Memtech AT3550 User Manual

AT3550 3.5” Wolverine

3.5” IDE Solid State Flash Drive

User Guide

80-03-00035

Revision 1.1

February 11, 2005

Memtech SSD Corporation

7628 Las Positas Road

Livermore, CA 94550

[phone]
[phone]

www.memtech.com

Table of Contents

1. HIGHLIGHTS...............................................................................3

2. INTRODUCTION..........................................................................3

3. INSTALLATION ...........................................................................4

3.1 PROCEDURE...........................................................................................................4

3.2 JUMPERS................................................................................................................7

3.3 IDE INTERFACE.......................................................................................................9

4. OPERATION..............................................................................11

4.1 ACTIVE REMAP™ AND WRITE LIMITATIONS ..............................................................11

4.2 ECC......................................................................................................................11

4.3 POWER ................................................................................................................12

4.4 TROUBLE SHOOTING GUIDE ....................................................................................13

5. MAINTENANCE.........................................................................13

6. SPECIFICATIONS .....................................................................14

6.1 INTERFACE ...........................................................................................................14

6.2 PERFORMANCE.....................................................................................................14

6.3 ENVIRONMENTAL...................................................................................................14

6.4 POWER REQUIREMENTS ........................................................................................14

6.5 MECHANICAL.........................................................................................................15

6.6 RELIABILITY ..........................................................................................................15

7. APPENDIX.................................................................................16

7.1 CONTACT INFORMATION.........................................................................................16

7.2 ATA SPECIFICATION INFORMATION.........................................................................16

7.3 LIMITED LIFETIME WARRANTY................................................................................16

AT3550 User Guide V1.00 February 11, 2005 page 2 of 16

1. HIGHLIGHTS

• 12 Gbyte capacity under 16mm (0.63”)

• 60 Gbyte maximum capacity

• Full -55

o

C to +125oC military temperature range

• 3.5” drive low profile form-factor

• UDMA-66 compliant IDE interface

• 16 byte CRC/ECC and Active Remap™ for exceptional data reliabilit y

• Kicker™ Hold Up Circuit

• Active Remap™ Data Reliability Feature

• 5 volt, low power operation

• Completely solid state - no moving parts

• 2000G operating shock

• 20G operating vibration

• 0.1 millisecond random access time

• 26 Mbyte/sec cached Read performance

• 20 Mbyte/sec cached Write performance

• 8 year product warranty

• 8 million erase/write cycle endurance

2. INTRODUCTION

The AT3550 “Wolverine” is a series of IDE solid state drives available in a low­profile 3.5-inch for m at. The drive is completely solid state, making it exceptionally
rugged and able to operate in extreme environm ent al conditions.

Sector Erasable NAND E

2

PROM (Flash) is used to provide over 60 Gbytes of
nonvolatile, solid state storage in an extremely small, r ugged form factor. The
drive is 100% IDE compatible and requires no special drivers to operat e. It is
essentially a drop in replacement for standard rotating media.

The IDE interface is implem ent ed using a commercially available IDE controller. It
supports UDMA-66 transfers, LBA mode addr essing, and incorporates a 1 Mbyte
buffer, and a 16-byte hardware error detection and correction logic. The
CRC/ECC circuitry, in conjunction with Memtech’s proprietar y Active Remap™
technology, makes for a virtually bulletproof medium for data retention.

The drive is available in a number of standard capacities ranging from 1 to 60
Gbytes. Drives under 12 Gbytes are 16mm tall, while 60 Gbyte capacity drives
are under 35.5mm.

Each drive is fully tested under environmental extremes at t he factory using
Memtech’s proprietary EnduroTest™ to guar antee data integrity in even the
harshest conditions. Full functionality of t he pr oduct is guaranteed out of the box.

AT3550 User Guide V1.00 February 11, 2005 page 3 of 16

3. INSTALLATION

3.1 PROCEDURE

3.1.1 ESD PRECAUTIONS
The AT3550 is sensitive to static electricit y. Before handling the AT3550, please

observe the following precautions to avoid ESD damage to t he unit :

• Keep the drive in its shielded bag until ready to install.

• Ground yourself by touching a grounded chassis frame of the computer, or

use a grounded wrist strap before and during the installation process.

• Do not touch the exposed drive electronics or connectors. Always handle the

drive by the edges or mounting rails.

