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Eliminate the number one cause of field failures - With patented technology deployed in thousands of OEM applications globally, PowerArmor® is field-proven to eliminate the number one cause of storage system field failures - drive corruption from an ungraceful power-down, brownout, power spike or unstable voltage level.
When power goes out, the result is often a corrupted drive and ruined data, resulting in costly unscheduled downtime as field technicians reformat drives, reinstall operating systems or return products.
Prevent drive corruption and lower the total cost of ownership - PowerArmor technology lowers the total cost of storage ownership by offering designers a time-proven solution that virtually eliminates the costly problems associated with drive corruption.
How PowerArmor Works
Approximately three out of every four drive field failures are the result of power-related corruption. This means that brownouts, blackouts and even lightning strikes all contribute to the number one cause of RMAs among embedded systems storage.
In PATA Interfaces
PowerArmor incorporates voltage-detection circuitry, which serves as an early warning system against any unexpected deviation in the system's power supply. When a power fluctuation or interruption is imminent, the drive ceases its read/write function and instead transmits a busy signal to the host system. This assures no additional commands are received by the host until power levels normalize.
Address lines are latched, to make sure that all data is written to the proper location. This is a significant improvement over microcontroller-based flash cards, wherein address lines can drift and inadvertent writes can overwrite the operating system, file allocation table (FAT), master boot record (MBR), user data file or other critical file. Often, this happens when the power drops below the minimum operating level for the host while there is still enough power to power the solid-state drive. When this happens, the data “spills over” to other locations. The result is data is corrupted and/or the drive may not boot up on subsequent use.
In SATA and USB Interfaces
With a serial connection, the address is known before the data is even transmitted, so there is no need to latch the address lines. When the built-in PowerArmor detection circuitry detects a change in the voltage level, the drive signals the host system to stop transmitting data, suspending the host from sending and receiving any more data. The drive then finishes writing the remaining data and gracefully powers down. When power levels return, the drive powers back up normally and resets.
Conclusion
PowerArmor is completely transparent to the host system, and its function does not detract from system performance. This means that it works automatically and seamlessly, without the need to manually run scanning and recovery operations.
With its integrated voltage detection technology, PowerArmor eliminates drive corruption in the event of a power disturbance. Over the deployment cycle of the drive, this significantly reduces maintenance, warranty and other unscheduled downtime costs. |