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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. |
 |
... |
Why can't SSD's true believers agree upon
a single coherent vision for the future of solid state storage? ...read the article | | | |
| . |
| 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... |
 |
...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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Editor:- With thousands of articles going back more than 11 years,
finding things here on StorageSearch.com can be quite hard, so I hope you'll
find the site search function above (provided by
Google) useful. | |
| |
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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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