3.1.2 CONFIGURATION
Before applying power to the drive, configure the drive using the jumper diagrams

given in Section 3.2. The default configuration is for a single drive system or as
the master in a two-drive system. Change the configuration as required. Never
attempt to change the jumpers while the drive is plugged in and the computer is
on.

3.1.3 CABLE
With the com puter off, attach the 40-pin, 0.1inch cable t o t he unitized IDE

connector on the drive. Note pin 1 orientation and alig nment. Care should be
taken when installing the cable, as misalignment can permanently damage the
drive interface. Attach the separ at e power cable using the 4-pin AT Power
connector.

The AT3550 is UDMA66 compliant with the appropriate cable. If the host system
does not detect the correct cable type, the int er face will restrict transfers to
UDMA33 speeds or slower. The type of cable is detected using the sig nal CBLI D.
On UDMA66 compliant cables, this signal is grounded.

AT3550 User Guide V1.00 February 11, 2005 page 4 of 16

3.1.4 CONNECTOR
The drive may be interfaced directly to a standard 3. 5”, 0.1in IDE socket connector

or a standard 40pin IDE ribbon and AT power cable. See drawing below for pin 1
location. Care should be taken when installing the AT3550 into the system, as
misalignment can permanently damage t he dr ive inter face connector or
electronics.

Figure 1 - Drive Connector

3.1.5 MOUNTING
The AT3550 may be mounted in any orientation. A total of four bottom and six

side mounting holes are available for installat ion. The mounting holes require 6­32 screws with a maximum depth of 0.25 inch.

The diagram given below is valid for all capacities of the AT3550 drive. The
overall outside dimensions are 4 inches (101.7 mm) wide, 5.75 inch (146.05m m )
long, and 0.630 inch (16mm) tall. Please refer to the following drawing for
dimensions and mounting hole locations.

The diagram given below is for a 12 Gbyte dr ive. Dr ives with higher capacit ies will
be 0.760 inches (19.3mm) or taller. All other dimensions remain identical.

AT3550 User Guide V1.00 February 11, 2005 page 5 of 16

3.1.6 COMPUTER SETUP
To be recognized by the computer, the drive tr anslat ion information must typically

be entered into the System Setup or CMOS Setup utility. For non-PC compatible
computers, this may not apply. The AT3550 suppor ts automatic configuration if
offered by the BIOS. Automatic CHS translation and LBA mode is also supported.

3.1.7 PARTITION
The drive must be partitioned using the system’s FDISK utility. For operating

systems other than DOS, please ref er t o your O S oper at ing guides. Note that
changing the partition inf ormation will erase all data currently on the drive. Refer
to your OS manual for infor mation regarding partitioning a hard disk.

3.1.8 FORMAT
The AT3550 is low-level formatted at t he factory, which establishes the 512-byte

sector size. A high-level format is r equired after the partition has been established
on the drive. Refer to your OS manual for information regarding hard disk drive
format procedures.

AT3550 User Guide V1.00 February 11, 2005 page 6 of 16

3.2 JUMPERS

The following diagram illustrates the locations of the jumpers on the AT3550
controller card. The jumpers ar e found on both the J1 interface header and the J2
jumper header. Refer t o the illustration below. The option jumpers control the
master/slave configurat ion of the drive, the use of cable selection, drive write
protection, and other factor y relat ed functions. All headers are on 2mm centers.

3.2.1 MAIN HEADER (J1) JUMPERS

3.2.2 MASTER/SLAVE
If no jumper is installed or t he MA jumper is in place, the drive is selected as the

C: or Master drive. If the drive is to be a Slave device (drive D), inst all t he jumper
ion the SL location. This jumper is part of the unitized ATA interface header and is
on 0.1 inch centers. This location is fact or y shipped with no jumper or with the
jumper in the MA position, configur ing the drive as the master drive.

3.2.3 CABLE SELECT
Jumper CS can be used to let the IDE Cable Select signal select the drive

configuration as either t he m aster or slave device. Shorting the CS pins enables
the Cable Select feature. Leaving t he pins unconnect ed disables t he Cable Select
feature. The drive is f act or y shipped with these pins open.

3.2.4 WRITE PROTECT
The WP j u m per is used to write protect the drive. Installing this jumper on either

the J1 or J2 header forces the drive to a write-pr otect condition, blocking any and

AT3550 User Guide V1.00 February 11, 2005 page 7 of 16

X

X

j

all writes from occurring. This jumper must be prior to the drive powering up to be
recognized.

