Industrial and Embedded Flash Storage for Every Application

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Every OEM’s application is different. There are different industries, requirements, reliability concerns and budget constraints.

But for all applications requiring one or more of the storage needs below, an active decision should be made regarding what memory solution to use.

OEM / Embedded Storage Requirements for Flash Storage Devices:

Operating System
Applications Program
Data Logging
Databases or Lookup Tables
Audio and Video

It’s important to review not just the form factor and performance, but what is really going on inside the flash device itself.

With this in mind, a conscious decision by the OEM designer should be made to ensure they have the right flash storage device for their system.

In many cases, the only decision that has been made is what type of card do I need and where can I get the lower cost solution.

Well, there are a number of different solutions on offer to satisfy any OEM’s Industry, Reliability, Performance and Budget constraints. But, not all at the same time. In many instances a tradeoff needs to be made between one or more of the selection criteria.

Overview of Cactus Grades of Product:

INDUSTRIAL GRADE – Most Reliable, based on SLC NAND, High Endurance & Data Retention.

OEM GRADE – Reliability at a Lower Cost, based on pSLC NAND, Medium Endurance & Data Retention.

COMMERCIAL GRADE – Lower Cost, based on MLC NAND, Lower Endurance & Retention, but much better than Consumer products on market.

As you may notice above, there is not a Consumer selection in the Cactus offering. Consumer products do not have BOM control, signifying they can, and many times are made differently every production run. The reasons for this are the flexibility in manufacturing.

A Consumer flash card supplier can buy the cheapest memory on the spot market, change controllers and/or firmware whenever they want. This allows them to be the price leader, but definitely not the consistency leader.

If you incorporate a Consumer flash card in your application, you run the risk of getting a latent defect or compatibility issue introduced to your overall system since you never tested and qualified the part. This happens more often than you think.

Industrial Grade – Most Reliability and Longevity:

This Infographic was created in 2015, but all of the same decision criteria are the same today. That can't be said of Consumer flash storage products which come and go with each passing trend.

If you have a long life cycle design that may or may not require a consistent locked (Bill-Of-Material), you should seriously consider an Industrial SSD or other form factor for your project.

Final Thoughts:

Cactus Technologies focus is to make the most reliable Industrial Grade Flash Storage Devices based on SLC NAND memory, with a locked-BOM (Bill-Of-Material) to ensure the performance and reliability characteristics never change over the many years of production.

We also offer alternative OEM and Industrial MLC products to meet budget constrained applications. In addition, Cactus offers other interfaces to meet needs of embedded OEM application designers everywhere.

If you need assistance with an OEM design or needing special features, please contact us.