SSDL Provides Swap-In Replacement Drives for Semiconductor Tool System
We were contacted by a renowned semiconductor tool OEM manufacturer looking to extend the life of a critical legacy tool system, and to simplify their support service.
Many of the OEM’s customers were looking to keep their systems working for at least 10 more years. However, their data storage devices (3.5” 50-pin SCSI HDDs and magneto-optical [MO] drives) were failing and becoming more difficult to procure – complicating life for our customer.
When the original reached their end-of-life (EOL), compatible HDDs and MO drive replacements were used for a number of years – but they too reached EOL and became unavailable.
The OEM’s goal was to provide long term support for existing customers whilst providing a solution to current production issues.
Our brief:
- The replacement for the HDDs must be completely transparent to the host system and the replacement for the floppy disk drive must be able to read different disk formats.
- Exact form, fit and function of the legacy drive critical.
- Faster post failure recovery.
Regarding the final point, the OEM wanted to provide fast system recovery in the event of a failure. This particular system requires a complete disk format and software install that can take up six hours to complete in the event of a disk failure or loss of battery backed up RAM following battery or CPU failure. Their fast system recovery is now completed in minutes rather than hours.
Our solution, that fully met our customers brief, was our CF2SCSI SCSIFlash.
