Product Group Posts

Toshiba Electronics Europe desired to answer this question recently through testing the function, performance, acoustics, and power consumptions of the PROMISE VTrack J5960 60-bay toploader JBOD

Toshiba Electronics Europe desired to answer this question recently through testing the function, performance, acoustics, and power consumptions of the PROMISE VTrack J5960 60-bay toploader JBOD

When building storage solutions for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMB), the ultimate system performance cannot be judged by the storage rack specification alone as the selected hard disk drives (HDDs) can have a material impact.

It’s been about 40 years since PCs were first equipped with hard disk drives (HDDs).

Toshiba looks at the future of HDDs for data centers, surveillance systems and more.

Toshiba Electronics Europe desired to answer this question recently through testing the function, performance, acoustics, and power consumptions of the PROMISE VTrack J5960 60-bay toploader JBOD

More than one PB capacity at just around 500W - Toshiba tested power consumption PROMISE VTrack J5960 JBOD with 60 18TB Toshiba Enterprise Hard Disk Drives and a total capacity of 1080TB

The Technology Experience Lab at NTT Global Data Centers provides data center managers and their teams with the space and infrastructure to explore innovative approaches for architecting their servers and storage.

It is commonly believed that to achieve a stable and reliable storage system that ongoing maintenance including firmware updates, software updates and even replacement of failed hardware components are things that cannot be avoided.

According to IDC projections, by 2025 the quantity of data that our society generates each year will come to a staggering 175ZBytes.

Thanks to the advent of IP technology and the development of multi-megapixel high-definition (HD) cameras, the proliferation of surveillance systems and their performance capabilities have increased dramatically over recent years.

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) now find themselves having to deal with far greater amounts of data than they would have ever imagined in the past.

Since 2014, Toshiba Electronics Europe GmbH has been a key storage partner of CERN who have 3,200 JBODs carrying 100,000 hard disk drives (HDD) providing 350 PB of storage, 10 PB of which is consumed each month from new data requiring analysis. The original system in 2014 made use of the MG03 4 TB capacity drives, server-grade storage designed for high reliability and optimized for highest capacity at the time.

We are generating more and more data which needs to be stored safely and effectively. Hard disk drives (HDDs) continue to be central to solving this challenge, requiring them to be available with increased storage capacities. In order to provide the necessary technical solutions, engineers are now looking to incorporate microwave-based technologies into HDDs. As cloud services, video streaming and social media continue to increase in popularity data volumes are growing rapidly, challenging data centers to grow their storage capacities to cope with demand. As a result, many large IT companies are planning to add additional data centres to drive capacity higher.

There is still no way around HDDs for the cost-effective provision of storage capacity. Different applications require the use of different HDDs. The decisive selection criteria are reliability and operating conditions.

One of the hottest topics within technology circles is when to move from established technology to the newer version, taking into account the costs and any possible risks. IT professionals are engaged in making this decision, determining whether (and when) SSDs offer better performance than the older, but lower cost, HDD technology. As one of the leading drive manufacturers with significant experience in both HDD and SSD technology, Toshiba Electronics Europe set out to investigate the question as to whether an array of 10krpm HDDs can offer a better performance solution than Enterprise SSDs and, if so, under what conditions?

Data has always been a valuable commodity but, in today’s world, it is rapidly growing in value as we base so many of our day-to-day decisions on it – often indirectly as the machine-to-machine communications of the Internet of Things are taking care of us.

The world of data storage is moving on quickly. We are creating more data than ever before, which has to be stored securely and should be easy to retrieve. A couple of decades ago tape was the preferred storage method and these days it is in fact still in use, but limited to very centralised archiving applications. The invention of disc drives based upon high-density spinning magnetic platters – now known as Hard Disc Drives (HDDs) brought higher storage densities and much greater user convenience, especially in terms of data accessibility.

“Data, data everywhere – as far as the eye can see.” That pretty much sums up the reality for IT professionals these days for whom terabytes, petabytes and even exabytes and zettabytes have become part of the daily business language.

Hard disc drives are becoming more reliable, often achieving a Mean Time To Failure (MTTF) of up to 2.5 million hours and carrying a warranty of up to five years. In practice, this means that a storage system comprising 1000 identical hard drives should only expect two or three drives to fail during one year within the warranty period.

Modern hard drives, and especially enterprise hard drives, are inherently very reliable. Manufacturers such as Toshiba offer warranties of up to five years, which indicates their confidence in the products. Popular models such as Toshiba’s MG06 offer Mean Time To Failure (MTTF) figures of 2.5 million hours – a figure that has been increased from 2 million hours. In the real world, this means that in an installation of 1000 enterprise hard drives, users should expect only two or three drives to fail per year during the warranty period.

