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Created: Sunday, 22 May 2022 12:16

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Member Speak –Solid State Disks SSD has successfully delivered form/fit/function
replacements for SCSI drives that are more thirty years old

James Hilken Sales Director, Solid State Disks

Keeping the hardware investment working?

Recording and audio systems are like many other long-life systems that need to be dependable yet need not be updated frequently as we seem to need from our domestic and communications pieces.
Solid State Disks Ltd specialises in the design, development, manufacture and integration of hard disk, floppy disk, and tape drive hardware emulators for legacy systems.

Memory technology has historically been driven by firstly desktop computing, then gaming and mobile communications but is now driven by data servers and cloud computing. Harsh environment customers need to be aware of technology developments but often the latest parts take some time to pass reliability and qualification testing.
Solid state technology is the way to go but often backwards compatibility is the key as new interfaces may require mechanical or software changes and/or system requalification.
There is often a requirement to support specialised computer systems, well into their middle age, which must continue to operate in critical applications and difficult environments. SSD has successfully delivered form/fit/function replacements for SCSI drives that are more thirty years old.
In many cases the operating system and applications software cannot easily be moved to the latest suitable hardware platform or have dedicated safety critical software.
The cost and timescale may be unacceptable and considerable risk and porting to new platforms may also be limited by legacy interfaces and security issues.
These disparate systems often share a common set of four main problems caused, in part, by their
specialised nature: –
1. Non-portable Software
2. Hardware Obsolescence
3. Operating Environment
4. The Non- ‘Standard’ Interface
SSD support the development of alternative interface replacement devices to supplement the existing SCSI and IDE ranges. We also offer system level support to engineers using our proprietary technology and technology experience.
Meeting performance is key, and price needs to consider long term servicing costs and contracts that require guaranteed levels of availability. Sustainability and energy consumption in developing new products is also driving new product investment decisions. Businesses have become more cost conscious with reserves and working capital hard hit in recent times despite support from the government in
some instances.

It is anticipated that life extensions and out of service dates will be extended for reliable systems.
The selection criteria for harsh environment customers must ensure that performance in challenging environments does not induce failures that can have serious implications.
SSD is ISO9001:2000 approved and has over eighty years of combined experience in supporting industries such as Aerospace, Automation, Defence, Energy, Rail, Semiconductor Manufacturing, and telecoms.
To support our customers that rely on the SCSI interface we have developed the SCSI Flash-2 programmable emulator that allows high performance flash to be interfaced to legacy host systems without software change.
We have collaborated with leading customers in key market sectors to provide our networked Touchless Removable® drive solutions.
Customers benefit from access to systems via our Direct Ethernet® port from a host system. This allows data to be kept in a digital library located anywhere within the organisation without the need for physical media.
Direct Ethernet® is also available on our hard disk emulations, which allows a full copy to be remotely taken of a system drive and restored as a bootable image. This dramatically reduces the time taken to rebuild systems after a crash.
With the ‘Hardware Emulator Solution’ it is often possible to prolong legacy system life, and increase performance, reliability, and environmental immunity, by identifying and replacing the high risk hardware elements.

For hard disk, floppy, and tape this can be done by emulating their function directly at the legacy interface level(plug compatibility) and using industrial grade Flash, e.g., Compact Flash (CF), for data storage.

This also offers significantly lower cost. If your legacy support problem is a good fit with our solution, the first step is to contact us providing as much information as possible about the application, the target product and system, and the host interface to be emulated.
SSDL can provide “Emulation Questionnaires” to assist with this process. In many cases a match will be found with a product from our range, or a small adjustment will allow compatibility to be achieved.

In other cases, a feasibility study may be required, followed by the design and manufacture of a dedicated solution.
We have already delivered solutions for customers like Century Link, Dolby, Exxon Mobil, Nokia, Orange, Telefonica, and Verizon.
If you would like to know more please contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit the SSD website Solid State Disks Ltd (SSD) – The IndustrialDivision of the Reactive Group or our LinkedIn group Solid StateDisks Ltd: Company Page Admin |LinkedIn. Several educational videos are also available on You Tube.
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