E-Disk® Solid State Flash Disks Survived High-Impact Pipeline Inspection Accidents

Russian ILI Service Provider Recounted Two Events that Demonstrated the Endurance of E-Disk SSDs

Aviation Expo, China - September 21, 2005 - BiTMICRO Networks, pioneer in intelligent flash IDE/ATA, SCSI Narrow and Wide, VME, and Fibre Channel solid state disk storage solutions, today narrated at the Aviation Expo in Beijing, China a success story that highlighted the durability of the E-Disk^® SSD in an extreme operating environment.

Russia-based in-line inspection (ILI) service provider Spetsneftegaz NPO uses E-Disk solid state flash disks to store information gathered during its pipeline inspections, also known as pigging. In one instance during an emergency situation with a pipeline, the instrumentation compartment in one of the pig units lost its air tightness. At that time, company engineers estimate the gas pressure inside the compartment at around 60 atm. After recovering the pig, engineers discovered that the battery was completely squeezed and the power supply module and other components were completely crushed. Moreover, the pig's central computer failed to boot after the accident.

However, company engineers were amazed to find out that the installed E-Disk solid state flash disk (a 2.5-inch ATA model with 17.4GB capacity) remained operational. The drive booted normally after it was connected to a desktop PC. Only two bad sectors were found and, upon performing the BiTMICRO Specific Erase Command, the entire volume was restored. The drive was then returned back into commission and has worked flawlessly ever since.

In a separate incident, one of Spetsneftegaz's experimental pigs featuring an active moving control function got stuck in the pipeline and was crashed into by another piston pig. The force of impact was so strong that all of the mechanical parts were broken despite the presence of shock absorbers. A 3.5-inch single board computer was dislodged from its mounting after all of its corners broke off.

The installed E-Disk drive (a 2.5-inch ATA model with 9 GB capacity) also tore off its fastenings, broke out of the surrounding aluminum frame and electronic assembly, slamming directly into the pig's explosion-proof external steel casing. To the engineers' surprise, the E-Disk drive survived the incident with just minor dents and scratches. All of the data stored in the drive was completely intact, and not a single bad sector was found.

"In both instances, the E-Disk drives that survived the accidents have been installed in another equipment and continue to remain in operation," says Dr. Sergey Yartsev, officer-in-charge of Data Storage Solutions of Spetsneftegaz. "This just proves the first-rate, topnotch quality of BiTMICRO's solid state flash disks."

"E-Disk® flash drive solid state disk's claim of being able to withstand harsh environments have been repeatedly tested by various industries including defense, aerospace, aviation and industrial applications, said Rudy Bruce, President of BiTMICRO^® Networks. "And each time - just like in the Spetsneftegaz case - the E-Disk® flash drive proved to be very beneficial in keeping vital information secured and systems going. Information is priceless and losing it is the worst that can happen in any storage application but with BiTMICRO solutions customers are freed from concerns in data security and reliability among others," Bruce added.

Visit BiTMICRO Networks at Booth M-3 of Aviation Expo/China 2005. The event runs from September 21 - 24, 2005 at the China International Exhibition Center in Beijing. China Aviation Expo features civil and military exhibits, including airport and ATC technology.

For pricing and more E-Disk®^® flash drive solid state disk storage technology information, visit http://www.bitmicro.com or contact BiTMICRO at 45550 Northport Loop East, Fremont, CA 94538 USA. Sales Telephone: +1 510-74E-DISK / +1 510-743-3475, Fax: +1 510-743-3155. E-mail: info@bitmicro.com.

About Spetsneftegaz NPO

Established in 1991, Spetsneftegaz Scientific & Production Association (NPO) Joint Stock Company is one of the major in-line inspection (ILI) service companies in Russia. The company develops and produces high resolution MFL and TFI magnetic intelligent pigs, electronic caliper logging tools and cleaning pigs (bi-directional pigs, caliper cleaning pigs, magnetic preparation pigs, magnetic cleaning pigs, universal pigs) for in-line inspection of oil and gas pipelines up to 56-inches in diameter.

About BiTMICRO Networks

BiTMICRO® Networks (http://www.bitmicro.com) is the leading provider of high performance non-volatile solid state disk and semiconductor solutions. The Company's flagship product, the E-Disk® SSD, is offered with SATA, SCSI Narrow and Wide, IDE/ATA and Fibre Channel interfaces in 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch hard disk drive footprints, and 19-inch rack mount configurations scalable up to several terabytes of pure solid state storage.

E-Disk®, BiTMICRO®, Altima™, EDSA™ and LUNETA™ are registered trademarks and trademarks of BiTMICRO Networks, Inc. High-resolution photo images of BiTMICRO's product line are available at http://www.bitmicro.com/press_multimedia.php.

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