Enterprise performance everywhere with E1.S

The PI4 series is Exascend’s flagship industrial-grade SSD lineup, available in the U.2, M.2 (2280 and 2242) and E1.S form factors, featuring Exascend’s trademark storage technologies and wide temperature-support for operation in -40 to 185 °F (-40 to 85 °C) industrial environments.

Launched in December 2021, the PI4 series E1.S SSD is the world’s first rugged SSD in the enterprise E1.S form factor – combining enterprise-class performance and storage density with a thoroughly tough design ideal for extreme environments.

Exascend’s PI4 series E1.S SSD is available for immediate order with capacity configurations from 960 GB to 7,680 GB (1 TB to 8 TB) and a wide range of industrial technologies and value-added features.

The perfect start to a highly anticipated Embedded World 2022

After a hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Embedded World is finally back with an in-person show in Nuremberg, Germany – and so is Exascend. Exascend is exhibiting its latest and greatest storage products – including the award-winning PI4 series E1.S – in booth #2-441 at the Exhibition Centre Nuremberg.

“We are grateful that the judges have recognized Exascend’s commitment to blending enterprise-class performance with industrial-grade innovation into exciting new products that push the industry forward,” Frank Chen, Chief Executive Officer at Exascend said. “Our industrial-grade E1.S SSD is the result of our whole team’s dedication to storage innovation in a fiercely competitive industry where it takes more than just incremental steps to truly stand out and tackle customer’s pain points head on.”

“We look forward to meeting anyone interested in the future of industrial-grade storage at our booth and cannot wait to showcase the innovations we have in store,” Chen continued.

Embedded World 2022 takes place June 21–23 at the Exhibition Centre Nuremberg. If you are interested in visiting, please feel free to contact Exascend for a free event invitation.

Request free event invitation: https://exascend.com/inquiry/

Product information and availability

Exascend best-in-show PI4 series SSDs are available for sampling and order through Exascend and its authorized distributors worldwide. To place an order, submit an inquiry to Exascend or reach out to your assigned Exascend representative today.

For more information about the PI4 series, visit: https://exascend.com/product-category/pcie-gen4/pi4/

For more information about the PI4 series industrial-grade E1.S, visit: https://exascend.com/first-e1-s-pi4-enterprise-embedded/

About Embedded Computing Design’s Best-in-Show at Embedded World

Each year, Embedded Computing Design in collaboration with Embedded World awards competition entries across the categories Connectivity, Computer Boards & Systems, Memory & Storage, AI & Machine Learning, Development Tools & Operating Systems, Security and Processors & IP for the best combination of Design Excellence, Relative Performance and Market Impact/Disruption.

This year, 40 products from leading embedded technology companies entered the prestigious competition and the award certificates were presented at a ceremony at the Le Meridien Grand Hotel on June 20.

Exascend’s industrial-grade PCIe Gen4 x4 PI4 Series E1.S SSD and Industrial CFexpress Type B memory card were nominated in the Memory & Storage category, with the former taking home the Embedded World 2022 best-in-show award.

VPG400-rated performance with extreme read and write speeds

Nitro CFexpress is Exascend’s most powerful cinematography memory card to date and introduces a brand-new flagship product line that focuses on sustained performance and ruggedness. Packing even more performance than Exascend’s popular Essential series, Element series and RED-approved Archon series CFexpress cards, Nitro CFexpress is an industry-defining breakthrough designed to take on the most demanding workloads in cinematography.

Exascend Nitro CFexpress’ sustained performance tops 1,850 MB/s read and 1,700 MB/s write, with VPG400-certified performance to boot. That is enough sustained performance to power the industry’s most powerful cinema camera systems and works seamlessly with leading camera systems such as Canon EOS R3, EOS R5, EOS R5 C, Canon EOS-1D X Mark III and Nikon Z9. Needless to say, you can throw 12K RAW capture and intense burst photography at the Nitro CFexpress without ever fearing dropped frames or compromised performance.

Not only is Nitro CFexpress the world’s first VPG400-certified CFexpress Type B card, but it is also the highest-capacity VPG400-rated CFexpress card available on the market – allowing substantially longer consecutive shooting than products from other manufacturers.

