innodisk

[innodisk]

Innodisk Corporate Video - Dedicated to Innovative Products, Engineering Expertise, and Absolute Service

Our Industrial Flash & DRAM Products are designed and built for Military, Gaming, Medical, Server, Networking, and Cloud Applications.

Check us out at www.innodisk.com

[innodisk]

Innodisk Coats DRAM Modules to Safeguard Against Moisture, Dust and Contaminants

Conformal coating on DRAM modules for greater reliability and superior service life in industrial, aerospace and military applications

  Innodisk, a designer and manufacturer of memory and storage products for industrial applications offers a wide range of DRAM products with conformal coatings for greater reliability, superior service life, improved performance, and reduced total cost of ownership. Innodisk DRAM modules with conformal coatings applied are protected from moisture, dust and chemical contaminants. This allows for normal operation in extreme environments, where unprotected modules would become unreliable.

Some system integrators outsource DRAM conformal coating to save on equipment and human resources.  However, Innodisk takes an extra step by integrating conformal coating into the production process, to ensure high levels of quality, and reduce repair and maintenance costs for the user.

The conformal coatings are a layer of chemicals applied to the surface of the DRAM module, to create a protective film for components. The layer thickness varies from 0.03mm up to 0.13 mm, depending on the demands of the application and the materials used. These coatings protect against moisture, contaminants, dust and acid or alkaline materials, in line with IPC-A-610 standards for electronic components. They also protect against issues caused by electrical or thermal conduction, static electricity, and heat.

Highest Quality Materials

Innodisk conformal coatings use materials from the world’s leading supplier, HumiSeal. They are then processed and applied at Innodisk's in-house production facility. The tightly controlled QA process eliminates the chance of contamination or damage that typically occurs during third-party handling and transportation. Innodisk quality control also ensures that coatings are applied with an even thickness, and avoid excess chemical buildup.

Innodisk provides a factory warranty for conformal coated DRAM modules. In the event that the coatings are damaged in use, Innodisk is dedicated to resolving RMA issues quickly and efficiently. System integrators can consider Innodisk a one-stop shop for their DRAM products.

Reliability is an absolute requirement for industrial computers and their components when used in mission-critical applications.  Innodisk conformal coatings completely cover the surface of the DRAM modules, except for the gold conductor interface. The coatings shield the DRAM modules from harsh environmental factors and they increase the life and reliability of the entire system.

Suitable for demanding applications

Innodisk Conformal-Coated DRAM Modules are suitable for use in all applications where environmental challenges may be encountered, and reliability is critical. Applications include Defense & Aerospace, with conformal coatings that observe MIL-I-46058C standards; Outdoor Signage, where conformal-coated DRAM modules help systems withstand wind, rain and direct sunlight for real time data handling; Embedded Vehicle Applications, enabling collection and recording of event data in real time, and while keeping the user connected to the Internet of Things (IoTs); and Factory Automation, in which conformal coatings can protect the system from water sprays, airborne dust and acidic materials.

Innodisk offers a variety of materials and coating methods to suit any application, according to customer requirements.

For more information about the Innodisk's use of conformal coatings, please visit the Innodisk website at:http://tiny.cc/innodisk_tech_coating.

[innodisk]

Innodisk’s New Space-Saving Industrial Storage Products:nanoSSD, SuperDOM, SATA M.2 (NGFF), Peripheral Modules, and Industrial/Embedded GPUs

  Innodisk’s New Space-Saving Industrial Storage Products:nanoSSD, SuperDOM, SATA M.2 (NGFF), Peripheral Modules, and Industrial/Embedded GPUs

February 19, 2014, Taipei, Taiwan – Innodisk, a designer and manufacturer of memory and storage products for industrial applications, will be showcasing a wide range of new products at Embedded World 2014 in Nuremburg, Germany, from February 25 to 27 and EELive! (formerly ESC) in San Jose CA from Mar 31 to Apr 3.

Product Highlights

nanoSSD is the world's first industrial-embedded SATA µSSD, designed according to MO-276 standards. This product has the integration of a control chip, flash memory and peripheral power components into a single BGA (ball grid array) package without sacrificing capacity and performance. It is a perfect solution for the next-generation of ultra-thin solid-state storage devices. [more info here]

SuperDOM is a combination of Innodisk’s two signature products, SATADOM and nanoSSD, to create a low profile SSD in a slim housing. SuperDOM is designed to be the next generation of SATADOM design. 

M.2 (NGFF) is ahead of the small form-factor trend, addressing design obstacles for space-sensitive IPC systems. SATA M.2(NGFF) comes in models 2242 and 2280. Type 2242 saves up to 40 percent on PCB space requirements compared to Mini PCIe.

