First USB Flash Key at 1TB !

Kingston Digital, Inc., the flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology company, Inc.,, announced the DataTraveler HyperX Predator 3.0 USB flash drive.

It is the world’s largest-capacity USB 3.0 flash drive as it will be available in a 1TB capacity later in Q1. It is shipping now in 512GB capacity. It is the fastest USB 3.0 Flash drive in the Kingston family, with speeds of up to 240MB/s read and 160MB/s write. It has also achieved USB 3.0 certification.

“Our new DataTraveler HyperX Predator 3.0 allows users to store their entire digital world on a portable USB 3.0 Flash drive,” said Andrew Ewing, flash memory business manager, Kingston. “The large capacity and fast USB 3.0 transfer speeds allow users to save time as they can access, edit and transfer applications or files such as HD movies directly from the drive without any performance lag.”

DataTraveler HyperX Predator 3.0 is compliant with next-generation USB 3.0 specifications and is optimized for newer PCs with USB 3.0 ports. Users who work with large video or graphics files, or gamers who like to travel with their entire library will appreciate the drive’s speed and capacity. The casing is made of zinc alloy metal for quality, shock resistance and design.

It ships with a custom Kingston key ring and a HyperX valet keychain. It is also backwards compatible with USB 2.0.

DataTraveler HyperX Predator 3.0 USB flash drive is part of the HyperX Predator family, which represents the highest-performance products offered from Kingston HyperX. The drive is backed by a five-year warranty, free technical support and Kingston reliability.

Compatibility

Windows 8
Windows 7 (SP1)
Windows Vista (SP1, SP2)
Windows XP (SP3)
Mac OS X v.10.6.x +
Linux v. 2.6.x+

Part Number: Capacity and Features

DTHXP30/512GB: DataTraveler HyperX Predator USB 512GB
DTHXP30/1T: DataTraveler HyperX Predator USB 1TB

HyperX Predator 3.0 Features and Specs:

Capacities: uncompromised storage to carry your digital world on a portable USB drive
Performance: speeds to save time while transferring content rich data
Zinc alloy metal casing: resilient protection for data in a cutting-edge design
HyperX valet keychain: accessory for a stylish twist to portable storage
Guaranteed: five-year warranty and free technical support for added peace of mind
Speed: USB 3.0: 240MB/s read and 160MB/s write; USB 2.0: 30MB/s read and 30MB/s write
Backwards compatible: with USB 2.0
Capacities: 512GB, 1TB (later Q1)
Dimensions: without key ring: 2.8346″x1.0606″x0.8268″ (72mmx26.94mmx21mm); with key ring: 3.4854″x1.0606″x0.8268″ (88.53mmx26.94mmx21mm)
Operating Temperature: 32°F to 140°F (0°C to 60°C)
Storage Temperature: -4°F to 185°F (-20°C to 85°C)
USB 3.03: latest USB standard guarantees backwards compatibility with USB 2.0

Comments

Kingston is proving that terabyte flash keys are arriving and with fast transfer rate (up to 240MB/s read and 160MB/s write). Its new HyperX Predator 1TB USB 3.0 flash drive (DTHXP30/1TB) is priced at $1,000 on Amazon.com. It's an extremely high figure, but, as usual, companies apply high price when they are in the position to be the first and only ones in their market, here in term of capacity. The 500GB unit costs $500. You can remark that the price of flash keys - and it's about the same for SSDs - are directly correlated to their capacity.

Per comparison, the Backup Plus Slim Portable HDD, also at 1TB, is sold by Seagate for $90. For HDDs, price per gigabyte generally decreases with the capacity even if it's not here the case for Seagate, it 500GB Slim Portable Drive, also with USB 3.0 and one of the external magnetic unit in the world (8mm z-height), costing $45.

Dimensions of the Kingston stick is 72mmx26.94mmx21mm without key ring or a volume of 41cm³, the figures being 113.5mmx76mmx12.1mm and 103cm³ - or more than twice more - respectively for the Seagate 1TB external HDD.

Another remarkable high-end USB 3.0 key has been more recently launched by Mushkin, the Ventura Ultra, up to 480GB, with excellent specs (455MB/s reads and 445MB/s writes, up to 39K 4K random IO/s) thanks to LSI/SandForce SF-2281 controller, generally used for SSDs only. No price or availability has been revealed, but its current 240GB unit, available, is priced at $256 at Amazon.com. So you can bet that the 480GB device will cost around $512. Also the size is not known but it's probably the same as the former Mushkin 240GB device: 73.36x19.88x9.07mm, only 13cm³.

On its side, Lexar recently announced the availability of a 256GB flash key for the end of 1Q14.

In 2010, Kingston released the DataTraveler 310, a 256GB USB flash, replacing the 256GB DataTraveler 300, released in July 2009 and probably the first one at this capacity.

Historically the first USB key was designed in 2000 by M-Systems (being acquired by SanDisk in 2006 for $1.5 billion), a company launched by NAND flash pioneer Dov Moran. Trek Technology (ThumbDrive) and IBM (DiskOnKey at 8MB from M-Systems) began selling the first USB flash drives the same year.

The first HDD was IBM 350 Ramac at 5MB. Today the highest capacity is 6TB on HGST helium 2.5-inch unit.

In the future, it will be a real challenge for external 2.5-inch HDDs, and even external SSDs, to compete with these tiny and extremely fast flash keys. For HDDs, the last argument is the price, the trend here being in favor of NAND devices with prices decreasing faster than for magnetic rotating disk drives.

One US analyst in an analyst company specializing in HDDs and now SSDs, told us recently:" HDDs are dead."