3.2.5 OPTION HEADER J2
The Option Header is located on the LED-side of the drive, as illustrated below:

J2 Option Jumpers,

2x6, 2mm

Jumper Header – J2

3.2.6 WRITE PROTECT
The WP j umper on header J2 is used to write-protect the drive. The default

position of this jumper is O FF. Installing the WP jum per inhibits all further writes
to the drive, while read accesses occur as normal.

WP
OPT1
OPT2

GND

LED

T
R

XP

WP: Write Protect
configured for normal
operation --

umper off

3.2.7 OPTION JUMPERS
The OPT1 and OPT2 jumpers ar e used for factory test functions or special

functions only, and should always be left open.

AT3550 User Guide V1.00 February 11, 2005 page 8 of 16

3.2.8 TX/RX CONNECTIONS
The TX and RX connections are f or manufacturing use only.

GND

TX

GND

RX

3.2.9 EXTERNAL POWER

OPT1,2: Option Jumpers
configured for normal
operation -- jumpers off

TX/RX: RS232
Communications

The XP pins on the Option Header are used to connect exter nal st andby power to
the drive. These pins are connected to the Kick er ™ Holdup Circuit. Applied
power should be 5 volts +/- 10%. Do not exceed 6 volts on this line, as internal
damage to the drive may result.

The two outside pins on the header are used to connect power to the holdup
circuit. A third pin is needed to connect the grounds of the drive to the power
source.

GND

XP

XP

GND

GND

3.3 IDE INTERFACE

The AT3550 uses a unitized ATA connector that com bines t he 40- pin 0.1” IDE
header, the 4-pin AT Power connector, and an 8-pin opt ion j umper header
mounted on the drives controller PCB. Maximum cable length is 18 inches.
Recommended cable length is 12 inches or less, especially if an advanced PIO or
UDMA transfer modes are being used. T o achieve full drive performance, a
UDMA cable is required.

Jumper Header – J2

AT3550 User Guide V1.00 February 11, 2005 page 9 of 16

3.3.1 IDE CONNECTOR PHYSICAL ORIENTATION
The diagram below depicts connector orientation and locat ion.

3.3.2 IDE CONNECTOR PINOUT
The following table depicts the 40-pin, 0. 1 inch signal cable interface pin out.

PIN SIGNAL PIN SIGNAL

1 RESET- 2 GND
3 DATA7 4 DATA8
5 DATA6 6 DATA9
7 DATA5 8 DATA10

9 DATA4 10 DATA11
11 DATA3 12 DATA12
13 DATA2 14 DATA13
15 DATA1 16 DATA14
17 DATA0 18 DATA15
19 GND 20 KEY (NO PIN)
21 DRQ 22 GND
23 IOW- 24 GND
25 IOR- 26 GND
27 IOCHRDY 28 CSEL
29 DACK- 30 GND
31 IRQ 32 IOCS16­33 ADDR1 34 PDIAG­35 ADDR0 36 ADDR2
37 CS0- 38 CS1­39 DASP- 40 GND

AT3550 User Guide V1.00 February 11, 2005 page 10 of 16

4. OPERATION

4.1 ACTIVE REMAP™ AND WRITE LIMITATIONS

Unlike mechanical drives, wherein the wear-out mechanism results from starting
and stopping the platters and the rot ation of the spindle motors, the wear-out
mechanism for any solid state flash dr ive resides in writing to the non-volatile
memory, which in Memtech's case is NAND E
devices requires that electrons be fir st removed from, and then trapped on the
floating gate in each cell using Fowler-Nor dheim t unneling techniques. This
process is inherently harsh on the oxide layer isolating the floating gate from the
silicon substrate in the device, and establishes the write cycle endurance of each
cell in a device as specified by the device manufacturer.

To overcome this limitation, Memtech Solid State Flash Drives have been
designed with Active Remap™, which, on a detected cell failure, moves the
entire failing block to a reserved location and maps the failing block out of
active memory. This process is automatic and invisible to the user. It
extends the device's useful life almost 100 fold, and makes the Memtech
series of Solid State Drives suitable for both read mostly and read/write
applications.