Peripheral Modules are designed to relieve motherboard space limitations while simultaneously supporting embedded system functionality. Innodisk’s Peripheral Modules offer signal conversion flexibility. They are ideal solutions for interfacing with LANs, serial ports (USB/RS232-422-485/PCIe), storage devices, and video displays through space-efficient embedded peripheral boards. [more info here]

Conformal Coatings are offered on our industrial DRAM modules to protect from moisture, dust, chemical contaminants and other environmental hazards. Innodisk’s applies the coatings in-house using materials from leading supplier, Humiseal. The conformal coated DRAM modules will be displayed at the booth via UV light. [more info here]

  Aetina Industrial/Embedded Graphics Cards

Innodisk’s subsidiary Aetina will introduce its industrial graphics cards, powered by NVIDIA, AMD, and S3 processors at Innodisk’s booth. Low power consumption, high performance, compact form factors (MXM 3.0), superior service life, rugged components, and multi-monitor support are just some of the benefits of using Aetina cards.  They are suitable for military, transportation, medical imaging, and general industrial video applications. For more information visit www.aetina.com.tw

  New customers and current partners are invited to visit Innodisk an upcoming tradeshow.  Check out the list here.

  Read more about Embedded World 2014 at: http://www.embedded-world.de/en/

Read more about EELive! at: http://www.eeliveshow.com/sanjose/

©2014, Innodisk USA Corporation

42996 Osgood Road

Fremont, CA 94539

510-770-9421

usasales@innodisk.com

[innodisk]

Join us at EELive! Booth 2018, to see our line of Industrial Embedded Storage Products - perfectly tailored for any embedded system.

[innodisk]

Winners, Losers in Pentagon's New Budget

From NBC News

Winners, Losers in Pentagon's New Budget

by Jane Wells

As the Pentagon outlined its proposed budget Monday afternoon, some clear winners and losers emerged.

Winners: Companies and communities around big defense programs such as the F-35 multi-role fighter.

Losers: Companies and communities around military bases, especially those that may face closure.

The Defense Department had to make tough choices — and for the spending cuts to take effect, they must pass through a bitterly divided Congress during an election year. Still, the proposals presented by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel give some indication of what may be to come.

Holders of U.S. defense stocks, at least, expressed relief that the budget appeared to spare most major arms manufacturers. Shares of Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics and Raytheon all hit 52-week highs Monday.

The Pentagon remains committed to Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the most expensive defense program in history. Hagel also wants to stay on track with a new bomber program for which Lockheed and Boeing may submit bids, as well as the new air refueling tanker, built by Boeing.

The Pentagon is also choosing the more expensive Global Hawk unmanned system over the less expensive but older U2, a clear win for Northrop Grumman. "Over the last several years, DoD has been able to reduce the Global Hawk's operating costs," Hagel told reporters.

The Pentagon also wants to invest $1 billion in next-generation jet engine technology. "This new funding will also help ensure a robust industrial base — itself a national strategic asset," he said.

The entire fleet of A-10 aircraft will be retired, closing a long run for the air-to-ground attack plane. The Air Force will also reduce the number of Predators and Reapers it buys, after a long run in Iraq and Afghanistan by the unmanned aerial vehicles built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems.

As much as Lockheed Martin has won with continued support of the F-35, it loses with the Navy. Both Lockheed and General Dynamics make variants of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), which has been the subject of controversy over its cost and performance.

"I am concerned that the Navy is relying too heavily on the LCS to achieve its long-term goals for ship numbers," said Hagel, affirming plans to stop buying any ships beyond the 32 already agreed to.

While thousands of Americans working on these major programs through contracts will continue to have work, it is a different story for military personnel. Half of all defense spending goes to pay and benefits, which have risen 40 percent more than the private sector since the "war on terror" began in 2001.

Active duty military personnel levels will be reduced 13 percent, with the biggest cuts to the Army, losing at least 70,000 soldiers. Other changes are already under way. For example, newly commissioned Marine officers are waiting months without pay before beginning at The Basic School in Quantico, Va.

As for salaries, the Pentagon is still proposing a raise for troops next fiscal year, but a small one, only 1 percent, while pay will be frozen for top military brass. Base commissaries, which receive $1.4 billion in government subsidies to keep prices low, will lose $1 billion of that. Housing allowances, which have been 100 percent, will be reduced to 95 percent.

And while there are no hard figures on how much active duty and retired personnel will have to pay for health care deductibles and co-pays, "We will ask retirees and some active-duty family members to pay a little more," Hagel said.

Exempt from this will be those retired due to medical reasons, along with their families, as well as survivors of those killed on active duty. Current retirement benefits, generally considered very generous, are not being changed for now.

If Congress approves the changes — and that's a big if — it will mean fewer people in the military with a little less spending power, and that will affect businesses and communities around military bases, which depend on them.

For some, military bases will disappear altogether. The Pentagon wants Congress to begin another round of base closings in 2017. Already some communities are worried.

"This concern comes natural to Texas, home to 15 military installations that keep 250,000 military and civilian employees in paychecks, for an estimated $149 billion in economic activity," reported the San Antonio Express-News last month.

