Winchester Systems: 11th Generation of COTS Rugged RAIDs

Winchester Systems Inc. announced a new generation of FlashDisk COTS rugged data storage and servers, now in its 11th generation.

FlashDisk RV-3400 Series

It introduced three Rugged Virtual Storage (RV) lines of COTS Rugged RAID disk arrays that support both 2.5" Small Form Factor (SFF) disk drives as well as traditional 3.5" Large Form Factor (LFF) disk drives. All the RV Series products include virtual storage, snapshots, mirroring, volume copy and automated disk-to-disk backup.

FlashDisk RV-2300 Series – 2U high, 12-drive shelves – 3.5" LFF disks expandable to 168 TB
FlashDisk RV-2500 Series – 2U high, 24-drive shelves – 2.5" SFF/LFF disks expandable to 206 TB
FlashDisk RV-3400 Series – 3U high, 16-drive shelves – 3.5" LFF disks expandable to 224 TB

The companion rugged FlashServer RS-1000 Series is designed to complement the FlashDisk storage and provide a single source for both storage and servers. This simplifies the task of matching rugged servers with rugged storage and ensuring that the two work together – eliminating potential finger-pointing problems – and a benefit to program managers. 1U FlashServer supports up to 8 Xeon processors, a 1,333 MHz system bus, up to 32 GB SDRAM and up to 160 TB of storage.

"Customers find that they need field deployable storage and servers that exceed standard commercial capabilities but not full military rugged specifications or prices," explained Mr. Joel Leider, the company’s chief executive officer. "Our rugged storage and servers provide extra security and protection against dust, rain, shock and vibration at COTS prices which are about half of full military standard costs," he added.

The US Army and certain military units of other countries approved these units for field use. They are deployed in harsh environments worldwide in HUMVEE and other mobile communications trailers as well as stationary shelters. The front door is crafted of sturdy milled aluminum that provides rigidity and structural integrity. It also houses a dust filter to constrict particle flow and provide a moisture shield to protect internal components. The LCD front panel is viewed by field personnel, is EMI protected and uses long life pushbuttons. The door features a dust and raindrop seal.

Optionally, the US Army mounts the unit to a chassis using five bolts secured, in a triangulated pattern for strength, to a rugged base plate. With both spinning disks and solid state disks (SSDs), the FlashDisk RV Series products have been used in airborne surveillance and reconnaissance operations.

The FlashDisk RV Series offers single and redundant controllers and supports Fibre Channel 8 Gb, SAS 6 Gb and iSCSI Fibre GbE hosts. FlashDisk RV disk arrays feature RAID 6 dual parity for the utmost in data protection. Even if two disk drives fail or become unreadable, the data will remain intact. This RAID 6 protection is for protecting irreplaceable or irreproducible data – particularly for field use where hardware is vulnerable. According to the company’s white paper, ‘Enterprise RAID 6,’ RAID 6 dual parity offers 500 to 30,000 times longer MTDL (Mean Time To Data Loss) than RAID 5.

FlashDisk RV Series prices start at under $12,000 and FlashServer prices start at under $18,000 plus storage. Quantity discounts are available. These rugged systems are built to order and delivery is 4-8 weeks ARO.