International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 20-23, 2003 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Due to the rotating mechanism in mechanical disks, they cannot provide the top-level reliability required for operation in harsh military environments. This paper describes three COTS alternatives to mechanical disks: ruggedized mechanical disks, solid-state flash disks and stacked PC Cards. It discusses their cost-effectiveness and aspects such as environmental specifications, endurance and data reliability. It highlights several methods used by flash disks to enhance endurance and reliability, as well as flash pricing and density trends. It presents data security requirements in actual emergency situations, and how flash disks can meet these requirements. It concludes with a feature-by-feature comparison of ruggedized disks, flash disks and stacked PC Cards.

ITC/USA 2005 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-First Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 24-27, 2005 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / This paper discusses data storage requirements for data acquisition systems, and evaluates the ability of three of the most popular COTS data storage solutions - mechanical disk, ruggedized mechanical disk and solid-state flash disk - to meet these requirements today and in the future. It addresses issues of capacity, data reliability, endurance, form factor, cost and security. It concludes with a discussion of trends to implement high-speed serial interfaces in data acquisition systems, and the challenges that these trends pose for COTS storage solutions.