Ethernet back-up and restore capability added to SCSI-Flash

Solid State Disks Ltd, the computer storage systems design, development and integration specialist, has announced a new, Ethernet-based back-up and restore capability for its family of Compact Flash (CF) SCSI-Flash solid-state drives, further future-proofing the storage systems on critical legacy oil and gas production equipment.

The SCSI-Flash CF drive is used extensively on legacy oil and gas production equipment 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. Examples of legacy oil and gas production host systems include: IRMX86, HP1000A, HP9000, 12016A, VAX, uVAX using RWZ01, RZ23, RZ28, RZ29 SCSI Drives, Rosemount RS3, Honeywell Measurex TDC 2000 / TDC 3000 universal station on MX open and VX works.

The new 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 if needed. Universal TCP is used for disk image transfers with remote execution of back-up and restore configuration operations controlled via a web browser and auto-online implemented on back-up completion.

The Compact Flash (CF) SCSI-Flash Ethernet back-up and restore capability 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 US$1000 / US$100 000 per hour/day. In the telecommunications industry they may incur considerable fines.

The SCSI-Flash Ethernet 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 program 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 inch form factor (or larger 5.25 inch form factor). It is available in two package types either with or without an externally removable card. Sector sizes available are 256, 512, 768, 1024 and 2048 bytes per sector.

“The Ethernet back-up and restore facility adds an important new capability to SCSI-Flash which has been developed in response to the demand from customers,” said James Hilken, Sales Director of Solid State Disks Ltd. “There are plenty of critical legacy systems in a variety of industry 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 new 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.”

Adapted from press release by Joseph Green

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/product-news/23032015/ethernet-restore-capability-scsi-flash-2101/