Heat pumps are seen by many as a way forward to net-zero. However, approaching this goal requires greater adoption of the technology, which relies on cost savings in manufacture.

There is little doubt that heat pumps are going to make a significant contribution in the push for net-zero.

Servos are what enable robot movement to be initiated - with six of them usually incorporated into modern robot arms, and even more being needed for mobile AGV units and suchlike.

So as to keep down the overall component count and lower the costs involved, as well as saving valuable space, sensor-less control of BLDC motors is proving to be increasingly appealing to today’s design engineers.

BLDC motors have significantly better torque to weight ratios, higher efficiency levels and greater reliability than brushed motors, with there being increased use of them in contemporary electronic designs.

Greater reliance on robots seems to be a certainty in the years ahead.

We are moving into an age where far greater degrees of automation will be witnessed.

Systems driven by some form of electric motor represent the biggest single consumer of electricity resources.

With all of us currently still living in what is a socially-distanced post-COVID world, the need for an automated approach to things remains very much apparent.

Though the pervasiveness of brushless DC (BLDC) motors is increasing all the time within a wide variety of different sectors, in an automobile context the value of brushed motors still remains clear.

Last year the robotics technology market, which deals with all the hardware and software components needed for building robots, was estimated to have a total worth of over $60 billion.

Going back many generations, our society seems to find the subject of robotics unusually enthralling. Rudimentary automatons have been around since before the Renaissance, becoming increasingly popular during the 18th and 19th centuries and also more complex in their design.

During their studies, engineers are confronted with much mathematics that forms the basis of electronics and electronic systems. However, once embedded in our selected industry segment, many of us never really have to contend with convolution, Laplace transforms, or the details of Fourier since we end up developing applications that use this mathematics, rather creating the algorithms themselves.

During their studies, engineers are confronted with much mathematics that forms the basis of electronics and electronic systems. However, once embedded in our selected industry segment, many of us never really have to contend with convolution, Laplace transforms, or the details of Fourier since we end up developing applications that use this mathematics, rather creating the algorithms themselves.

E-bikes are steadily gaining in market share, with growth predicted to lie between 6 and 8% until 2025. Unlike the automobile market, range is less of an issue. Instead consumers are more focused on reliability and convenience. This means longer intervals between charging and higher integration into daily life. Many e-bikes are already fitted with some sort of display, providing information on charge, speed and estimated range. But with the trend toward wearables, and with smartphones positioned at the center of such data collection, connectivity is on the list of options for e-bike users to consider.

Since the 1990s, e-bikes have been steadily growing in popularity across the globe, with the market expecting to grow to around 7 million units by 2025. Although the range concerns surrounding automobiles are not as predominant in the e-bike market, it is still essential that consumers can enjoy the advantages of their electrically supported bicycle without the need to charge it up after every journey.

The move from mechanical to electronically controlled commutation of motors, coupled with new battery technologies, has opened up a wide range of new applications. Microcontrollers are often the best choice for implementing the motor control since their features are also required to implement other features of the end application. This is made especially challenging when considering the hard-real-time demands of electronically commutating a motor.

Hardware accelerators have been an essential feature of microprocessors for decades, providing performance for features that the processor is unable to execute efficiently itself. Many times, this circuitry has been dedicated to performing floating point calculations or complex mathematics to bridge a performance gap of the processor’s instruction set. The advantage they often bring is determinism to calculations that, without them, would complete in varying time periods. In the world of control systems, such as motor control, this reliable determinism is highly beneficial.

With the continual push toward ever more efficient household appliances, engineers have benefited from the energy savings that brushless motors provide. This has, however, added an extra layer of complexity. Implementation of sinusoidal commutation for Field-Oriented Control (FOC) often demands the use of a microcontroller that can implement both the motor control as well as executing other elements of the application with a single device.

Technologies such as vehicle-to-grid (V2G) and vehicle-to-home (V2H) where the battery in an electric vehicle (EV) returns power to the grid at times of high demand, or simply powers a home in an emergency are bringing challenges to designers of vehicle chargers

Due to a combination of consumer demand and governmental policy to halt sales of new internal combustion engines (including in hybrid vehicles), all-electric battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are the future of personal mobility

Though the attributes that make silicon carbide (SiC) have undoubted value to the future of power system design, it is not just about what goes on within the semiconductor substrate itself.

Whether they are silicon-based or use silicon carbide (SiC) technology, MOSFETs will experience switching losses that are caused by their body diodes.

The on-resistance (RDS(ON)) of a MOSFET is an intrinsic property that causes static power losses and depends upon the inner structure of the MOSFET.