First published February 24th 2014, 2:05 pm

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/military-spending-cuts/winners-losers-pentagons-new-budget-n37626

[innodisk]

Professional Technical Support Benefits Long-Term Project Cooperation

Professional Technical Support Benefits Long-Term Project Cooperation

Innodisk Products Used: mSATA SLC

  The Situation

Longevity of support is a major concern for the industrial market. Innodisk’s reputation for industrial grade quality means buyers can be assured of reliability, top-notch warranty, and excellent technical support. Our in-house firmware team’s experiences, along with well-established relationships with motherboard Suppliers in Taiwan, help us to provide long term technical support. These advantages are especially helpful for applications with dynamic requirements over a longer period of time, such as the medical industries need to lock BOM.

One of our European customers is focused on developing a solution for medical device integration, and has adopted our mSATA SLC 16GB product into their medical tablet. Since Governments often mandate regulations to protect patient privacy, data security functions are of the highest priority. These regulations often determine very specific requirements from our customers, such as designing commands to “erase data when a password fails over 5 times”, or “lock the device when an unauthorized remove occurs”.

When working with our firmware team, our customers feel like they have an exclusive technical support team on staff. Innodisk’s ability to leverage our deep relationships with motherboard suppliers also aid our customers in achieving big wins for their business.

The Solution

Innodisk stands by our Absolute Service pledge, to provide professional engineering support to customers during their design, testing, and system support phases. Our team’s support covers the entire system integration process, including firmware and hardware customization.

The Payoff

Exclusive technical support takes the stress off of our customers when they are faced with intricate Governmental regulations. Our ability to customize hardware and firmware make us an ideal collaborator, as solutions that fit precise specifications can lead to savings in money and time for the customer.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright 2014, Innodisk USA Corporation

510-770-9421

42996 Osgood Road, Fremont, CA 94539, USA

  usasales@innodisk.com

[innodisk]

AdvanPOS Opens New Markets for POS Thanks to Innodisk SSD Technology

AdvanPOS Opens New Markets for POS Thanks to Innodisk SSD Technology

Innodisk Products Used: EverGreen 2.5”SSD & EverGreen SATASlim

  The Situation

With a rising demand for POS systems to be used in environments traditionally thought too exposed to the elements, AdvanPOS needed a solution to allow their systems to work in a wider variety of harsh environments as well as to increase overall product reliability.

The Solution

The implementation of Innodisk’s EverGreen SSDs, which have a wide operating temperature range and no moving parts, allowed AdvanPOS to offer POS systems that are reliable in extreme environments. Additionally, their disk monitoring software, iSMART, helped to prevent AdvanPOS' customers from losing valuable data.

The Payoff

Innodisk works together with its partners to help them bring innovative POS technology to new environments, new markets, and new customers. With the reliability of SSDs, backed by Innodisk's quality control and monitoring software, POS technology comes closer to customers, wherever they are.

What Our Partner Has to Say:

“Hard drive failure has always been the biggest reason for product malfunctions.  Innodisk SSDs have a longer lifespan, nearly three times that of a traditional hard drive.  Our clients are happier, as their systems last longer.”

- Alcott Huang, Supervisor of R&D Division, AdvanPOS

  For more info, contact us at usasales@innodisk.com

[innodisk]

Quick response aids thin client suppliers, increases profits

Quick response aids thin client suppliers, increases profits

Innodisk Products Used: mSATA SLC

The Situation

Our partners in the semi-industrial marketplace often have needs that rapidly change as a project progresses. Flexible lead time and responses from their vendors are crucial to achieving business goals. One such partner adopted the Innodisk mSATA SLC Flash as an OS system storage device, to be housed within their thin client product. From our collaboration, they hoped their chances to close major deals from calls to bid would increase.

The challenge for many of our customers in this industry is that their pricing and purchasing needs are not easily predicted. They must follow market trends as tightly as possible to ensure that their products are as competitive as those within the consumer market. Also, they often need to customize specific functions in their hardware for industrial grade needs.

Flexible lead time: Our partner needed a counterpart that could support them when their order needed to be rushed; they had a tight deadline for shipment of their end-product. They needed our parts to be shipped within 3 days of ordering. Our factory, which operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, was confident that they could meet the tighter delivery deadline.

Professional customization: Innodisk’s products are backed by our in-house firmware team, who can be trusted to tailor our products for thin client applications in a short amount of time. Our partner wanted for their thin client to delay a few seconds in response to the host’s command. Our firmware team designed and executed the customized requirement in two weeks after we got enough information of partner’s platform.

The Payoff

Semi-industrial partners need quick responses and products with customized requirements delivered under tight circumstances. With our flexibility and thought leadership in the technology field, Innodisk is able to aid our partners in closing deals, and positively affect their business growth.

The Solution

Innodisk’s team and facilities are flexible, and able to accommodate unexpected changes to a project. We are committed to meeting deadlines, even during the holidays. Our firmware team always provides professional support in a reasonable timeframe. We view our customer relationships as collaborative; we are happy to adjust our products to the scope of a client’s project, pending their requirements and specifications.

