artos, Charles;

I think the "hard" part of and IDE interface is the file system. The hardware is (even for the largest IDE disk) negligible.

If the project was a full-featured data-base then a full-featured file system is required. However, if the "database" is really a "logging" system with simple key indexing and referencing (between time x/y), or all records with alarm state X, etc) a simple file system (of which there are many WEB examples) would very likely do the job.

I too find PC technology to be treacherous and not likely to perform with 24/7 availiability (let alone a mission critical task).

However, the previous suggestions for using PC in an "AS CAN" approach with all real-time and mission critical characteristics being embedded into a micro, is a good solution. This approach would still require storage capacity appropriate to the amount of data collected and the expected "duty cycle" of the connected PC. So a simple IDE implementation may still be a good idea even with connected PC, also bi flash, memory sticks, or PCMCIA)

regards,
p