Exascend Nitro CFexpress compared to other VPG400-certified CFexpress cards on the market:

1. Exascend Nitro
   Form factor: CFexpress Type B
   Capacity: 512 GB
   Consecutive recording at 400 MB/s: 21 minutes and 20 seconds
   Read speed: 1,850 MB/s
   Write speed:1,700 MB/s

2. Other brand #1
   Form factor: CFexpress Type B
   Capacity: N/A
   Consecutive recording at 400 MB/s: N/A
   Read speed: N/A
   Write speed: N/A

3. Other brand #2
   Form factor: CFexpress Type A
   Capacity: 160 GB
   Consecutive recording at 400 MB/s: 6 minutes and 40 seconds
   Read speed: 800 MB/s
   Write speed: 700 MB/s

4. Other brand #3
   Form factor: CFexpress Type A
   Capacity: 80 GB
   Consecutive recording at 400 MB/s: 3 minutes and 20 seconds
   Read speed: 800 MB/s
   Write speed: 700 MB/s

IP67-certified ruggedness for shots in tough environments

At Exascend, we work closely with cinematography professionals and camera system manufacturers to engineer products that meet the real demands of modern cinematography professionals. One of the most requested features is ruggedness. Our customers take their gear and cards into the harshest environments for the most incredible shots, and the last thing they need is for their work to be lost due to storage issues.

With that in mind, Exascend worked tirelessly to ensure Nitro CFexpress delivers the ruggedness that creators require. Leveraging conformal coating technology from our mission critical flash storage solutions, the Exascend Nitro CFexpress is IP67-certified, providing ample protection against the elements with extreme dust and water resistance. Getting soaked in a typhoon, dropping the card in a roaring river or getting stuck in a sandstorm are real challenges for cinematographers to overcome, but they will not challenge the integrity of footage stored on an Exascend Nitro CFexpress.

Combined with shock resistance compliant with MIL-STD-810G, electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection, X-ray proof design and protection against damage from magnetism, the Nitro CFexpress is hardened against any hazard and ready for any shot imaginable.

Next-generation heat dissipation with ultra-thin graphene heat spreaders

Professional camera systems and extreme-performance flash storage generate a lot of heat that must be flushed away to avoid degraded performance caused by thermal throttling. To combat this issue and eliminate the risk of dropped frames, Exascend Nitro CFexpress is equipped with ultra-thin graphene heat spreaders.

Inside the Exascend Nitro’s CFexpress Type B casing, each side of the storage hardware is covered by a graphene heat spreader, allowing heat to quickly radiate away from critical components without affecting storage performance. The introduction of graphene heat spreaders in Nitro CFexpress is Exascend’s latest hardware innovation in its world-class cinematography storage lineup, tackling real cinematography challenges with novel solutions.

The best of Exascend’s powerful hardware and unique storage technologies

Nitro CFexpress further integrates Exascend’s signature hardware and firmware technologies and features that enhance performance and reliability in demanding cinematography applications. They include industrial-grade controllers ready for the next generation of the CFexpress interface, premium NAND flash and ultra-fast DRAM cache that enables enterprise-class performance. Proprietary technologies that enhance sustained performance, operation in extreme environments and data integrity such as Exascend’s Adaptive Thermal Control, SuperCruise, automatic RAID recovery (RAID ECC) and enterprise-class latency minimization are included as well.

Upgradeable with Exascend’s latest extreme-performance CFexpress reader

Exascend developed a brand-new 20 Gbps CFexpress reader in tandem with Nitro CFexpress to enable blazing-fast offloading of footage that expedites moving from shooting to post-production. The new Exascend CFexpress card reader can offload footage from a full Nitro CFexpress in under five minutes. Moreover, the high-speed CFexpress reader also allows users to upgrade their Nitro CFexpress cards to unlock even higher performance when the next generation of the CFexpress standard launches in the future.

Product information and availability

Exascend’s VPG400-certified and IP67-rated Nitro CFexpress with 512 GB capacity launches at the end of April and will be available through leading retail partners including Amazon, B&H Photo, CVP and through Exascend’s authorized distributors worldwide. Exascend Nitro CFexpress cards with even higher capacity storage configurations are coming soon.

