New low-power SATA mass storage PMC/XMC device released by Aitech

Feb. 19, 2010
CHATSWORTH, Calif., 19 Feb. 2010. Aitech Defense Systems Inc., released the M224, a single-width SATA mass storage PMC/XMC that consumes a maximum of only 4 watts.

CHATSWORTH, Calif., 19 Feb. 2010. Aitech Defense Systems Inc., released the M224, a single-width SATA mass storage PMC/XMC that consumes a maximum of only 4 watts. The new M224 uses a specialized thermal frame design for heat dissipation and with no moving parts for improved reliability.

The rugged, solid-state M224 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 electronic intelligence (ELINT) data and other graphical data.

Low risk and low cost application integration is aided by the onboard PCI Express and PCI-X controllers combined with the board's 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 gigabytes, 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, company officials say.

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 megabits per second and write data rate of 120 megabits per second 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, Window,s 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, visit http://www.rugged.com/m224.htm.

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