PC-Based Disk Array Subsystem For Real-Time Recording

The standard technique for the recording of telemetry data in range operations has been instrumentation tape recording. This has provided the capability for recording data at high data rates for extended periods of time. While convenient for recording, this technique suffers drawbacks in processing and playback of the data. Due to the serial nature of the medium, no capability exists for near-realtime playback of data. An alternative to tape recording is a random access medium, such as disk drives. Advances have occurred within the computer industry in the last few years in disk drive technology--increased media transfer rates within disk drives and decreased prices. A new method of combining independing drives to operate functionally as a single large disk drive, referred to as RAID, an acronym for Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is commercially availabe. Local busarchitectures within PC platforms make them capable of sustaining high data transfer rates. This work uses these advances to develop a low cost data acquisition system capable of high data transfer rates, simultaneous read and write capabilities, and storage of large amounts of data for near real-time recovery.