The voltage applied between the gate and source of a MOSFET during operation is denoted ‘VGS’ and the highest possible value of VGS that can be applied without damage is VGSS. This is important as it simplifies design of the control circuit.

Silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs are able to deliver much more impressive switching characteristics than their silicon-based equivalents.

Over recent years, there has been a lot of talk throughout the power electronics industry about the exciting performance attributes offered by silicon carbide (SiC). Though there is plenty of information available on this subject, finding a way of translating it into what this actually means for engineers’ designs has still proved difficult. Consequently, many engineers are still reluctant to migrate from the conventional silicon (Si) technology that they are already very familiar with. Unfortunately that means that they are missing out.

There is significant effort being made to develop next-generation charging infrastructure to support electric vehicles (EVs).

With electric vehicle (EV) chargers delivering up to 22 kW in AC and up to 350 kW in fast DC chargers, several hundred Watts of energy can easily be dissipated as heat.

Servos are what enable robot movement to be initiated - with six of them usually incorporated into modern robot arms, and even more being needed for mobile AGV units and suchlike.

With hundreds of millions of electric vehicles (EVs) being deployed in the next two decades, providing a comprehensive charging infrastructure is critical. Equally critical is the efficiency of these charging points.

Synchronizing renewable energy generation to peak demand times is proving challenging and raising concerns for future renewable grids.

Greater reliance on robots seems to be a certainty in the years ahead.

Electric vehicles (EVs) are now a major focus for power electronics endeavour, with a large proportion of engineers involved in finding ways to improve their performance and extend their range.

We are moving into an age where far greater degrees of automation will be witnessed.

With pressure to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and other polluting energy sources, electrical energy becomes the preferred choice.

The number of electric vehicles (EVs) on our roads is set to increase dramatically in the years ahead, with 323 million of them being in use by 2040 (according to a study compiled by analyst firm Wood Mackenzie).

With all of us currently still living in what is a socially-distanced post-COVID world, the need for an automated approach to things remains very much apparent.

Last year the robotics technology market, which deals with all the hardware and software components needed for building robots, was estimated to have a total worth of over $60 billion.

It is now a quarter of a century since universal serial bus (USB) first arrived on the scene. With several billion ports currently in operation globally, and many more being added each year, its market traction is unmatched by any other interface technology.

Going back many generations, our society seems to find the subject of robotics unusually enthralling. Rudimentary automatons have been around since before the Renaissance, becoming increasingly popular during the 18th and 19th centuries and also more complex in their design.

To meet the demand for increasing energy efficiency in switching power conversion systems, superjunction MOSFETs have become preferred devices for energy-conscious designers. Superjunction technologies allow reduced die sizes enabling designers to reduce space and increase current density. However, new demands are coming to the fore, such as improved noise performance.

Since the specification for USB Type-C was published by the USB Implementers Forum (USB IF) in 2014, the new bi-directional standard with flippable connectors has been appearing on more and more devices, including laptops, tablets and smartphones. While still in the early phase of its rollout, market research firm IHS predicts that around 500 million devices will be shipped with USB Type-C this year. And this figure is expected to quadruple to 2 billion devices in 2019.

Low-voltage power MOSFETs are used as main switching devices in power supply systems. The power density of these systems is increasing continuously. In order to reduce the system volume and power loss, a significant improvement of the package heat radiation of the MOSFETs is necessary. To meet this demand, a new MOSFET package called DSOP Advance (Dual Side Cooling SOP 5x6mm) has been developed. Details of the new package were presented in a paper during PCIM 2014 in Nuremburg in May.

A world without USB is barely imaginable. Since its introduction in 1996 it has not only successfully ousted a plethora of outdated parallel and serial data transfer technologies in the world of PCs and laptops, it has established itself as a de facto charging interface for smartphone and tablets, and has even been integrated into automobiles.

Cordless power tool designers face multiple challenges, many of which interact and, in some cases, compete with each other making component selection critical to producing a winning design. The battery itself is one of the most obvious trade-offs. Selecting a battery with the most energy per unit weight is key; more important is to ensure that all aspects of the design are as efficient as possible so as not to waste energy.

USB Type-C has fundamentally changed the way that devices, especially computers and peripherals, will connect in the future. Although it is part of the USB 3.1 specification, USB Type-C is truly a game-changer in that it incorporates the USB Power Delivery (USB PD) specification that allows up to 100W of power to be delivered alongside data at up to 10Gbps.

