Innodisk has introduced its new storage device that can withstand extreme temperatures as well as direct fire. The Fire Shield SSD can be used as a ‘Black Box’ device for in-vehicle and other applications that need ultra-reliable storage for accident investigations and other matters.

Set to be available in a 3.5-inch form-factor, Innodisk’s Fire Shield SSD is rated to survive temperatures of up to 800°C as well as direct exposure to flames for up to 30 minutes retaining 100% of the data it stores.

The drive comes in a special chassis that features three layers of protection against drops, fire, extreme temperatures, and so on. The enclosure of the SSD is made of a special copper-based alloy that is resistant to flames. Inside, there is another casing made of a heat-isolating lining material that is also used to firmly hold the drive in its position inside the chassis. The drive is then housed in a yet another protective chassis. The SSD itself is a small unit that is attached to external SATA ports using a special flexible connector that burns down quickly at low temperatures and thus does not transfer heat from the outside to the PCB of the storage device.

Fire Shield SSDs from Innodisk will feature a SATA interface and will be based on SLC or iSLC NAND flash memory for maximum performance and endurance. The manufacturer makes no secret that because of its construction after a long exposure to fire, its Fire Shield SSD cannot be used right away. Instead, a specialist will have to extract memory chips and read them using a special recovery device.

Innodisk does not mention pricing of its Fire Shield SSDs and currently does not list the product on its website. Given very specific positioning of the drive, it is likely that it will be built-to-order and its price will depend on volumes and configurations. 

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Source: Innodisk

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  • drexnx - Friday, June 28, 2019 - link

    wow, 800C is serious business

    wonder what copper alloy they're using as most of the high temp stuff is mostly nickel based (inconel, incoloy, hastelloy, etc.) and Monel won't go anywhere near that high
  • bigvlada - Sunday, June 30, 2019 - link

    This would be perfect as storage for Venus surface robots, since it's around 450 degrees Celsius on the surface of the planet.
  • Peter2k - Sunday, June 30, 2019 - link

    You would need to design a return vehicle, that can actually make it back with the disk

    And
    It's not the high temps that are an issue on Venus
    It's the combination of high temp, high pressure AND the acidity of the atmosphere itself that makes it so difficult
    Instead of a metal alloy a (hightech) ceramic would probably be better
    But then we also need to talk about weight in the first place

    Btw
    Coppery things and sulfuric acid don't mix well
  • Opencg - Tuesday, July 2, 2019 - link

    how bout mercury?
  • Eletriarnation - Thursday, July 4, 2019 - link

    Needs to be able to go down to -170C for that, unless it's going to follow the sun.
  • mindless1 - Tuesday, July 2, 2019 - link

    Did you overlook the part about "up to 30 minutes"? That's not just referring to flames, will become an oven that destroys the drive by eventually reaching a damaging temperature inside.

    As far as what copper alloy, plain old pure copper melting point is 1083C so I don't understand the confusion about it needing to be a wondermetal.
  • surt - Sunday, July 7, 2019 - link

    As long as you don't need to get any data in to or out of the device (because by design the connector melts right away to avoid transferring heat), and your landing is under 30 minutes.
  • BombCat - Thursday, July 4, 2019 - link

    Inconel was used for the X-15 airframe, so i also wonder what copper alloy this is, and more specifically, why a copper alloy...... if it is meant to resist high heat for a few minutes, what about impact protection, or crushing force(s)?

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