Sonnet Technologies Embraces the Future of I/O With New Thunderbolt™ Technology Products

Post date: May 6, 2011 2:13:42 PM

Initial Products to Include Storage Systems, PCI Express^® Expansion Chassis, Gigabit Ethernet, and FireWire^® 800 Adapters

LAS VEGAS — April 11, 2011 — Sonnet Technologies today announced its first products with Thunderbolt™ technology at the 2011 NAB Show. Developed by Intel^® and brought to market with technical collaboration from Apple^®, Thunderbolt technology supports high-performance data services and high-resolution displays through a single, compact port. Based on PCI Express^® and DisplayPort technologies, Thunderbolt provides support for two channels on the same connector with 10 Gbps of throughput per channel in both directions.

"We are excited to offer products with the revolutionary Thunderbolt I/O technology," said Robert Farnsworth, CEO of Sonnet Technologies. "Sonnet's product design philosophy has always been 'simply fast,' and Thunderbolt technology will enable us to deliver several additional high-performance products that are simple to connect and use — and fast."

Sonnet's Fusion™ storage products with Thunderbolt technology include a portable 2-drive SSD system, an economical 4-drive RAID 5 unit, and a professional 8-drive video edition RAID storage system. Sonnet's Echo™ Express PCIe 2.0 Expansion Chassis with Thunderbolt ports enable users to plug in high-performance PCIe 2.0 adapters such as video capture cards, Fibre Channel cards, Sonnet RAID controllers, and more to a computer with a Thunderbolt port. All of these products include two Thunderbolt ports to support daisy chaining of up to six devices to a single Thunderbolt port on the host computer.

Sonnet's Allegro™ FW800 Thunderbolt Adapter converts the Thunderbolt connector to a powered FireWire^® 800 port. Sonnet's Presto™ Gigabit Ethernet Thunderbolt Adapter converts a Thunderbolt connector to a Gigabit Ethernet port.

The Fusion F2TBR 2-drive portable solid state drive (SSD) storage system with Thunderbolt technology features ultra-fast 2.5-inch SSDs mounted side-by-side in a tough aluminum shell slightly larger than two stacked CD cases. With its SSDs configured as a RAID 0 set, the Fusion F2TBR achieves data transfers up to 640 MB/s read and 430 MB/s write. With this amazing performance, Fusion F2TBR is a perfect companion for video capture and editing on location.

The Fusion E400TBR5 4-drive RAID 5 desktop storage system featuring Thunderbolt technology includes a high-performance internal RAID controller that supports RAID 5 for great performance and file protection in case of a single drive failure, RAID 0 for maximum performance, and JBOD for maximum flexibility. Drive configuration is managed through a simple-to-use application. Available in 4, 6, 8, or 12TB configurations, this compact multi-drive system takes advantage of the huge bandwidth available through the Thunderbolt interface connection to deliver exceptional I/O performance. The Fusion E400TBR5 in RAID 5 achieves data transfers of up to 400 MB/s read and 340 MB/s write, nearly twice as fast as similar 4-drive storage systems using an eSATA interface.

The Fusion D800TBR5 8-drive RAID 5 desktop storage system featuring Thunderbolt technology includes a high-performance internal RAID controller that supports RAID 0, 1, 5, and JBOD. Drive configuration is managed through a simple-to-use application. Available in 8, 12, 16, or 24TB configurations, Fusion D800TBR5 is perfectly suited for high-definition video editing, achieving data transfers up to 800 MB/s read and 730 MB/s write, fast enough to handle a single stream of uncompressed 10-bit 1080 4:4:4 HD, or multiple streams of ProRes 422, uncompressed 8-bit 1080 HD, DV, HDV, and DVCPRO video. Fusion D800TBR5 is backed by Sonnet's five-year pro storage warranty.

Sonnet's Echo Express PCIe 2.0 Expansion Chassis with Thunderbolt Ports enables users to plug in high-performance PCI Express^® 2.0 adapter cards to any computer with a Thunderbolt port. Adapters such as professional video capture cards, 8Gb Fibre Channel cards, 10Gigabit Ethernet cards, and RAID controller cards are examples of the adapters that may be used. Available in two sizes, the standard Echo Express PCIe 2.0 Expansion Chassis with Thunderbolt Ports supports one half-length, double-width, x16 (x4 mode) slot PCIe 2.0 card, and the XL model supports full-length cards; both models have integrated universal power supplies and fans to cool the card.

The Allegro™ FW800 Thunderbolt Adapter enables users to plug a FireWire^® 800 device, including a bus-powered drive, into any computer with a Thunderbolt port.

The Presto™ Gigabit Ethernet Thunderbolt Adapter adds a Gigabit Ethernet connection to any computer with a Thunderbolt port.

Pricing and Availability

Sonnet Technologies' line of Thunderbolt technology products will be available from Sonnet and its authorized resellers beginning this summer. Pricing will be announced at a later date. More information on these products with Thunderbolt technology is available at www.sonnettech.com/nab2011/products.