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright 2014, Innodisk USA Corporation

510-770-9421

42996 Osgood Road, Fremont, CA 94539, USA

usasales@innodisk.com

[innodisk]

Have we met before? If not, check out this quick profile and new Industrial Storage Product offering for 2014 to get a sense of who we are. Innodisk is a s...

[innodisk]

Innodisk Coats DRAM Modules to Safeguard Against Moisture, Dust and Contaminants

Conformal coating on DRAM modules for greater reliability and superior service life in industrial, aerospace and military applications

  February 12, 2014, Taipei, Taiwan – Innodisk, a designer and manufacturer of memory and storage products for industrial applications offers a wide range of DRAM products with conformal coatings for greater reliability, superior service life, improved performance, and reduced total cost of ownership. Innodisk DRAM modules with conformal coatings applied are protected from moisture, dust and chemical contaminants. This allows for normal operation in extreme environments, where unprotected modules would become unreliable.

Some system integrators outsource DRAM conformal coating to save on equipment and human resources.  However, Innodisk takes an extra step by integrating conformal coating into the production process, to ensure high levels of quality, and reduce repair and maintenance costs for the user.

The conformal coatings are a layer of chemicals applied to the surface of the DRAM module, to create a protective film for components. The layer thickness varies from 0.03mm up to 0.13 mm, depending on the demands of the application and the materials used. These coatings protect against moisture, contaminants, dust and acid or alkaline materials, in line with IPC-A-610 standards for electronic components. They also protect against issues caused by electrical or thermal conduction, static electricity, and heat.

Highest Quality Materials

Innodisk conformal coatings use materials from the world’s leading supplier, HumiSeal. They are then processed and applied at Innodisk's in-house production facility. The tightly controlled QA process eliminates the chance of contamination or damage that typically occurs during third-party handling and transportation. Innodisk quality control also ensures that coatings are applied with an even thickness, and avoid excess chemical buildup.

Innodisk provides a factory warranty for conformal coated DRAM modules. In the event that the coatings are damaged in use, Innodisk is dedicated to resolving RMA issues quickly and efficiently. System integrators can consider Innodisk a one-stop shop for their DRAM products.

Reliability is an absolute requirement for industrial computers and their components when used in mission-critical applications.  Innodisk conformal coatings completely cover the surface of the DRAM modules, except for the gold conductor interface. The coatings shield the DRAM modules from harsh environmental factors and they increase the life and reliability of the entire system.

Suitable for demanding applications

Innodisk Conformal-Coated DRAM Modules are suitable for use in all applications where environmental challenges may be encountered, and reliability is critical. Applications include Defense & Aerospace, with conformal coatings that observe MIL-I-46058C standards; Outdoor Signage, where conformal-coated DRAM modules help systems withstand wind, rain and direct sunlight for real time data handling; Embedded Vehicle Applications, enabling collection and recording of event data in real time, and while keeping the user connected to the Internet of Things (IoTs); and Factory Automation, in which conformal coatings can protect the system from water sprays, airborne dust and acidic materials.

Innodisk offers a variety of materials and coating methods to suit any application, according to customer requirements.

For more information about the Innodisk's use of conformal coatings, please visit the Innodisk website at:http://tiny.cc/innodisk_tech_coating.

     About Innodisk

Innodisk is a designer, manufacturer and solution provider of enterprise-class SSDs and other flash storage products as well as DRAM for the enterprise, industrial, embedded, cloud, military & aerospace, transportation, medical equipment, communications & networking and gaming industries. Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan with engineering support and sales teams in China, Europe, Japan, and the United States, Innodisk is able to support clients globally. With abundant experience and an unrivaled knowledge of the memory industry, Innodisk develops products with excellent quality, remarkable performance, great cost-efficiency, and the highest reliability. For more information about Innodisk, please visit http://www.innodisk.com/. 

[innodisk]

Technology for good: For landmine detection, Bogota designers think with their feet

http://www.reuters.com/video/2014/02/09/reuters-tv-for-landmine-detection-bogota-designers?videoId=276765665&videoChannel=11806

Feb. 9 - Colombian designers are developing an insole that will alert rural farmers and security forces to nearby landmines. Decades of civil war have left Colombia peppered with unexploded mines, with more than 10,000 people killed or injured in the past 25 years. Sharon Reich reports.

[innodisk]

Solid-State Drives for Point-of-Sale Systems

http://eecatalog.com/digital-signage/2014/01/23/solid-state-drives-for-point-of-sale-systems/

January 23rd, 2014

By C.C. Wu, Innodisk

MLC flash-based SSDs that incorporate wear-leveling and power-protection schemes present superior performance storage for POS applications at a competitive price point.

Overview Traditional hard drives have been the storage media of choice in the point-of-sale (POS) industry for years, but recently higher performance solid-state drives (SSDs) have come down in price enough to compete. What are the benefits of SSDs for POS systems, and how do you choose the right SSD for your POS application?

