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... click for larger image - Kilobyte Military storage - Killerbyte
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SSD Reliability
the Fastest SSDs
Are MLC SSDs Safe in Enterprise Apps?
SSD Myths and Legends - "write endurance"
Data Integrity Challenges in flash SSD Design
Fast Purge SSDs - when encryption isn't enough
Encryption - performance & reliability impacts in flash SSDs
Rugged & Reliable Data Storage: flash SSDs overview - classic article (2002)
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Targa Series 4 - 2.5 inch SCSI flash disk
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the XceedSecure family of rugged SSDs includes PATA SATA and SCSI interfaces with fast secure and destructive erase options - click for more info
PATA / SATA / SCSI rugged SLC flash SSDs
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What's the best way to design a flash SSD?
and other questions which split SSD opinion
More than 10 key areas of fundamental disagreement within the SSD industry are discussed in an article here on StorageSearch.com called the the SSD Heresies.
click to read the article - the SSD Heresies ... Why can't SSD's true believers agree upon a single coherent vision for the future of solid state storage? ...read the article
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SSD Pricing - where does all the money go?
SSDs are among the most expensive computer hardware products you will ever buy.

Understanding the factors which determine SSD costs is often a confusing and irritating process...
Clarifying SSD Pricing - where does all the money go? - click to read the article ...not made any easier when market prices for identical capacity SSDs can vary more than 100x to 1! Why is that? ...read the article
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military / rugged data storage news
Microsemi 's new 16GB PBGA PATA SLC SSD

Editor:- August 27, 2010 - Microsemi now offers a 16GB SLC NAND version of its PBGA SSDs - which are designed specifically for use in the rugged and demanding environments of defense and aerospace applications.

The surface-mountable PATA SSD has an integrated 32-bit RISC flash controller which manages wear leveling, error correction and power interruption protection.


Foremay describes secure erase options for SSDs

Editor:- August 20, 2010 - Foremay's CTO, Jack Winters presented a paper - Secure Erase Options for SSDs (pdf) - at the recent Flash Memory Summit.

The paper describes the need for SSD data purge and the 3 techniques which the company supports in its Avalanche Secure Erase Suite.

"In a regular SSD, deleting a file only removes its name from the directory or file table. User data remains until overwritten by new data. Even reformatting the SSD leaves data intact," said Jack Winters, CTO of Foremay, during the Flash Security workshop. "The Avalanche Secure Erase Suite employs various technologies to overwrite or destroy all user data in allocated blocks and file tables, as well as data in reallocated defective blocks." ...read the article (pdf)

Editor's comments:- other hardware data destruction technologies for SSDs are also available from other vendors.


Update on the smallest PATA SSD

Editor:- August 18, 2010 - Micross Components indicated that a future version of its microSSD (the world's smallest PATA SSD - which has a footprint of 14 x 24 x 1.3mm and weighs only 0.8 grams) may be offered with extended operation upto 105 degrees C.


new directory of old style (parallel) SCSI SSDs

Editor:- July 10, 2010 - StorageSearch.com today published a new directory of (parallel) SCSI SSDs.

SCSI SSDs aren't exactly a new topic in the history of the SSD market. I benchmarked a SCSI SSD 20 years ago for use with an embedded SPARC server. And there was a time when 95% of SSD manufacturers made SCSI SSDs. Today that figure is 8%..

This is a market which has resisted the upward suction of the SSD market bubble. Despite that - I know from many reader inquiries that customers with legacy servers, and equipment designers with legacy products still search for SCSI drives - and in many cases SSDs are replacing HDDs - simply because the original hard disk manufacturers have end of lifed SCSI models. But many of the new SCSI SSDs available today aren't simply fossilized versions of old designs. They include new security, performance and reliability features.

As an editor - creating a new SCSI SSD list has been low on my priorities - because I thought the market had nearly gone away - and I hoped I wouldn't have to do it. I was wrong. More SCSI SSDs are being shipped today than at any time in the past. It's never going to be a huge market - but for those of you who have been looking - here it is.


SSDs - the big picture

Editor:- June 21, 2010 - StorageSearch.com today published a new article - What's the big picture message re SSDs?

If you often find yourself explaining to your VC, lawyer or non technical BBQ guests why you spend so much time immersed in SSD web pages - this may be the link they need.


