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Reading, United Kingdom –Solid State Disks Ltd (SSDL) and Arraid LLC, advanced storage systems design, development and integration specialists, have been invited to exhibit on the UK Pavilion stand at the International Air and Space Fair (FIDAE), in Santiago, Chile, between 9th and 14th April.

 

FIDAE is Latin America’s oldest and most widely recognized aerospace, defence and security exhibition. This year’s event will be a multi-sectorial event covering the following areas: civil and commercial aviation, defence, airport equipment and services, homeland security, aircraft maintenance and space technology.

 

“We’re delighted to have been invited to exhibit at this year’s FIDAE,” comments James Hilken, SSDL’s and Arraid’s Sales & Marketing Director. “Within many of the sectors the event covers, equipment is used that was designed decades ago and uses legacy data storage devices, such as early generation SCSI, IDE (PATA) hard disk and tape drives and even ESDI, Shugart, and IDC floppy disk drives. With their moving parts, these drives are starting to fail.”

 

Hilken goes on to say that users are discovering to their dismay that spare drives purchased when the host system was new are failing as soon as they are powered up. “These drives are meant to be regular use otherwise you get problems. In the case of a still-boxed hard disk drive that’s been sat in stores for decades, the heads will have dropped and now be in contact with the disk’s surface. Spinning it strips the surface of its magnetic material.”

 

SSDL and Arraid will be using FIDAE to showcase and discuss its solid-state, swap-in replacements for electromechanical drives. Being solid-state they have no moving parts, are high reliability, draw less power and are quieter. Moreover, security is improved and more can be done with solid-state drives, such as networking and memory management.

 

SSDL and Arraid’s invitation to exhibit at FIDAE was received at about the same time the company officially launched its SCSIFlash-Fast™ drive at Southern Manufacturing & Electronics in Farnborough, United Kingdom; a product launch that received much interest from (and coverage in) the technical trade press.

 

SSDL and Arraid have also been invited to an evening reception before FIDAE starts that will be hosted by Louise de Sousa, His Majesty’s Ambassador (HMA) to Chile. In attendance will be other exhibitors, leading members of the armed forces and VIPS in the region.

 

About SSDL

Established in 1989, Solid State Disks Ltd (SSDL) is the industrial division of the Reactive Group of companies and specialises in the design, development and integration of advanced storage systems for mil/aero, commercial and industrial applications as well as the distribution of solid-state Flash memory and DRAM technologies.

Arraid is a privately held Arizona, USA corporation, and forms part of the Reactive Group of companies. Reactive Group has its headquarters in the United Kingdom but operates worldwide specialising in the design, development and integration of advanced storage systems for mil/aero, commercial and industrial applications as well as the distribution of solid state flash memory technologies.

www.reactive-group.com

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Written By: David T. Dunn

1. Introduction

The United States Armed Forces and global allied militaries depend upon a variety of aging computer platforms. These “legacy” computers were used in many military test stands. A large number of these older ATE stations remain in use today, providing critical testing capability for early versions of military aircraft and weapons systems. These mature military ATE’s generally cannot be re-hosted to newer computer platforms, so they must be kept running as is –some for many more years. The primary weakness of these legacy computers are their data storage peripherals, which are the leading cause of ATE downtime.

 

2. The Legacy Computer Peripheral Problem

Computers built in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s were relatively expensive, but highly reliable. Hence they were used in many important ATE applications. Computer systems like the Hewlett-Packard HP-1000, widely used in military ATE, still operate with reasonable reliability today. The same cannot be said for their peripheral storage devices.
Disk drives, tape drives, magneto-optical (MO) drives, and floppy drives, all wear-out during operation. These devices contain many moving parts, which gradually degrade. This wear is inevitable. Further, many of these peripherals use magnetic media that can be difficult — if not impossible — to source. This obsolete media is also in a state of continual decline, over time. Valuable digital data must be migrated forward to newer technology if it is expected to survive.

For the personnel and organizations tasked with maintaining ATE stations, finding replacement devices, piece parts, and media is a never-ending struggle. There are many small businesses that claim to provide “factory reconditioned” parts but these are scrap dealers — buying and selling used hardware – often with no means of testing what they sell.

This reality can be a major problem for end-users, who often cannot trust the ATE parts they are installing — if they work at all. Buyers of used hardware sometimes must order many more devices than they need because of the DOA rate associated with used hardware.

Extending the service life of ATE stations by installing used peripherals really makes no sense. There are a finite number of any particular type of used computer peripheral in the world so the quality of obsolete devices will only get worse with each passing year. What often remains on parts dealer’s shelves are leftover devices with intermittent problems or devices where the operational history is completely unknown to the dealer.