POS describes a variety of computers used mainly in the retail and hospitality industry to conduct retail transactions. Whereas desktops, laptops and tablets describe specific form factors, point-of-sale systems range widely in form factor from desktop-like systems used in bars and restaurants and large integrated self-checkout machines in grocery stores, to handheld devices which are changing the face of retail and hospitality.

Faster, more reliable and more rugged than traditional hard drives, SSDs are a natural fit for the diverse needs of retail and hospitality environments. While consumers see all SSDs as the same technology, in fact SSD implementation and performance vary significantly. SSDs use non-volatile NAND flash memory which can be implemented with top-grade SLC or lower-grade MLC memory cells. To stay competitive, POS vendors will tend to prefer MLC–based drives, but to mitigate the negative effects of lower-grade flash, strong controller technology is needed.

Choosing the appropriate SSD for a POS system requires insight into the performance characteristics of SSDs. Understanding the unique requirements of the POS environment can help designers create more reliable systems while lowering upfront costs as well as total cost of ownership.

Performance  Traditional hard drives are cheaper than ever. With advances in read heads, platter density, and rotational speed, modern hard drives have quite good IO performance—as long as data is being accessed sequentially. The limitations of spinning media which needs to physically seek data means random I/O performance will always be relatively slow.

Solid state drives, meanwhile have inherently superior I/O performance and in recent years have come down in price enough to compete with traditional hard drives. Compared to hard drives, solid state drives are more expensive per megabyte but have much better read performance, superior write performance and negligible seek or random access times. This means extremely fast boot-up times for fixed POS systems and wakeup times for mobile POS devices. File access times, application loading and I/O-intensive OS processes are also greatly accelerated with SSDs.

The greatest obstacle to SSD adoption has always been price, but technological advances have made reliable SSDS available at a price competitive for consumer and business applications.

Figure 1. Compared to hard drives, solid state drives are more expensive per megabyte but have many feature advantages.

Requirements for POS Applications  Point-of-sales systems are popular in retail and hospitality industries, which present challenges not found in consumer or enterprise environments. Most POS systems in retail and hospitality are located at a fixed place such as a cash register or a self-service kiosk. These fixed POS systems use similar storage form factors and interfaces to desktop PCs, but because of their usage environment, have unique demands. Unreliable power, shock and vibration, temperature changes and even liquid spills are a fact of life for many POS systems in the field. Files need to be accessed quickly and applications loaded fast so customers aren’t left waiting. Reliability, ruggedness and performance are therefore essential in the POS environment. In recent years, mobile POS solutions have come to market presenting a new set of storage requirements. Handheld POS and inventory tracking devices used by sales representatives, clerks and even waiters not only need to perform just as well as fixed solutions, but also require small form factor storage that is even more resistant to shock and vibration.

While POS applications have higher mobility, ruggedness and reliability requirements than desktop computers, they are actually less demanding in other aspects. Point-of-sales transactions are generally not I/O-intensive, which means disk endurance is less of an issue. Sales transactions don’t take much disk space to store, so storage space is also less important.

Reliability and Endurance POS applications require extreme reliability and uptime. In this respect SSDs clearly outperform magnetic media. While hard drives have spinning platters and moving heads which can fail or crash, SSDs have no such moving parts to wear out. Mean time between failure (MTBF) for an SSD is generally higher than for a comparable hard drive.

The Achilles heel of NAND flash-based SSDs has traditionally been service life in write-intensive applications, but recent developments have made this an issue of the past. Flash memory cells in an SSD have a limited number of writes before they become unreliable. For enterprise-grade SLC flash, this number is around 100,000 cycles, making it a non-issue. However SLC flash is priced out of reach for most POS applications. Consumer-grade MLC flash is competitively priced, but write endurance used to be quite low—in the thousands of cycles. I/O-intensive servers running old MLC-based SSDs have been known to wear out their disks in months.

MLC service life can be greatly enhanced, however, through innovative drive controller programming using wear-leveling algorithms. Most file systems are optimized for magnetic media and will tend to repeatedly write at the same location. For flash-based media, this will wear out memory cells extremely fast. With wear-leveling, an SSD maintains separate logical and physical addresses to make sure memory cells across an SSD are evenly written to, maximizing the life of the SSD.

Wear-leveling can be implemented as static or dynamic. Dynamic wear-leveling is easier to implement and wears evenly across blocks with “dynamic” or changing data, while cells that contain static data, such as operating system files, are left untouched. Static wear-leveling on the other hand spreads program erase cycles across the entire drive regardless of whether the blocks are holding static or dynamic data. Static wear-leveling is more difficult to implement, but essential for optimal SSD endurance. With wear-leveling technology, a modern MLC-based SSD deployed in a POS environment could expect service life equal to or greater than a hard drive with less chance of drive failure.

Figure 2. InnoDisk’s static wear-leveling process spreads the program/erase count evenly on all blocks.

Ruggedness Unlike desktop computers and servers, POS systems often have to operate in unpredictable environments. Even fixed POS systems placed at a retail cash register or a bar counter can be subject to bumps, vibration or spills. Power delivery to POS systems can also be unreliable.

