charging
WildCharge is a company that has been known for providing wireless charging options for various handheld devices. So far, it has done this as a third-party. For example, you have the special wireless charging sleeve for the iPhone that allows you to set your iPhone down on the inductive plate for charging. No hassles with wires and plugs. Nothing to lose or trip over either. Just install the charging surface in a convenient place and you are ready to go.
WildCharge plans to make this the norm with the industry. So they have been making agreements with device manufacturers for including this feature natively within the devices. According to the company, so far about 100,000 devices have come onboard through agreements with multiple companies. That is indeed a large figure but WildCharge is looking for more.
They have announced that they would like to remain on their current trajectory and reach 500,000 devices by the end of this year. If they do manage to do so, it will be quite an achievement. And it will also be good for the gadgets industry in general because it might once and for all give us a standard charging system for most of our devices.
Intel Atom Developer Program
Intel has been eyeing the netbook market for quite some time now. Yes, they are the dominant players in the market almost to the point of monopolizing the entire segment. But they are possibly feeling threatened with the arrival of not one but two competing AMD chips, ARM’s announcement of taking Intel head-on and VIA’s attempt at taking a chunk out of the market.
In the face of this, they have done something that will either prove to be greatly successful or a complete bucket of blah. Intel has kicked off a developer program that is centered on the Atom processor. The idea here is that the netbooks are used to the full potential because the existing applications are built for larger screens and faster machines (hey, we like it that way!).
The special SDK released for this program will help developers develop for multiple operating systems and also multiple run-time environments like the Java Virtual Machine and Microsoft Silverlight. Intel is of course trying to come up with something that will make sure that it remains the Alpha for a long time to come and hopefully make them the Omega too. More on their other efforts in the next post.