For more information about Exascend Nitro CFexpress, visit: https://exascend.com/nitro-cfexpress-vpg400/

Warranty and factory data recovery

We trust our products to deliver customers with unbeatable cinematography performance for years. That is why Exascend Nitro CFexpress comes with a five-year global warranty that covers any issue with the card and its components. For accidents and damage that render customers’ footage inaccessible, Exascend offers the industry’s best factory data recovery service that can retrieve data from even severely damaged cards.

About Exascend, Inc.

Exascend is a service-oriented provider of innovative standard and custom storage solutions specialized in low-power, high-performance, and high-reliability products. Since its founding, the company has been awarded more than 45 U.S. and worldwide patents on storage-related technologies. With full product lines of enterprise and industrial PCIe NVMe and SATA-III SSDs, CFast, CFexpress cards and DRAM, Exascend’s capabilities span across hardware, firmware, software, product engineering, manufacturing and customization services. Exascend takes pride in enabling its global customers to push the boundary of possibilities and to differentiate with quality, reliability and flexibility – Engineering Imagination to Innovation. For more information, visit: https://exascend.com/.

From cloud data centers to rugged edge servers

As a scalable and server-friendly alternative to the traditional M.2 standard, the new E1.S (EDSFF) form factor was purpose-designed for high-performance data center and server applications. Combining incredible storage density and performance with a thermal design suitable for hyperscale data storage, E1.S is taking the world of enterprise storage by storm.

In alignment with Exascend’s mission to deliver enterprise-class performance everywhere, the company combines its industrial and enterprise storage expertise to create a groundbreaking innovation: the world’s first rugged E1.S SSD. Exascend’s PI4 series of E1.S SSDs unlocks the true potential of industrial applications by giving them a true enterprise-class storage upgrade – powering next-generation edge servers and embedded applications with breakthrough performance, reliability and power efficiency.

“Launching the world’s first industrial-grade E1.S lineup marks a key milestone for our company. Not only does it showcase our commitment to bringing enterprise-class performance to rugged applications, but it also solidifies our position as a flash storage innovation leader,” Frank Chen, Exascend’s CEO, said. “Feedback from clients has been exceptional and we cannot wait to see our rugged E1.S SSDs enabling future applications.”

Designed for enterprise workloads in industrial settings

The E1.S lineup boasts low power draw, full-disk encryption and high sustained PCIe performance in storage capacities up to 7,680 GB – fully addressing the performance, security, and data storage requirements of hyperscale computing infrastructure.

The PI4 features the world’s first E1.S SSDs with extreme operating temperature support from -40 to 185 °F (-40 to 85 °C), leveraging Exascend’s trademark SuperCruise technology to deliver exceptional enterprise-class performance no matter the ambient temperature. The result is ten times the quality of service (QoS) and more than twice the minimum performance – which integrate the solution brilliantly into industrial as well as high-performance data-logging systems, such as next-generation ADAS systems in the automotive industry.

Reshaping the future of low-power storage

Where thermal management is becoming a critical part of high-power ADAS systems, Exascend’s proprietary Adaptive Thermal Control (ATC) technology paired with its advanced low-power SSD controllers enables the products to reduce system thermal and acoustic design complexity, helping to bring down the entire system BOM cost. Further, Exascend’s PI4 series E1.S SSDs boast firmware and hardware power loss protection to shield data against unstable power supply. This means that even in the case of SSD capacitor failure, the drive has a firmware fallback that guarantees data integrity.

At the same power input, E1.S SSDs deliver better thermal performance than M.2 SSDs. This leads to improved energy efficiency and product longevity. E1.S SSDs can also be configured with heat spreaders as well as asymmetric and symmetric enclosures to cater to different thermal environments.

Applications, configurations and availability

With PI4 E1.S SSDs, businesses can deploy enterprise-level storage in next-generation industrial applications. Examples of suitable edge applications for Exascend’s PI4 series E1.S include edge servers and equipment, offshore power and resource installations, ADAS data loggers, telecommunications equipment and stations, as well as traffic and environmental monitoring stations.

Product samples for the PI4 E1.S SSDs are now available for customers upon request.

