Xcel-200 SSD family from Smart Modular
Ready for Take-Off with Smart Modular`s Xcel-200 SSDs, for the the demanding needs of defense and industrial applications
Powerful, embedded computer system are nowadays used in all areas of automation & vehicle technology, and also serve as core system elements in civilian and military aircraft. New applications require ever more storage capacity, e.g. in order to record sensor data, for video & voice recorders and in avionics. While it is relatively simple to cover storage requirements of industrial applications with cost-efficient Hard Disk Drives (HDDs), classic magnetic data storage media are not suitable for aerospace applications as they need to fulfil very demanding standards regarding shock &vibration resistance, reliability and power consumption.
Mass storage based on semiconductor technology, so-called Solid State Disks, however, easily fulfil these high standards. Our partner, Smart Modular Technologies, has recently introduced a new product range for this market, with family name Xcel-100, respectively Xcel-200.
Overview SSDs from SMART Modular
Xcel-200 with 60GBit/s SATA Interface
The XCel-200 is a 2.5" SSD which is only 9.5 mm high. It has been designed for rough environments and achieves 60,000 I/O read/write cycles during random access and 500 MByte/s during continuous access with its SATA 6Gb interface.
The Xcel-200 complies with the military standard MIL-STD-810F, which means it can be operated in ambient temperatures beyond -40°C and +85°C. It can sustain shocks of up to 50g and vibration loads of 16.4g. The SSD can be operated at altitudes of up to 80,000 ft (approx. 25,000 m) above sea level.
Due to its extensive error-recognition & correction capacities, the Xcel-100 provides high levels of reliability and data integrity as well as multi-layer protection for the data path and the used code, data-fail recovery and permanent data integrity monitoring. The disk also supports the ATA-8 security-erase feature for applications which require secure data erasure. Data is generally encrypted and saved using AES 128-bit algorithms. The Xcel-200 will be offered with 60, 120 and 240 GByte.
Smart Modular - Xcel-200 2.5” SATA SSD
SLC NAND-Flash for a long useful life
MLC or eMLC NAND-FLASH memory is frequently used for Solid-State-Disks in PCs and servers. MLC stands for “Multi Level Cell”, indicating that each memory cell (floating gate transistor) can have 4 different load states and thus enable 2 bit data encoding, resulting in twice the capacity of single level cells (SLCs) which can have only 2 different states and thus offer only 1 bit.
However, SLC-FLASH memory provides for ten times the shelf life and can be safely erased and rewritten more than 100,000 times, while MLC cells only offer approx. 10,000 P/E cycles. They also require less error recognition & correction and have faster read/write speeds.
This is why SMART Modular uses SLC-FLASH for its Hi-Rel products, as this technology provides the required operating reliability and long useful life for the storage medium. Additionally, all used components are qualified for use in industrial temperature ranges (-40°C to +85°C).
Smart Modular - FLASH Managemen - Why and How?
Safe data
Pursuant to JEDEC JESD2181, high-reliability SSDs used by the industry or in military applications must have a bit error rate of less than 10-16. To achieve this ambitious goal, numerous measures are required, such as effective data protection and mapping information in case of power failures, to name but a few.
Such measures are usually implemented using SuperCap capacitors which carry sufficient charge to provide power during controlled shut-downs.
However, extensive analyses by SMART Modular have shown that SuperCaps do not comply with reliability requirements - failure probability can reach 1 within only a few years, particularly in high ambient temperatures (see adjacent diagram). SMART Modular therefore uses niobium oxide capacitors in its Hi-Rel products such as the Xcel-200 and the XceedIOPS. These are proven components which do not contain “wet” electrolyte and which are qualified for temperatures of up to 85°C and thus less sensitive to increasing leak currents.
