As their name implies, the ToughDisk hard drives from Formation are purposely designed to be usable in "extreme environments," i.e., they ship in specially designed enclosures to be operational in extreme temperature, humidity, and altitude environments and to be highly shock resistant.

Features common to all the ToughDisk drives include an on-board processor that independently monitors, controls and logs environmental conditions (the processor can optionally allow the host application to monitor and control the environmental subsystem); and a hardware design that includes both a sealed internal enclosure to protect against dust, humidity, etc. and an external casing that allows for a cooling airflow and additionally provides interface connectivity to the host computer.

As of this writing, two primary ToughDisk drive designs are offered by the vendor: The TD3500s and TD7200s.

The TD3500 is an internal 3.5" form factor drive designed to be a drop-in replacement for existing 3.5 inch (low profile) drives. The TD3500 ATA drive boasts an operating temperature range of -20 degrees Celsius to +70 degrees Celsius at altitudes of -1000 to 50,000 feet; while the SATA drive boasts an operating temperature range of -40 degrees Celsius to +70 degrees Celsius at altitudes of -15,000 to 85,000 feet. Both drives are non-condensing throughout the rated temperature range.

The TD3500 ships in two primary configurations: The ATA interface drive ships with a capacity of 160 GB capacities and has a maximum transfer rate of 44 MB/sec, while the SATA drive--now offered with a 640 GB capacity--lists an internal transfer rate of better than 122 MB/sec and a 3 Gb/sec interface. A USB 2.0 auxiliary port is also included for connectivity to systems that lack a SATA II interface. Both drives list operational shock ratings of 350G @ 2ms half sine; and for non-operation 800G (ATA) / 1000G (SATA) @ 2ms half sine.

The TD7200 series disks are actually enclosed diskpacks with dual or quad SATA interfaces, designed to be removable from the host.

The TD7200 enclosure itself is slightly shorter (1.47" x 7.3" x 8.8") than a standard avionics pack height, allowing it to slide into a bay in an avionic computer or recorder (the diskpack as a whole is hot-swappable). It is secured with the standard "J-hook" used by almost all avionic units; so alternatively, it can be mounted on an avionic tray, typically beside the host computer. The pack boasts capacity of 320 GB and the dual interface design enables the pack to be utilized in RAID 0, 1, or 10 scenarios. A four disk version of the TD7200 (TD7204) is also shipping with capacity of 640 GB and support for RAID levels 0, 1, 5, and 10.

Like the TD3500, the TD7200 is 100% non-condensing; and features an operating temperature range of -40 degrees celsius to +70 degrees celsius, altitude ratings of from -1000 to 70,000 feet, and a maximum sustained transfer rate of 84 MB/sec. Shock ratings during operation are listed at 200G @ 2ms half sine; and for non-operational states 800G @ 1 ms half sine.

Numbers for the TD7204 include an operating temperature range of -20 degrees celsius to +70 degrees celsius, altitude ratings of from -1000 to 70,000 feet, and a maximum sustained transfer rate of 88 - 180 MB/sec. Shock ratings during operation are listed at 250G @ 2ms half sine; and for non-operational states 900G @ 1 ms half sine.

Contact Formation for further information.