In terms of shock and vibration resistance, solid state drives clearly win out over hard drives. Without moving parts, there’s nothing to physically break when a SSD is bumped or knocked. The weak point then becomes the physical interface between the drive and motherboard. Innovative features in some SSDs such as anti-vibration mechanical design allow these drives to lock to the connector and maintain their connection when bumped or even when dropped.

Figure 3. InnoDisk’s iCell technology provides a temporary power back-up to safely write all user data from DRAM buffer to the flash memory.

Since POS systems store important business transactions but operate in environments with unpredictable power availability, data integrity even through power loss is critical. Data corruption from sudden power loss affects both traditional hard disks and SSDs, but with flash storage media it is a critical issue. The SSD controller uses volatile memory to cache write operations as well as maintain physical addressing information. If data is suddenly lost, it can cause extensive data corruption in an unprotected SSD. A robust power protection system needs to both detect an impending power loss (e.g., a sudden drop in voltage) and then have enough backup power to write the crucial data stored in volatile DRAM into non-volatile flash cells. A power loss data protection scheme is an absolute requirement when selecting an SSD for a POS application.

Figure 4. InnoDisk SATADOM module without power cables is ideal for space-constrained designs.

Mobility For handheld POS devices which need to be compact and light, storage form factor matters. Standard hard drives come in a very limited number of form factors and sizes, while SSDs have many more choices in their form factor. Flash memory can be integrated directly on the board for a handheld POS, but the SSD market has come up with an even more flexible solution. Disk-on-module, where the drive is shrunk and integrated with the connector, allows for SSD storage to be easily integrated into the smallest handheld POS devices. Because of the low-power requirements of SSDs, the power source can actually be integrated on SATA interface DOM drives by using Pin 7, meaning less cabling and even less space requirements. Compared to dedicated on-board memory solutions, SSD solutions like SATADOM allow POS vendors to offer rugged handheld devices with extremely reliable solid state storage.

Figure 5. The InnoDisk pin assignment shows pin7 repurposed as power (Vcc).

Conclusion The industry’s tides have changed. Migration from HDDs to SSDs is what makes sense for an effective system. When it comes to selecting storage for a POS system, flash-based SSDs present superior performance characteristics for all but the most budget-conscious applications. MLC flash-based SSDs that incorporate wear-leveling and power-protection schemes present superior performance storage for POS applications at a competitive price point compared to traditional hard drives. Faster I/O performance, better shock and vibration resistance and flexibility of form factor make SSDs the storage of choice for POS.

C.C. Wu is vice president of Innodisk and director of the Embedded Flash Division. He is a frequent presenter at the annual Flash Memory Summit held in Santa Clara, California and speaks on the topics of NAND Flash technology and embedded systems storage.

[innodisk]

An Innodisk Success Story: nanoSSD in Full Production

The Innodisk nanoSSD has recently gone into full-rate production.  This device was built with an open architecture in mind, enabling developers to create highly innovative designs with extreme performance. 

  An Innodisk Success Story

The Application: Computing Peripheral Solutions

The Opportunity:

Our customer saw an opportunity to create an encrypted removable storage device (USB 3.0), with an integrated Innodisk nanoSSD, to provide a package with Military grade security that would be faster than anything else on the market.  This solution would expand the company’s product lineup with a high performance, portable, and secure removable media. 

The Solution:

There aren’t many manufacturers that will customize their products to meet unusual form factors or applications. Innodisk is not like most manufacturers.  We design our own products and firmware in-house, according to specs that meet our customer requirements.  Luckily, the Innodisk nanoSSD fit the bill for the USB application, designed as an integrated SATA storage device.

The nanoSSD combines Innodisk’s controller and latest NAND flash in a JEDEC MO-276(SATA μSSD) form factor with one single ball grid array (BGA) package.  This single package was very easy for our customer to design around. The Innodisk nanoSSD supports SATA III 6.0Gbp/s, up to 500MB/s read and 170MB/s write, along with lower power consumption. It was the perfect solution for a seemingly impossible task.

With an on-site engineering team, customization capabilities and product innovation are in our DNA.  You can count on Innodisk to be a one-stop storage provider.

Visit us at these upcoming industry events:

EELive!

April 1 – 3, 2014

San Jose, CA | McEnery Convention Center

Booth #2018

AUVSI

May 13 – 15, 2014

Orlando, FL | Orange County Convention Center

Booth #2248

Flash Memory Summit

August 5 – 7, 2014

Santa Clara, CA | Santa Clara Convention Center

Booth #724-726

[innodisk]

Innodisk Begins Full-Rate Production of its Industrial-Embedded nanoSSD

Connector-free, high capacity SSD for the next-generation

  Jan 20th, 2014, Fremont, CA – Innodisk, a designer and manufacturer of solid state drives (SSD) for commercial and industrial applications, announces the industry’s first full-rate production of a nanoSSD SATA device that conforms to JEDEC’s standard (MO-276).