Also available on demand are Exascend’s trusted firmware customization services, conformal coating and product lifecycle support. To request a product sample, please contact sales@exascend.us.

All PI4 models are covered by Exascend’s generous three-year limited warranty.

Enterprise-class PCIe Gen4 performance ready for integration

Exascend’s PI4 series utilizes the ultra-fast PCIe 4.0 interface with NAND flash support from Micron and Kioxia for full forward and backward compatibility – making it a truly future-proof upgrade. The series leverages Exascend’s trademark hardware and firmware technologies to deliver reliable enterprise-class performance – providing high quality of service (QoS) to maximize the performance of latency-sensitive systems. This means that system integrators and industrial innovators can finally bring staggering enterprise-class PCIe Gen4 performance to even the toughest of applications.

Higher transfer speeds at lower power draw

Exascend’s PI4 series is paired with Marvell’s premium 12 nm controller and the latest industrial-grade 3D TLC NAND flash for impeccable performance and low power consumption, delivering sustained transfer speeds of up to 3,500 MB/s and 4K random speeds of up to 600K IOPS. In addition to higher transfer speeds, the PI4 series offers substantial energy savings when compared to its predecessors, improving write performance per watt by a whopping 143% – marking Exascend’s most recent effort to reduce customers’ carbon footprint through low power PCIe storage.

Engineered to withstand harsh industrial conditions on the edge

Exascend’s PI4 series is specifically designed to address performance-hampering factors commonly found in edge applications, including small space, overheating, extreme temperatures, mechanical stress and unstable power supply. The SSDs can operate flawlessly in temperatures from -40 to 185 °F (-40 to 85 °C). They are certified to withstand mechanical stress and vibrations, featuring Exascend’s proprietary Adaptive Thermal Control (ATC) firmware technology for stable top-level performance without thermal-throttling-induced drops and spikes.

With its high sustained performance under heavy data loads, the PI4 series is ideal for write-intensive applications such as rugged edge servers, autonomous driving systems, surveillance, and big data logging systems. The PI4 series has already entered validation with leading customers in the autonomous driving and data logging sectors now testing product samples.

Unparalleled customization services and design expertise

PI4 SSDs feature a wealth of Exascend’s exclusive technologies, including firmware and hardware-level power loss protection (Dual Power Loss Protection), hardware RAID ECC, Data Retention Plus, and Neutron Shield – all specifically developed to ensure optimal data integrity and security. The SSDs incorporate Exascend’s proprietary SuperCruise technology for ultra-low latency and stable write performance, which translates into high quality of service (QoS).

Moreover, Exascend’s uniquely integrated product development and firmware design expertise allows the company to provide unparalleled levels of product customization – resulting in perfectly tailored solutions for any application. Optional advanced features include TCG Opal 2.0, AES-256 encryption, Unlimited Over-Provisioning, Custom Data Sanitization, Data Path Protection, and more.

Configurations and availability

Product samples for the PI4 series are now available for customers upon request. The PI4 series is available in both standard and pSLC configurations with storage capacities from 960 to 7,680 GB and endurance ratings up to 24,000 TBW, based on JESD219 Enterprise Workload.

Exascend’s PI4 series comes in M.2 2280 and U.2 form factors for broad system compatibility; a DRAM-less M.2 2230 option for compact systems; and the world’s first rugged E1.S design – combining high performance, high capacity and hardware power loss protection in a thermally-efficient next-generation design. Catering to different thermal environments, E1.S SSDs can be configured with heat spreaders, asymmetric and symmetric enclosures.

Type (Width x Length x Thickness)
E1.S 5.9 mm (31.5 mm x 111.49 mm x 5.9 mm)
E1.S 8 mm heat spreader (31.5 mm x 111.49 mm x 8.01 mm)
E1.S Symmetric Enclosure (33.75 mm x 118.75 mm x 9.5 mm)
E1.S Asymmetric Enclosure (33.75 mm x 118.75 mm x 15 mm)
E1.S Asymmetric Enclosure (33.75 mm x 118.75 mm x 25 mm)

All models are covered by Exascend’s generous three-year limited warranty.

To request a product sample, please contact sales@exascend.us.

For more product details and specifications, check out the press release on our website.