Back-up & restore capability targets legacy applications

The SCSI-Flash CF drive is targeted at a range of computer-based legacy applications where critical SCSI-based storage drives are becoming more and more difficult to repair or replace as they increasingly age and fail. As a direct, drop-in replacement, SCSI-Flash provides an up-to-date, high-reliability, solid-state and low-cost solution to the problem. The solution targets a broad spectrum of industries and markets including telecomms, semiconductor manufacturing, industrial process control, engineering and manufacturing, oil and gas, power generation, military and aerospace, flight simulation and post-production applications.

The SCSI-Flash back-up and restore capability enables vital data back-ups to be made as a complete disk image of its CompactFlash card at any given point in time and transferred via an Ethernet network to be stored remotely from the legacy equipment and restored as and when needed. Universal TCP is used for disk image transfers with remote execution of back-up and restore configuration operations controlled by user API or via a web browser and auto-online implemented on back-up completion.

The solution generates considerable savings in time and expense in the face of process outages. In semiconductor manufacturing, for example, process outages can cost in excess of $1,000/$100,000 per hour/day. In the telecomms industry they may incur considerable fines.

The SCSI-Flash back-up and restore capability can also be used to replace traditional manual rotation of media with remote download of manufacturing files so that, for example, a CNC machine knows what programme to run for a particular session or a semiconductor fab which recipe to use.

SCSI-Flash is a completely programmable replacement solution, enabling the SCSI device implementation nuances of all equipment manufacturers to be fully emulated. SCSI-Flash combines proven SCSI drive architectures (SASI, SCSI-1, SCSI-2) with industry-standard, solid state CompactFlash card technology to provide a high-reliability, solid state replacement for any style of SCSI-based drive including hard disk, magneto optical, tape and floppy drives. The SCSI-Flash drive supports CompactFlash cards up to 256GB and utilises a 3.5” form factor (or larger 5.25” form factor). The drive is available in two package types either with or without an externally removable card. Sector sizes available include 256, 512, 768, 1024 and 2048B.

“The Ethernet back-up and restore facility adds an important capability to SCSI-Flash, which has been developed in response to the demand from customers,” said James Hilken, Sales Director, Solid State Disks. “There are plenty of critical legacy systems in a variety of industries that are potentially nearing end-of-life simply because their storage devices are becoming too difficult to repair or replace as they age and fail. SCSI-Flash provides a low-cost solution to this. The Ethernet back-up and restore capability gives the added benefit of being able take snapshots of the data and keep it offline from the legacy equipment with the option to restore at a later date, if necessary.”