TMS announces its patented Variable Stripe RAID (VSR) reliability technology that allows continued operation when Flash fails providing longer Mean-Time-Between-Failures (MTBF).

Texas Memory Systems, Inc. (TMS) today sets a new standard for Flash reliability with the introduction of its patented Variable Stripe RAID (VSR) error mitigation technology on the RamSan-70 PCIe Flash card. Failure of a plane (small subsection of a Flash chip) is the second most common kind of Flash failure after Flash block failures. TMS VSR technology (U.S. Patent #7,856,528) addresses plane and chip failures by dynamically bypassing failed Flash, reducing maintenance requirements and extending operating lifecycles. VSR technology is available exclusively from TMS, the leader in enterprise solid state reliability. Variable Stripe RAID (VSR) forms a core portion of the TMS SSD reliability technology suite developed through extensive Flash device testing in labs and the field. TMS lab facilities include a burn-in room used to stress test systems for one month prior to shipment. The intense testing process has provided a treasure trove of real-world reliability data for several generations of Flash media. Flash media naturally degrades after hundreds of thousands of write cycles. TMS has seen three basic categories of Flash media failures: block failures, disabling a tiny part of a chip; plane failures, affecting a small part of a chip; and complete chip failures. Block failures are typically handled by error correcting code (ECC). VSR is an improved management approach for plane and chip failures.