In an ongoing effort to determine the durability of the flash components and
in turn extend the life of our products, Memtech has also conducted several
endurance tests using our flash drives. The results were very
encouraging. During testing, done under both benign and harsh operating
conditions, Memtech observed and documented an erase/write cycle
endurance of 8 to 30 million cycles. This is compared to the flash
manufacturer's test and report of only 100,000 to 250,000 erase/write
cycles for the flash devices.

Reading the NAND E
oxide layers, and is therefore unlimited.

4.2 ECC

2

PROM has no adverse effects on the storage cells or

2

PROM. Writing the to the memory

The NRZ data interface used by the IDE cont r oller implements a CRC/ECC
mechanism to detect and correct any errors in t he data stored in the flash. This
polynomial is capable of correcting three 8-bit data bursts in a single sector, and
detecting up to six 8-bit error bursts per sect or .

An extensive retry algorithm is implemented on the AT3550, so that single event
disturbances such as ESD can be readily overcome. Probability of miscorrect ion
is approximately 10

AT3550 User Guide V1.00 February 11, 2005 page 11 of 16

-20

per bit corrected for a 512-byte field.

4.3 POWER

4.3.1 POWER DOWN
Whenever possible, do not power down the computer dur ing a write command

sequence to any mass storage device. This includes during the normal operation
of the drive, and with the use of disk cache programs such as Microsft
SmartDrive. If a write routine must interrupted, use the push button reset or a soft
reset. Powering down the AT3550 while it is being written may cause an
incomplete write sequence, and leave as many as 32 sectors with an Address
Mark Found Error or Uncorrectable Err ors. DOS will report these with a message
“Error Reading Drive C:”.

4.3.2 POWER SUPPLY
The AT3550 voltage requirem ent is specified at +5 volts, +/- 5% on the drive itself.

Operation outside of these limits is not guaranteed. Note that the drive will
“operate” down to 4 volts, but reliability issues such as Uncorrectable Er r or s or
invalid data reads may occur. An on board voltage monitor will inhibit writes when
the supply voltage falls below 4.70 volts, thus preserving data integrity on the
drive.

4.3.3 POWER ROUTING

®

To avoid “glitches” or noise on the Vcc and gr ound lines, power in the system
should be routed so that all peripherals are sourced direct ly from the power supply
as opposed to routing a single continuous supply line to each device in the system
as in daisy chaining. Routing power in the star configuration, as is done on most
desktop PCs, will minimize the effect of one device’s current draw on another
device. This is key to maintaining data integrity on the AT3550. See diagrams
below.

Star Topology Daisy Chain - Do Not Use

Power Supply

Main Board

Hard Disk

Floppy

Main Board

Power Supply

Floppy

Hard Disk

AT3550 User Guide V1.00 February 11, 2005 page 12 of 16

4.4 TROUBLE SHOOTING GUIDE

4.4.1 SELF-TEST DIAGNOSTIC CODES
The AT3550 has been designed to issue blink codes via the LED in the event of a

low-level or catastrophic failure. A blink code of five would be defined as five fast
blinks, a pause with no blinks, and a repeat of the process. The drive will not
respond to commands or a soft reset when in this state. Only powering down the
drive will clear the drive state and restart internal diagnostics.

Blink codes and their associated failure m echanism s ar e defined below. In the
event a blink code is encountered, contact the f actory for further assistance.

Number of

Blinks
2 ROM Firmware Checksum error
3 ASIC initialization error
4 SRAM Test failed
5 IDE buffer failure
6 IDE controller error
7 NRZ data path error

4.4.2 UNCORRECTABLE ERRORS

Error

If a drive has been subjected to a power down during a write command, or as
been run under marginal or dirty power conditions, uncorrect able errors may be
introduced into the media. This may result in dat a r ead errors, a corrupted FAT
table entry or directory, or an invalid boot partition or par tition table. Microsoft
Scandisk or Norton Disk Doctor
partition table errors, but should not be allowed to mar k a sector in the data area
as bad. On a rewrite to a data sector with uncorrectable err ors, all synchronization
and ECC codes will be rewritten and the error will be eliminated.

5. MAINTENANCE

No maintenance is required during t he normal use of this drive.
If data is to be archived for long periods of time (> 10 years), it is recommended

that the data on the drive be refreshed every 5 to 10 years. The manufacturer of
the NAND E
years. Programs such as Norton Speedisk
drive, or Microsoft
during its surface test , achieve this end very well.