  Innodisk integrates a flash control chip, NAND flash, and ball grid array (BGA) package to deliver a nanoSSD that is approximately 1% of the size (16mm x 20mm x2mm) of a 2.5” SSD, by volume. The product weighs only 1.5 grams, supports the SATA III interface, and is fully compatible with both x86 and ARM systems. Innodisk’s nanoSSDs are being incorporated into a wide variety of applications where small form-factors and high transfer rates are critical, including industrial mobile devices, point-of-sale systems, embedded products, tablets, Ultrabooks, and high-end smart phones. In addition to its ultra-slim form factor, the nanoSSD offers blazing fast data transfer speeds by reading up to 500MB/s and writing up to 170MB/s.  Whether it’s data storage, system boot, data cache backup, or all three, Innodisk’s nanoSSD successfully answers those challenges with great efficiency and performance. The nanoSSDs are manufactured in compliance with wide-temperature operating range (-40˚C to +85˚C), high shock-resistance, quick erase features, and ATA security.

  Innodisk’s nanoSSD was built with an open architecture in mind, enabling developers to create highly innovative designs with extreme performance. So many applications are available with the nanoSSD that system combinations are bound only by the developer’s imagination. Additionally, Innodisk stands behind its Absolute Service pledge to provide professional engineering support to customers during their design, testing, and system support phases.

  In an effort to continuously improve its customers’ offerings, Innodisk provides the iSMART monitoring tool free of charge, thus extending a vast network of data gathering tools that enable a deeper understanding of long term product performance parameters and shape the next generation product solutions for customers. iSMART allows users to visualize SSD wear-leveling characteristics at a glance with a clear graphical display, giving users time to replace degrading disks long before they exhibit severe performance issues.

  Industry Forecast

According to DRAMeXchange, a research division of TrendForce, SSD NAND Flash consumption will continue to rise from 2013’s 13% jump to 25% in 2014. The growth is likely to be higher in SSD technologies compared to other NAND Flash products. In the long run, NAND Flash applications will become increasingly more diverse. In addition to the attachment type UFDs, memory cards, and system products such as smartphones and tablets, an increasing amount of attention is being placed on industry-level storage systems. Along with the effects of the manufacturers’ supply regulations, TrendForce believes the end-demand for multi-purpose products will enable NAND Flash markets to grow at a more stable pace throughout 2014. On the whole, the industry’s supply and demand is expected to remain healthy.

  Upcoming Events

To inquire about any Innodisk products or project collaboration activities, please contact our sales team.  

[innodisk]

Innodisk’s New Peripheral Modules Relieve Space Limitations and Expand Embedded System Functionality

For the full press release, click here: http://bit.ly/1eEb631

Innodisk's new line of peripheral modules for embedded systems offer signal conversion and expandability

  January 14, 2014 – Taipei, Taiwan – Industrial and Embedded service provider, Innodisk, is introducing a new line of peripheral modules for embedded applications. Users will be able to interface to LAN, serial ports (USB/RS232-422-485/PCIe), storage devices and video displays easily through these space-efficient embedded peripheral boards.

“Based on our experience in industrial component design, we can provide professional industrial products which are more reliable,” says Joey Hsu, Innodisk director of embedded peripherals division. “Besides a wide operating temperature range, vibration and dust resistance, we are proud of our longevity support.”

Flexibility

Innodisk’s line of embedded peripheral modules offer a full set of signal conversion and expansion options to embedded systems. Output signal functionality ranges from LAN, serial ports (USB/RS232-422-485/PCIe), and SATA interface cards, to display cards outputting analog VGA and digital signals (HDMI/TTL/LVDS). Converter and bridge modules increase interfacing options while riser and extender boards expand system connectivity.

Compatibility

Innodisk’s embedded peripheral modules come in a variety of form factors including mPCIe, Standard PCIe, 2.5” SSD and next generation M.2 (NGFF). Connectivity is through common interfaces PCI-Express, USB, and SATA. The space saving designs and variety of connectivity options make these modules easily compatible with a range of embedded systems.

Service

Innodisk’s reputation for industrial grade quality means buyers can be assured of reliability with 3 year warranty. An in-house development team and factory allows for OEM/ODM quality service even at smaller scales. Innodisk’s global presence means customers around the world have local support.

Current Offerings Innodisk Embedded Peripherals currently offers 17 products to convert PCIe, SATA, and USB to PCIe, USB, SATA, SD, PATA,. Form factors include mPCIe/mSATA, PCIe standard, M.2 (NGFF), 2.5” SSD, as well as DDR3 DIMM.

For more product information, please refer to www.innodisk.com

  Embedded peripherals are Innodisk next step in being a comprehensive industrial system service provider. With embedded peripheral modules, Innodisk is not only a storage provider but an embedded service provider.

