Digital Battlespace
AFCEA West 2012: TCS launches ruggedised solid state drives
TeleCommunication Systems (TCS) has launched the new Galatea highly ruggedised solid state drive (SSD) for mass data storage.
Speaking to Shephard at the AFCEA West conference in San Diego, on 25 January, Bill Bettencourt, VP and GM of Space & Component Technology at the company said 'the requirement for ruggedisation is quite high, as is [the requirement] for smaller systems with less weight'.
'The thing that makes us different is our highly ruggedised capability. Ours are solid state drives [SSDs] because of the environment that we have to operate in,' he said, and explained that there are no mechanics within the hardware so that it is a purely electrical component.
The new SSD also has software and hardware options to erase data from the system, and it is 'absolutely critical' to be able to do this in modern warfare, Joe Tromba, Advanced Products Group Applications Engineer at the company said.
'The user doesn't have to manage it, it's all done on the drive,' Tromba said of hardware-based encryption that is a feature on the Galatea.
It is quicker, has a higher capacity, faster IO (rewrite capacity) and has a high level encryption of 128-bits Bettencourt said, with 'cryptography being a big differentiator as well'.
The drives fit up to 200GB into a standard 2.5 inch container, and delivers read and write rates of over 270MB. It also works at temperatures ranging from -40 to +85 degrees Celsius.
The company provides data storage for UAVs, and Bettencourt used the example of the rogue system that crashed in Iran as a situation of when data erasing is of paramount importance.
'Eyes in the sky are a big deal at the moment. We basically store data on the UAV,' he continued.
TCS also retrofits military vehicles, including the electrical suites of systems belonging to the USMC, and 'if you can't afford new Humvees you retrofit them'.
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