With an estimated 9-10 billion ports in operation, Universal Serial Bus (USB) has become the most commonly used interface technology in modern electronics/computing designs. Though the standard continues to evolve, it needs to do so in such a way that delivers extra functionality while maximising compatibility with widely proliferated previous generations. Elevated power levels and accelerated data rates present a variety of new challenges, not least in terms of long-term reliability and signal integrity.

According to market analysis conducted by IHS, by the end of this year the world’s total installed photovoltaic capacity with be over 310GWatts - that is 8 times what it was at the start of the decade. GlobalData predicts by 2025 this capacity will have more than doubled again, reaching 652GWatts. With demand for solar technology continuing to grow, and the conversion efficiencies of photovoltaics still relatively low (though gradually increasing), there is an ongoing need to minimise the power losses of the supporting electronics (and thereby make full use of the converted energy).

The heat energy that is present in power ICs, such as MOSFETs, not only impacts on these devices’ operational performance, it also has the potential to impinge heavily on system reliability, increasing the risk of failure and shortening operational lifespan. It has a detrimental effect on the running costs involved too - as power adaptors that exhibit poor conversion efficiency characteristics will need to draw more current from the main supply, thus adding to the size of the user’s utility bills. Engineers simply cannot afford to ignore the heat dissipation issue.

Solar power is big business. As demand for solar panels grows, there is an increasing need for more compact and energy efficient electronics so that every possible milliWatt of energy harvested from the sun is captured and made available to use. Photovoltaic inverters convert the DC current produced by an array of photovoltaic cells to AC at local line voltage and frequency, ready to be fed into the grid or used to power an off-grid network. Micro-inverters that connect to just one panel each are also available – ensuring that reduced output from any panel (perhaps because of shade or snow) doesn’t disproportionately affect the output of the total array.

Power MOSFETs are popular switching elements in many modern power devices. As engineers try to squeeze ever more performance and efficiency from each design, then MOSFETs are pushed to their limit. However, there is obviously a limit to each device's capability, yet there is no single means to define this limitation as it depends on a number of factors that interact.

Power MOSFETs are probably the most popular switching device in modern power solutions. They are generally easy to use and semiconductor manufacturers ensure that performance increases with each successive generation. Even so, on occasion, designers find the need to operate two MOSFETs in a parallel configuration.

Many industrial applications require some form of galvanic isolation due to the range of voltages present as well as the electrical noise and spikes that can interfere with system operation.

Galvanic isolation is required in an increasing number of systems and products, especially those that contain high and low voltages and those that operate in electrically noisy environments.

No risk of contact welding or wear out of device

Smaller size, greater reliability and no risk of contact shorting

The importance of switching devices is growing as many applications (such as EVs and renewable energy) rely on attaining previously unachievable levels of efficiency.

I2C was only designed and intended for low-latency board-level communication, meaning that latencies between isolated circuits must be carefully considered.

Supporting mechanical relays – reduce risk of contact stick and weld together

When it was devised four decades ago, the inter-integrated Circuit (I2C) interface was designed as a serial bus system for short-distance communication between microcontrollers and on-board peripherals.

While it is possible to design a fully featured gate driver with discrete components, it is rarely the best approach in terms of parts cost, design effort, assembly time, and board area required.

Mechanical relays are often a good choice for EV applications as they are able to deal with the high voltages that are found in many use cases. However, one significant concern is if the contacts weld themselves together, risking a permanently ‘on’ condition that could clearly be extremely dangerous.

In order to respond to growing pressures to curb energy consumption, greater prevalence of variable-speed motors is being witnessed. Such motors are being incorporated into heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment, domestic appliances (dish washers, refrigerators, washing machines, etc.), light industrial drives and suchlike. These motors, in turn, call for inverter drives to propel them. A key concern, however, when specifying inverter drives for these types of applications is the associated cost.

Improvements to the energy efficiency levels of inverter motor drives are making them increasingly attractive in applications where the power budget needs to be reined in - so that more stringent environmental guidelines can be adhered to. These applications include small HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems, light industrial drives and certain domestic appliances.

Much like the break pieces that are used to separate sections of a domino rally, optical isolation is used to separate different sections of an electrical circuit. Why would you want to separate parts of a circuit? Well, the galvanic isolation provided by an optical isolator can protect sensitive components from potentially damaging high currents or voltages. Such isolation can also be useful for protecting sensors from interference or signal grounding problems.

Photocouplers (also known as optoisolators or optocouplers) have become an increasingly important bridge between circuits operating at different voltages. They provide galvanic separation and prevent the flow of potentially damaging loop currents between grounds at different potentials; or ensure that current or voltage surges do not damage system components or harm users. Optical isolation is also useful for preventing the propagation of electrical noise and eliminating impedance mismatches.