   About Innodisk

Innodisk is a designer, manufacturer and solution provider of enterprise-class SSDs and other flash storage products as well as DRAM for the enterprise, industrial, embedded, cloud, military & aerospace, transportation, medical equipment, communications & networking and gaming industries. Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan with engineering support and sales teams in China, Europe, Japan, and the United States, Innodisk is able to support clients globally. With abundant experience and an unrivaled knowledge of the memory industry, Innodisk develops products with excellent quality, remarkable performance, great cost-efficiency, and the highest reliability. For more information about Innodisk, please visithttp://www.innodisk.com/.

[innodisk]

Innodisk Announces Storage Series with Built-in Security for Casino Gaming Machines

Security and reliability: addressing the needs of the casino gaming industry

  December 20, 2013, Taipei, Taiwan –Innodisk, a designer and manufacturer of SSDs for industrial applications is committed to providing flash storage solutions that meet the unique security demands of the gaming and amusement industry without sacrificing reliability and performance. With its release of a new series of casino gaming industry storage devices, the industry no longer needs to rely on insecure commodity hardware.

AWPs (amusement with prize games), arcade games, slot machines and casinos have strict security requirements.In jurisdictions worldwide, stringent gaming industry regulations include requirements for data storage used in gaming machines designed to enhance security, such as protection of game play data, to ensure a safe and legal market. With the high volume of monetary transactions involved, manufacturers must ensure strong authentication and compliance with strict government regulations.

These Innodisk storage devices also suit server-based gaming and multiplayer games. Besides the enhanced security features, they also offer all the benefits customers expect from Innodisk, such as high performance, superior reliability, as well as very low power consumption and maintenance costs. The SSD's can be easily managed through Innodisks's advanced iSMART storage monitoring tool.

Innodisk's gaming product storage series includes the 2.5 SATA SSD 3SE, 2.5" SATA SSD 3ME, CFast 3ME, and iCF 4000 – a wide range of secure storage products to meet a variety of gaming applications. The current series of products offer capacities from 1GB up to 512GB, read/write speeds up to 510 / 340 MB/sec, MTBF of greater than 3 million hours, superlative vibration and shock resistance. Products also support a wide operating temperature range.

Write Protection, Partitioning and Password Protection

These Innodisk storage devices offer write protect security features that provide a hardware-based mechanism for data protection, preventing any unauthorized person from modifying data.

To keep critical data safe, while not restricting easy access to less sensitive data, Innodisk provides storage partitioning through its exclusive firmware, designed in-house. Partitioning solves security, audit, or compliance issues, and enables management of shared storage assets by different groups. Innodisk SSDs are divided into three parts for different security functions: Public, ROM and Hidden Area. The ROM and the Hidden Area can be password protected.

Innodisk's powerful and easy-to-use iSMART tool provides one touch activation of the secure write protect feature. In addition, iSMART allows systems integrators to track important disk information, such as temperature, storage space, bad blocks, lifespan, and firmware, all under one platform. With iSMART, potential problems can be identified immediately, allowing maintenance before any more serious issues develop.

  BOM Control

Gaming data storage applications benefit from a fixed configuration for long term support and reliability. To meet this special requirement of the gaming industry, Innodisk guarantees BOM (Bill of Materials) Control.Under the fixed BOM concept, Innodisk offers a flexible and customized (fixed) part number to its customers. Innodisk's fixed BOM greatly reduces the impact of product end-of-life issues and protects operators from compatibility issues and wasting time on re-applying for certification.

Innodisk storage devices with security features are not limited to standard products. Innodisk’s experienced in-house firmware team is capable of customizing firmware for particular customer demands and to maintain accordance with local regulations.

For more information about the Innodisk series of products for the gaming industry, please visit the Innodisk website at:http://www.innodisk.com

Innodisk also presents a white paper with more details of these special products at: http://www.innodisk.com

   About Innodisk

Innodisk is a designer, manufacturer and solution provider of enterprise-class SSDs and other flash storage products as well as DRAM for the enterprise, industrial, embedded, cloud, military & aerospace, transportation, medical equipment, communications & networking and gaming industries. Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan with engineering support and sales teams in China, Europe, Japan, and the United States, Innodisk is able to support clients globally. With abundant experience and an unrivaled knowledge of the memory industry, Innodisk develops products with excellent quality, remarkable performance, great cost-efficiency, and the highest reliability. For more information about Innodisk, please visithttp://www.innodisk.com/.

http://www.innodisk.com/AboutInnodisk/NewsDetail.aspx?bmV3c19Hcm91cElEPWRkNTRiNjA4LWZhOTctNDFlZS1iYjVjLTFhMmYxMDU1NmYwYyZuZXdzX2RmbElEPTAwMQ%3d%3d

[innodisk]

iSLC NAND flash architecture was developed as a hybrid solution for those that require high-performance at a lower price point. iSLC enhances superior MLC through screening and programming by patented firmware. The MLC flash is preprogrammed into one bit per cell, which increases the sensitivity of delta between each level. This practice enables the NAND flash to perform similar to an SLC flash based solution.

To read more, click on the link!