 

3. The Emulated Computer Peripheral Solution

The solution to using obsolete computer peripheral hardware and media is to install brand-new peripheral emulators. These products are identical in form, fit, and function to the obsolete peripherals they replace. There are no software changes required and the original data and power cables can be used. The installation process is simple and peripheral emulators are basically maintenance free.

There are a number of additional advantages to using emulated peripherals that are worthy of consideration:

– An emulated peripheral will usually pay for itself over time. The cost savings from reduced downtime, zero repair fees and no logistics issues, will eventually offset the cost of these devices.
– There are no system integration costs as the emulated peripherals run on the same host software using the same data/control cables, and the same power cable.
– The use of Compact Flash (CF) memory can greatly extend the storage life of archived data. Once this new technology is installed all historical data can be gradually transferred over to longer-term CF storage.
– A disk drive emulator can allow for multiple drive sectoring. Each device can be sectored into multiple devices.
– A disk drive emulator can do internal backups to a secondary internal device. Faster saves and more convenient backups can become an option.
– A disk drive emulator can allow for access to storage data via an optional Ethernet port allowing image saves and restores to alternate host systems(like a laptop).
– In situations where expensive and exhaustive device certifications may be required an emulated peripheral is often treated as a “like-kind” replacement, not requiring any special recertification.
– Emulated peripherals can be reprogrammed and then reused to solve other storage issues.

 

4. In Conclusion

All of the issues associated with the use of obsolete data storage hardware can be eliminated by using emulated computer peripherals. These solid-state devices may be custom programmed to mimic whatever computer peripherals that require replacement. Emulated peripherals can completely transform an aging ATE station. The weakest part of the ATE (the data storage peripherals) evolves to become the strongest part of the subsystem. Long-term data storage concerns are eliminated. Support personnel are free to be assigned to other tasks. Logistics personnel will have fewer issues to resolve.

One example of the potential application of emulated peripherals is the USAF F-16 fighter jet ATE:

Problem: The early models of the world’s most widely used fighter jet, the F-16, must undergo periodic test and inspection using ATE stations that run on HP-1000 computers. The original HP disk and tape drives, if still operational, are now over three decades old. These obsolete drives were often replaced by second generation drives made by Bering Technology. Bering ceased manufacturing devices several years ago.

Solution: The older F-16 ATE stations can remain operational through the use of peripheral emulators manufactured by Arraid LLC, a US based company. Arraid’s AEM-8 devices can be programmed to mimic a number of HP and Bering disk drives, tape drives, and MO drives, that are currently used on F-16 ATE. The brand new Arraid devices will allow these ATE stations to remain operational for many more years.

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Solid State Disks Ltd (SSDL), part of the Reactive Group of companies, which includes Arraid LLC, Phoenix USA, is proud to announce the achievement of the new standards ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management Systems Standard Certification.

Reactive Group were first issued ISO9001 in 1993. We are proud that this is Reactive Group’s 25th year of ISO certification.

ISO 9001 is the world's most widely recognised Quality Management System and helps organisations to meet the expectations and needs of their customers. The newest update was revised to ensure the standard continues to serve the business community and maintains its relevance in today’s market place.

By meeting the rigorous criteria for this standard, The Reactive Group of companies reaffirms its ability to consistently deliver an effective quality management system and drive continuous improvements to its internal processes to provide the best products and services to all of its customers and partners.

This certification is a testament to our strong focus on quality and a central part of our continuous improvement culture. By meeting the criteria to the revised standard on our first attempt, the Company has once again demonstrated its commitment to our customers and to our quality processes.

Click here to view Arraid’s ISO Certification.

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SSDL announces Hot Standby - a mirrored dual CompactFlash-based replacement drive for legacy electro-mechanical storage peripherals

  • Reduces risk and avoids the need for costly downtime
  • Provides improved resilience and fault-tolerance
  • Allows full disk image backups without demounting the drive
  • Enables remote management of drive through a dedicated Ethernet port

Reading, UK– November 7, 2019.  Solid State Disks Ltd (SSD), the advanced storage systems design, development and integration specialist, has launched HotBackup, a solid state ‘live host’ backup solution ideally suited for use in process and mission critical legacy computer systems in a broad range of applicationsin the telecommunications, semiconductor manufacturing, industrial process control, engineering and manufacturing, oil and gas, mil/aero and media post-production industries.

Contact

Arraid, LLC
26 W Lone Cactus #500,
Phoenix,
AZ 85027
Email: sales@arraid.com
UK & Rest Of World: +44 (0) 1189 323 499
USA West Coast: +1 (480) 699 3047 (Sales & Manufacturing)
USA East Coast: +1 (703) 503 8200 (Sales)

Copyright © Arraid, LLC - Reactive Group 1999 - 2017. All Rights Reserved.

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