Memoright's rugged SSDs are designed to meet both US and CN standards

Editor:- May 25, 2010 - Memoright previewed the themes of its SSD display next week at Computex.

Memoright will show visitors new SSDs which meet both the U.S. MIL-STD-810F/G and China GJB standards - which include environmental tests including low pressure for altitude testing, exposure to wide temperature (both operating and in storage), humidity, fungus, salt fog for rust testing, shock, vibration and so on.

Memoright will also highlight its the latest enterprise level SSD products - the ST series which balance system performance with solid reliability.

Memoright president Alex Kuo comments "With proprietary core technologies, Memoright is capable of providing efficient and customized solutions & support to a large variety of applications and is proud of the capability of providing a series of products meeting the strictest military standard of MIL-STD-810F/G which comprehends various extreme environmental tests."


flash SSD integrity architectures for space-craft

Editor:- April 13, 2010 - for those interested in flash SSD data integrity issues - Phil White, President of ECC Technologies has released a white paper - NAND Flash Memories for Spacecraft (doc).

Phil has been working with ECC for almost 37 years and his company is developing future ECC designs to allow systems architects to develop NAND flash memories that are highly reliable and fault-tolerant even if the NAND flash chips themselves are not so reliable.

NASA is using ECC Tek's designs in multiple missions. 2 of the designs are in space at the present time and are working perfectly. Phil White recently wrote a document for NASA and JPL which outlines how to design NAND Flash memories for spacecraft. The 22 page "preview" document excludes confidential data but gives a taste of the technology available for licensing. ...read the article


Themis launches 1U rugged RAID box for its military servers

Editor:- May 4, 2010 - Themis Computer has launched the RES-XStore - a 1U (17" deep) storage system for mission-critical applications in harsh environments.

The RES-XStore includes 4 hot pluggable canisters, each containing 3x 2.5" drives. The RES-XStore communicates with the host server, via an add-in HBA and PCIe x8. The RES-XStore includes a RAID controller that supports RAID levels from 0 to 60. Each canister is hot pluggable. As with all products in the Rugged Enterprise Servers family - the new storage enclosure is designed to operate in the most challenging environments.

"Themis is re-defining 'rugged computing solutions' to mean rugged servers and rugged storage from the same vendor. Our rugged server and storage systems provide enhanced RAS, as well as industry leading SWAP", stated William Kehret, president of Themis Computer.


Radar buffs get 8GB XMC

Editor:- March 25, 2010 - Curtiss-Wright today announced it has doubled the memory from 4GB to 8GB on its MM-617 buffer memory XMC card - which is designed to provide volatile, deep storage for a wide range of military applications including RADAR, signal intelligence, and image processing.

Editor's comments:- customers always want more memory for this type of application. In one project I managed in 1991 - we designed a system which captured radar data and streamed it continuously to 16 x 6U of the fastest COTS memory cards then available at the maximum operating speed of the VMEbus. That required weeding out badly designed backplanes and memory cards - and playing with early generations of Altera FPGAs. It was similar projects streaming to hard disk arrays (and analyzing the data ASAP) where I learned a lot of useful things about storage too.


Viking's DOM MIL certified

Editor:- March 3, 2010 - Viking Modular Solutions today announced that its SATA Cube3 128GB DOM (launched in March 2009) has successfully completed tests pursuant to the MIL-STD-810F specification.


Aitech's new XMC SSD

Editor:- February 18, 2010 - Aitech launched a new model in its family of PMC/XMC SSDs.

The M224 has 128GB capacity, and hardware RAID options which support the onboard flash array. Sustained sequential R/W speeds are 170MB/s and 120MB/s respectively. The M224 is available in air-cooled and conduction-cooled versions as well as in 3 levels of ruggedization depending on shock, vibration and humidity requirements. OS support includes VxWorks, Windows and Linux.


WEDC Launches Secure PATA SSD in PBGA

Editor:- January 18, 2010 - White Electronic Designs has introduced a 4GB secure PATA SLC SSD in a 22mm x 27mm PBGA for embedded military applications.

