Swissbit CFexpress 2.0 Type B Up to 480GB Flash Cards With Industrial Grade Requirements

Swissbit AG launches CFexpress 2.0 Type B cards that offer reliability, performance and data protection features that meet industrial grade requirements.

Named as G-20 for the cards with 3D TLC NAND and G-26 for the pSLC version, the fast and pluggable storage media will be available from the end of 2020. The card series offers capacities of up to 480GB and a performance interface in accordance with 2-lane NVMe-1.3 and PCIe-Gen 3.1 specs. It is aimed at a range of applications in the fields of industrial automation, gaming, transportation, and medical technology. The memory media combine the flexibility of the company’s memory cards with the read-write performance of PCIe SSDs.

CFexpress is hailed as the successor of the established Compact Fash and CFast-standards, created by the Compactflash Association. Originally developed for high-end photography and other consumer applications, the company has now applied the storage format to its products for use in industrial applications. The CFexpress 2.0 Type B casing offers mechanical protection in harsh environments. The gold-plated pins are covered and shielded from any form of contact, therefore offering protection from dust or moisture penetration, and at the same time, making the cards resistant to any vibration. Thanks to the NVMe-1.3 interface, a technology for other industrial SSD form factors such as M.2 or U.2, the G-20 series achieves up to 1,620MB/s for sequential read operations, and 840MB/s for sequential write operations. For random accesses, it exceeds 128,000 and 131,000 IO/s for read and write operations respectively. CFexpress is a technology advancement when compared with a read data rate of 120MB/s for Compact Fash cards and 520MB/s for Cfast.

Promotes adoption
“As an established supplier of Compact flash cards and one of the first advocates of the CFast standard, the next logical step for Swissbit is to manufacture and supply exchangeable memory cards with the latest interface standard. We believe that this form factor will have a high value for customers who need to quickly replace or upgrade memory in the field. We are convinced that this format will prove to be an industry-wide ‘game changer’“, explains Roger Griesemer, GM, memory solutions.

As an industrial flash memory, the G-20 series was developed for efficient heat dissipation. Combined with firmware mechanisms, this allows for its use in high-temperature environments and fanless systems. To achieve low power consumption without sacrificing performance, G-20 eliminates the need for a local DRAM cache by using the HMB (Host Memory Buffer) function and uses the system DRAM memory for FTL management. Special data maintenance functions provide additional protection of stored data at high operating temperatures.

Endurance
For applications that require a particularly long product life, continuous writing of small data packets or very long maintenance intervals, the company offers the G-26 version, which uses pure pSLC mode to achieve a tenfold longer life span compared to the G-20.

Life Time Monitoring tool

Security functions
The G-20 has standard and optional data protection features, including end-to-end data protection that ensures the integrity of internal data paths. TCG Opal can be ordered as an option and provides additional data protection towards the host system. AES-256 encryption guarantees security for IP, licenses or other sensitive data. This includes applications where device settings and configurations need to be transferred from device to device while ensuring that they are reliably protected. This series supports the firm’s Life Time Monitoring tool as well as the SMART. commands, thus enabling the user to monitor the status of the memory card and to define a strategic replacement plan.

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