Flash solid-state drives now offer performance and capacity levels in the same ballpark as magnetic hard disks. But high capacities and networking features of traditional hard drives keep them squarely in the game.
Trade-offs abound when it comes to marrying the right storage solution to a military application. Cost, packaging, media technology and ruggedness specs must all be factored in.
Ever climbing demand for greater data storage is putting a squeeze on rugged disk drive vendors. They’re bringing all their tricks into play to support higher capacities while meeting extreme environmental requirements.
Networked-attached storage is becoming a vital building block as the DoD migrates toward a net-centric paradigm. Blade-level NAS solutions bring those capabilities to the harshest of mil/aero environments.
1 Gbit and 10 Gbit Ethernet technologies have emerged as ideal solutions for networking multiple sensors to data processing, recording and instrumentation gear in military systems.
With work underway to spec a ruggedized flavor, MicroTCA is weighing in as an attractive choice for battlefront applications like wireless tactical networks.
Despite some challenges from C++ and Java, Ada is still the technology to beat in high-integrity real-time military applications. New features in Ada 2005 help sweeten the deal.
