Virtium Reveals eUSB 3.0 Embedded Storage Modules

Virtium Technology, Inc. introduced its TuffDrive eUSB 3.0 embedded storage modules – empowering system designers with high speed, low power and small form factor.

These storage modules, among the industry’s first eUSB 3.0 10-pin storage solutions for industrial and embedded applications, feature speeds of up to 4.8Gb/s – ten times the throughput of USB 2.0 – and capacities from 2 to 256GB, while drawing less than 1W, which is half the power consumption of standard SATA SSDs.

“Most of today’s USB 3.0 storage devices come in a standard key or thumb-drive format and are designed for consumer uses, which aren’t appropriate for the strict requirements of industrial and embedded applications,” said Scott Phillips, VP, marketing, Virtium. “The new Virtium TuffDrive eUSB 3.0 SSDs ultra-small form factor enables designers to scale existing designs and economically leverage current 10-pin system board connectors and mounting mechanisms. And they deliver system storage with dramatically improved throughput, capacities and power consumption.“

The speed, capacity and low power of the storage modules enable a much wider range of industrial and embedded designs for space-constrained environments. Their 4.8Gb/s throughput provides an order of magnitude improvement over their USB 2.0 predecessors. Additionally, with capacities of up to 256GB, the storage modules are for booting OSs, logging video and data, and hosting storage-hungry applications. Furthermore, by drawing little power, they can operate in the absence of cooling fans – or even airflow.

The SSDs feature industrial connectors and mounting that assure durability in environments known for shock and vibration. Leveraging such existing connectors and mounting mechanisms also lowers a design’s bill of materials and energy costs relative to those of PCI Express and SATA.

TuffDrive eUSB 3.0 embedded storage module highlights

USB 3.0 protocol via a small, 10-pin format
Substantially lower power than SATA SSDs used in embedded and industrial designs
Capacity range from 2 to 256GB
Available in company’s CE (MLC), XE (iMLC) and PE (SLC) classes
SMART support, providing the ability to monitor drives’ health using standard SMART commands
Support for vtView SSD Software, enabling drive analysis for optimal configuration
Optional security features, including AES encryption and write protection, ensuring data is protected and secure from falling into the wrong hands
Support of industrial operating temperatures (-40°C to 85°C), extending new levels of security to designs in extreme operating conditions

Prices for eUSB 3.0 TuffDrive embedded storage modules start at under $20 each.