2

PROM devices will only guarantee data integrity for a period of 10

™

will successfully correct FAT table problems and

©

®

Scandisk, which writes and reads every sector on the disk

, which reallocates all sectors on the

®

AT3550 User Guide V1.00 February 11, 2005 page 13 of 16

6. SPECIFICATIONS

6.1 INTERFACE

IDE Compatibility ATA6 - T13/1410DR2A
IDE Drive Number Drive 0 or 1
Raw Physical Capacity 12288 Mbytes under 16mm

61440 Mbytes maximum

Physical Sector Size 512 bytes

6.2 PERFORMANCE

Average Access 0.1 ms
Track/Track Access 0.1 ms
Onboard Cache 16 Mbytes
Cached Read Transfer 26 Mbytes/sec
Cached Write Transfer 20 Mbytes/sec
Read Transfer Rate 9.5 Mbytes/sec sustained
Write Transfer Rate 5.0 Mbytes/sec sustained
Burst Transfers 66 Mbytes/sec

6.3 ENVIRONMENTAL

Commercial Temperatur e Range

Operating 0
Storage -65

Extended Temperature Range (E)

Operating -20
Storage -65

Industrial Temperature Range (I)

Operating -40
Storage -65

Military Temperature Range (M)

Operating -55

Storage -65
Shock - operating 1000G, 0.5ms half sine, MIL-810F, method 516.5
Vibration - operating 15G Random, MIL-810F, method 514.5
Airflow None required
Humidity 5% to 95% NC (target)

6.4 POWER REQUIREMENTS

Voltage 5V +/- 5%
Current 4 G byte dr ive

Idle 160 mA

Read 350 mA

Write 320 mA

o

to 70o C

o

C to 125o C

o

C to 75oC

o

C to 125o C

o

to 85o C

o

to 125o C

o

to 125o C

o

to 125o C

AT3550 User Guide V1.00 February 11, 2005 page 14 of 16

6.5 MECHANICAL

Length 5.750 inches (145.05 mm)
Width 4.006 inches (101.75 mm)
Height -

Up to 12288 Mbytes 0.630 inches (16.00 mm)

Add. 8192 Mbytes 0.130 inches (3.30 mm)
Cable Interface 40-pin, 0.1”
Max. Cable Length 18 inches (460 mm)
Rec. Cable Length 12 inches (305 mm)
Weight (4 Gbytes) 7.9oz (246g)

6.6 RELIABILITY

6.6.1 ERROR CORRECTION
A programmable 96-bit Reed-Solom on Er ror Correction and Detection capable of

correcting three random byte error s per sector.

6.6.2 MEMORY CELL ENDURANCE
8 million write/erase cycles (excluding ECC and Active Remap™).

6.6.3 DRIVE ENDURANCE
800 million write/erase cycles minimum with ECC and Active Remap™ enabled.

Read endurance is unlimited.

AT3550 User Guide V1.00 February 11, 2005 page 15 of 16

7. APPENDIX

7.1 CONTACT INFORMATION

For Technical Support or Warranty Repair information, please contact Memtech
at:

Memtech Technology
7628 Las Positas Road
Livermore, CA U.S.A. 94551
phone: [phone]
toll free: [phone]

7.2 ATA SPECIFICATION INFORMATION

Information reg ar ding the ATA6 specification may be obtained from the following
locations:

AT-Attachment Document Distribution
Global Engineering
15 Inverness Way East
Englewood, Co. 80112-5704
Phone: [phone] or [phone]
Fax: [phone]

ATA Anonymous FTP Site

http://fission.dt.wdc.com

7.3 LIMITED LIFETIME WARRANTY

Memtech warrants your AT3550 against defects in material and workmanship for
the life of the drive. T he warrant y is void in the case of misuse, accident,
alteration, improper installation, m isapplicat ion or the result of unauthorized
service or repair.

The implied warranties of merchant abilit y and fitness for a particular purpose, and
all other warranties, expressed or implied, except as set f orth in this warranty,
shall not apply to the products delivered.

In no event shall Memtech be liable for any lost profits, lost savings or other
incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of, or inability to use,
this product.

BEFORE RETURNING PRODUCT , A RETURN MATERIAL AUTHORIZATION
(RMA) MUST BE OBTAINED FROM MEMTECH.

Product shall be returned to Memtech with shipping prepaid. If the product fails to
conform and warranty repair is necessary, Memtech will reimburse customer for
the transportation charges incurred.

AT3550 User Guide V1.00 February 11, 2005 page 16 of 16