Mercury Systems Releases First Space-Qualified Commercial SSD

If you are the ones who plan to go to outer space, please remember to pack a few essentials, such as a space suit, a good camera, and a solid-state drive. Perhaps you will be doing some high-tech and scientific thing there.

If that is the case, you can choose the 3U TRRUST-Stor VPX RT SSD, first space-qualified commercial SSD that is designed by Mercury Systems for the rigors of space travel.

Mercury Systems, a high-tech commercial company serving the aerospace and defense industries, is known for building rugged and secure electronics. And its new space-qualified SSD kicks things up a notch. Let’s see what it is from the following paragraphs.

Mercury Systems Space-Qualified Commercial SSD

According to Mercury Systems, the 3U TRRUST-Stor VPX RT SSD can be available to two leading suppliers of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. And this company says that its new SSD is the first commercial SSD precisely which is designed for the harshest possible operating environments and it utilizes VITA 78 SpaceVPX ™ standards to reduce customer cost and mitigate program risk.

In addition to commercial satellite applications, this solid-state drive can also be fit for airborne weapons, high-altitude aircraft, and mission-critical ground computing systems.

According to Iain Mackie, Vice President and General Manager of Mercury’s Microelectronics Secure Solutions group, the customers’ demand for commercial radiation-tolerant SSD devices for LEO satellites has far surpassed their expectations but their employees have successfully demonstrated that Mercury’s innovative next-generation business model unlocks value for satellite designers and manufacturers around the globe.

The core of the SSD is Mercury’s proprietary NAND controller along with BuiltSECURE™ error correcting code (ECC) algorithms that can mitigate radiation-induced byte errors to achieve sustainable reliability and fault tolerance that competing storage solutions do not have.

This SSD can be easily customized for non-traditional use cases when it is considered to be critical to the client program since Mercury Systems keeps 100% authority over the controller and its implementation.

Mercury’s TRRUST-Stor VPX RT device can provide long-term data integrity. Since it is engineered into an open standards platform, users are able to seamlessly integrate this device into the SpaceVPX ecosystem of processing boards and chassis without sacrificing affordability.

The development of systems around the SpaceVPX open standard architecture will be an integral part of supporting the growth of the space market with the demand for LEO satellite radiation-tolerant devices increase sharply.

Specifications of Mercury Systems Space-qualified Commercial SSD

1. OpenVPX 3U form factor
2. User capacity: 440 GB
3. Robust Large Geometry SLC NAND
4. Read/Write performance: 1 GByte/sec sustained • Data Recorder operating mode
5. Rad-Tolerant Design (RTG4 Based):
6. Operating Temperature: -40 °C to +85 °C
7. Storage Temperature: -55 °C to +105 °C
8. Endurance: 15 drive over-writes/day for 10 years, 26 PB minimum, minimum 90-day retention at EOL
9. To learn more, read this .pdf document.

Final Words

Now, most information about this space-qualified commercial solid-state drive is told to you. If you have a need, please wait patiently and flight units are scheduled to ship in the first half of the calendar year 2019.

Related article: Easily Migrate Windows 10 to SSD without Reinstalling OS Now!