New Aitech Low-power SATA Mass Storage PMC/XMC Increases System Reliability and Data Integrity

CHATSWORTH, Calif., Feb. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Aitech Defense Systems Inc., the world's first and largest independent manufacturer of open architecture electronic boards and subsystem level products for harsh, environmentally-demanding defense and aerospace applications, now offers the M224, a single-width SATA mass storage PMC/XMC that consumes a maximum of only 4 W. The new M224 incorporates a specialized thermal frame design for exceptional heat dissipation and uses no moving parts for increased reliability.

(Photo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100218/PH57002 )

The rugged, solid-state M224, which features all soldered components, easily integrates with a number of host boards in a variety of harsh applications, such as program and variable data storage, detailed area moving maps with Red/Blue Force tracking, large databases, radar or sonar images as well as software programmable radio ELINT data and other graphical data.  

Low risk and low cost application integration is aided by the onboard PCIe and PCI-X controllers combined with the board's industry standard PMC/XMC connectors. Automatic detection circuitry configures the M224 for either PMC or XMC operation, enabling the board's use in either application.

The M224's twin banks of large, programmable NAND Flash, which provide a maximum combined capacity of 128 GB, are each managed by their own quad-channel SSD controller. This enables the tandem memory banks to operate as independent SATA II Flash disks and optimizes the board's performance by implementing interleaving and parallel operation between the channels to eliminate the low access times normally associated with Flash-based devices.  

The SSD controllers' built-in bad block management, auto-wear leveling and error correction ensure reliable high speed operation and minimize the burden on the host processor to extend the life of the Flash media. A dedicated pin routed to the M224's connectors provides support for external write protection, as well.

The onboard RAID processing is set in the hardware to eliminate the need for specially tailored drivers, and supports RAID 0 (striping), 1 (mirroring) and JBOD (concatenation) modes on both Flash disks.  The sustained sequential read rate of 170 MB/s and write data rate of 120 MB/s in RAID 0 mode give the M224 exceptional performance.

The M224 is available in air-cooled and conduction-cooled versions as well as in three levels of ruggedization depending on shock, vibration and humidity requirements.  Low level drivers for VxWorks, Windows and Linux connect to, and take full advantage of, the operating system's native SATA stacks.  No additional software is needed for normal operation.

For more information please call 888-Aitech-8 (888-248-3248), visit http://www.rugged.com/m224.htm or e-mail [email protected].

For an electronic copy, please visit http://www.simongroup.com/PressRoom/WordDocs/ait/AIT-A-1694.doc

For high res photo, please visit

http://www.simongroup.com/PressRoom/Images/aitech/AIT-A-1694.jpg

http://feeds.feedburner.com/PressRoom-AitechSubscribe to Aitech's RSS feed. http://feeds.feedburner.com/PressRoom-Aitech

http://twitter.com/AitechDefenseFollow us on Twitter. AitechDefense http://twitter.com/AitechDefense

For additional news releases from Aitech Defense Systems, please visit http://www.simongroup.com/PressRoom/aitech.php

UPCOMING TRADESHOWS:

AUSA – Winter; Ft. Lauderdale, FL; February 24-26

8th Responsive Space Conference; Los Angeles, CA March 8-11

ABOUT AITECH:

Established in 1983, Aitech offers military and space-qualified, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) embedded computing products for rugged defense, aerospace and astronautics (space) applications as well as provides radiation tolerant and full MIL-SPEC solutions.  The company provides industry-standard, open architecture VMEbus, CompactPCI and high speed serial fabric-based boards, power subsystems, mass memory, enclosures and hardware subsystem integration along with logistics, configuration control, component obsolescence and earned-value management services.

Having pioneered the development of true military VMEbus products for use in mainstream defense and aerospace applications, Aitech utilizes its broad base of off-the-shelf products and technologies to also develop customer-specific solutions, deliver superior cost-performance and reliability, and expedite time to market.  Applications for its products range from mission processors, fire control, mission control and autonomous robotic subsystems for ground vehicles as well as surface and subsurface naval platforms to tactical and strategic fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, and low- to high-earth orbit and deep space vehicles.

SOURCE Aitech Defense Systems