They are small, unsealed SSDs with the ability to work at extreme temperatures

Jul 30, 2013 12:06 GMT  ·  By

With how many of them there are on sale now, solid-state drives don't really give people pause anymore, but that doesn't mean it's impossible to draw more than the usual amount of attention when releasing one, or a group of them.

Greenliant Systems may have just managed to do that, if only because the newest storage device it wrote so much about, in its press release, is as unusual as can be.

First off, the series is made of mSATA units, not the normal 2.5-inch form factor.

Secondly, and more importantly really, is that the newcomers, called mSATA ArmourDrive GLS86, have a very high degree of durability.

In fact, they were specifically conceived with industrial temperature capability, high reliability and long-life data storage in mind.

Thus, despite the green PCB, and the black chips themselves, being totally bare, they are supposed to have what it takes to survive and function at temperatures between -40 to +85 degrees Celsius.

The MLC-based and SLC-based drives boast wear leveling management technology as well (for maximum SSD lifespan for critical applications) and configurable security (user-selectable protection zones and military-grade erase commands).

As if that weren't enough, Greenliant Systems also tossed in SMART (estimates remaining SSD lifespan and provides alerts to prevent costly data loss) and TRIM command support.

"Building on Greenliant's expertise in embedded storage, mSATA ArmourDrive complements our NANDrive product family," said Nobu Higuchi, vice president of application engineering and product marketing, Greenliant Systems.

"mSATA ArmourDrive gives customers the features and benefits of NANDrive, including technical and long-term support, in a removable, small form factor."

The 8 GB, 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB Greenliant ArmourDrive MLC mSATA SSDs, and the 8 GB, 16 GB and 32 GB SLC SSDs, should show up on rugged laptops and industrial systems sooner or later.