August 2008 – Concurrent Technologies announces a 3U CompactPCI® mass storage module and optional expansion board, which together can support up to four 2.5” Serial ATA300 (SATA-II) mass storage drives plus a CompactFlash™ site.  The TP MS1/x11 SATA300 Controller board accommodates two drives plus a CompactFlash site. Expansion to three or four SATA300 drives is achieved by the addition of the TP MS1/100 Expansion board.  Hardware and software RAID 0 and 1 is supported.  This product enables the integration of SATA300 mass storage drives into a 3U CompactPCI system, where performance, functionality, power, space and cost are key elements.  Commercial and extended temperature versions are now available and ruggedized air cooled versions will be available shortly; in harsher environments solid-state Flash drives or ruggedized rotating drives may be installed.  The TP MS1/xxx family is ideal for a variety of applications particularly within the defense, industrial, and transportation markets. 

The TP MS1/x11 SATA300 Controller board communicates with its host computer via the 3U CompactPCI backplane; the board can support 33MHz and 66MHz signaling speeds and has a build option for 32-bit or 64-bit backplanes.  The Serial ATA interface supports transfer rates up to 300Mbytes/s per drive.

The TP MS1/x11 SATA300 Controller board and TP MS1/100 Expansion board fit into adjacent slots, communication between the boards is via a dual SATA cable.  The CompactFlash site can be used simultaneously with all four SATA drives fitted. The CompactFlash interface transfer rates depend upon the access speed of the CompactFlash module fitted, typically up to 33Mbytes/s.

The TP MS1/x11 SATA300 Controller board can be used in conjunction with appropriate host computers such as Concurrent Technologies’ latest Intel® dual-core and Intel® Pentium® M processor based 3U CompactPCI boards.  Like the TP MS1/xxx family, the Concurrent Technologies’ 3U single board computers are available in commercial and extended temperature versions, and some are available as ruggedized air-cooled and ruggedized conduction cooled versions.

Operating systems supported include Windows® XP, Windows® XP Embedded, Windows® 2000 and Linux®.