This product is designed for applications in aircraft, communications and missiles. A hardware and software triggered fast purge can eliminate all data in less than 10 seconds and device options include sanitization compliant with various government agency specifications.


ioSafe Launches Disaster Proof Backup SSD

Editor:- January 5, 2010 - ioSafe launched the ioSafe Solo SSD - an ultra rugged USB / eSATA external flash SSD with upto 256GB capacity ($1,250) designed to provide data protection against disasters such as fire, flood, and building collapse.


RunCore Ships 1st PXI Express SSDs

Editor:- January 5, 2010 - RunCore has started shipments of the 1st SSDs aimed at the PXI Express market (a standard which brings PCIe performance and functionality into the robust modular form factor popular in automated instrumentation test systems).

RunCore's 3U CPCIe\PXIe SSD card provides upto 768GB MLC or 384GB SLC capacity and has sustained R/W speeds upto 400MB/s. Available with industrial operating temperature range and MIL-STD-810F processing, the module provides a fast purge rate of 5GB/s.


pureSilicon Unveils New Military SSDs

Editor:- October 26, 2009 - pureSilicon says it will start shipping its Renegade R2 Series 2.5" SATA SLC flash SSDs later this week.

Sequential R/W speeds are 255MB/s and 180MB/s respectively. IOPS performance is:- 18,000 IOPS random read: (4K) and ; random write: 1,200 IOPS @ 4K) and proprietary SiPher™ data security technology.

The drives are available immediately in a wide range of densities (4GB, 8GB, 16 GB, 32GB, 64GB, 128GB) in a low profile (9.5mm height) 2.5" form factor and -40°C to +85°C operating temperature.

256GB, PATA, 1.8", and encryption versions will start shipping in Q1 2010.

"pureSilicon is dedicated to providing high-performance, rugged storage solutions to the defense, military, industrial, and government markets," said Jason Breakstone, founder and CEO of pureSilicon. "While many SSD manufacturers are focusing their efforts on the mass consumer markets, pureSilicon is committed to designing and delivering technologies that will provide significant benefits to our customers such as full-disk encryption and data declassification methods. Renegade R2 is designed to operate in the harshest conditions."

pureSilicon says the specs it publishes are "steady-state performance" results. These are achieved by performing proper preconditioning, which prepares the drive for real-world usage scenarios and yields realistic performance benchmarks. Other SSD manufacturers claim 'clean' (new) drive performance specifications on a new drive, and users should expect to see performance reductions in real world use as a clean drive settles into its stabilized (steady) state — once the drive is nearing capacity and is consistently performing garbage collection, wear leveling, and bad-block management.


SMART SSDs Selected for Avionics Servers

Editor:- October 20, 2009 - SMART today announced that it has been selected by Harris Corp to provide SSDs for use in its Mass Storage Unit program.

The new MSU, which is part of a larger F/A-18 program, is the first of a new family of avionics file servers.

Harris selected SMART's XceedSecure 2.5" SATA SLC flash SSD for the in-flight file server application. XceedSecure high-performance SSDs range in capacity from 32GB to 256GB and include EraSure® technology, which provides secure erase features that comply with current military data-elimination standards.


Fast Purge flash SSDs

Editor:- September 25, 2009 - StorageSearch.com today published a new directory of Fast Purge flash SSDs.

The need for fast and secure data erase - in which vital parts of a flash SSD or its data are destroyed in seconds - has always been a requirement in military projects. Although many industrial SSD vendors are offering their products with extended "rugged" operating environment capabilities - it's the availability of fast purge which differentiates "true military" SSDs which can be deployed in defense applications.


SMART Announces MIL-STD-810F 256GB 2.5" SATA SSDs

Editor:- August 11, 2009 - SMART Modular Technologies announced a new range of rugged 2.5" 256GB SSDs for defense applications that will ship next month.

The SATA compatible SSDs are 16mm high. Data declassification compliance is implemented by the company's EraSure technology. The models comply with MIL-STD-810F environmental specifications for operating shock, vibration, humidity and altitude, and each drive passes a demanding 8 hour, full-temperature range burn-in test prior to shipment.

"SMART's new 256GB SSDs are ideal for applications such as tactical fighters and unmanned aerial vehicles because they require a combination of high storage density, extreme ruggedness, high reliability, defense-grade data security, and low power," explained Mark Dupaul, SMART's Senior Product Marketing Manager. "Fortunately, the continuing price decline of SSDs is making it more affordable to use them in applications that require high-capacity storage."

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