Human beings do have the means to get on many important initiatives, but having said so, there is no initiative of ours that can be deemed more valuable than what pushes us to get better on a consistent basis. This commitment towards improving, no matter the situation, has brought the world some huge milestones, with technology emerging as quite a major member of the group. The reason why we hold technology in such a high regard is, by and large, predicated upon its skill-set, which guided us towards a reality that nobody could have ever imagined otherwise. Nevertheless, if we look beyond the surface for one hot second, it will become abundantly clear how the whole runner was also very much inspired from the way we applied those skills across a real world environment. The latter component, in fact, did plenty to give the creation a spectrum-wide presence, and as a result, initiated a full-blown tech revolution. Of course, the next thing this revolution did was to scale up the human experience through some outright unique avenues, but even after achieving a feat so notable, technology will somehow continue to bring forth the right goods. The same has turned more and more evident in recent times; and assuming one new discovery ends up with desired impact, it will only put that trend on a higher pedestal moving forward.
General Micro Systems (GMS), the world’s leading technology-independent supplier of computing engines, has officially announced the launch of a new rugged, military-focused X9 Spider Storage system, which is designed for sensor data recorders, artificial intelligence AI datasets, “network” attached storage, and data payload “sneaker net” portable data movement. According to certain reports, the stated storage system leverages proven high-cycle, high-reliability connectors for the canister and a miniature SFF system size to let effectively any vehicle system or personnel move massive amounts of data between locations. To understand the significance of such a system, we must acknowledge how today’s military computing systems are nothing less than data collection and processing platforms, disguised as mission data transfer units, autonomous ground vehicles, unmanned aerial systems (UAS), and generative AI processors. Now, given the critical nature of information that they carry, it becomes downright crucial for them to meet significant data storage requirements, and at the same time, find a way through various size, weight and power (SWaP) constraints. As if the stated obligations weren’t enough, we must mention how the data “pipes” delivering data to and from the drives need to be fast enough to keep up with modern SSD read/write speeds. But how will GMS’ latest brainchild take on these mounting set of requirements? Well, given the role of a critical component within GMS’ X9 Spider Thunderbolt™ 4 technology, the new storage system is going to bank upon a 4 or 8-drive removable cartridge, supporting secure, industry-standard 2.5-inch or M.2 solid state storage. The cartridge used for this system also boasts a mating cycle capacity worth somewhere around 5K. Next up, we must get into how the technology delivers downstream power of upto 100W, something which notably co-exists with the way it supports quad NVMe™ (x4 PCIe) or SATA drives. Apart from that, it also supports eight M.2 SSD drives. Anyways, there is also configurability capabilities on the table as RAID 0/1 under host control; optional SATA controller. An even bigger piece of detail, however, is the system’s patent-pending QuadroLock™ active wedge lock technology, which empowers multiple modules to be combined for thermal sharing without making any sacrifices across its ability to bear severe shocks, vibrations, and harshness envelopes. Extending the given security mechanism is a fully sealed, rugged storage canister and locking lever with Tamper Proof Security. These security measures are joined by Dual Thunderbolt 4 In/Out ports with 100W power delivery.
“Next-generation AI, sensor fusion, and autonomous vehicle applications demand data capacities that far surpass traditional portable mass storage solutions,” said Ben Sharfi, CEO and chief architect at General Micro Systems. “The X9 Spider Storage module combines massive storage with over 5,000 mating cycles and ultra-fast Thunderbolt™ 4 In/Out ports inside fully sealed, ruggedized, and removable canister cartridges – the perfect choice to support harsh, demanding in-field data operations.” The drives can be configured in RAID array(s) for fault tolerance or data recorder striping, and have advanced sanitization options for modern cybersecurity requirements.
Hold on, there is still a lot more left to unpack. You see, we still haven’t discussed how X9 Storage’s actual data carrying capacity i.e. 128TB. Coming back to the Dual Thunderbolt 4 ports, the stated technology brings to the fore a 40Gbits/s data “pipe” that carries multiple video streams, PCI Express data, 10Gbits/s networking, USB, and more. In practice, one of the ports can be used for data read/write, whereas the second port can be used for daisy-chaining additional downstream X9 products, including one or more extra X9 Storage systems. Such an accommodating setup births unique architectures that expand a systems storage “array” into many removable canisters, or provides for fault tolerance and redundancy, or enables larger RAID arrays. The new storage system also has a cybersecurity angle to it where we have FIPS-140-2 and CSfC supporting NSA-level encryption, and host-level TPM, available alongside security root-of-trust authentication. GMS has also introduced anti-tamper sensors here that can interface with GMS SecureDNA™ at the drive, system, and CPU level for whole-system sanitization.
Rounding up the highlights is a modular, scalable and distributed architecture which reduces the development barriers to rugged high-performance computing, high-definition video, sensor processing, AI, battlefield edge processing, storage, display, and I/O.
“If you can’t fit a rackmount server with drives, the X9 Storage system is the battlefield choice. Secure CSfC or FIPS drives, flexible SSD options with RAID, high-speed box-level interconnects and exceptional fault tolerance make X9 Storage the only choice for on-the-battlefield, deployed high-density embedded storage,” Sharfi said. “These modules greatly enhance the capacity and reliability of data movement across the battlefield, giving system designers what they need to meet both performance and environmental requirements.”
Founded in 1979, General Micro Systems has risen up the ranks using what are essentially known as highest-density, modular, compute-intensive, and rugged small form-factor embedded computing systems, servers, and switches. Using proprietary tools like GMS Rugged DNA™ with patented RuggedCool™ and Diamond RuggedCool2™ cooling technology, the company has reached a point where its presence is now well-established across industries, such as defense, aerospace, medical, industrial, and energy etc.
