Today LaCie announced the availability of the eSATA Hub Thunderbolt Series, its latest peripheral featuring Thunderbolt technology. This product delivers a solution for connecting eSATA hard drives to Thunderbolt-compatible Mac computers, making them backwards compatible. The eSATA Hub also boosts transfer speeds and allows users to daisy chain with other Thunderbolt peripherals.
Consumers with new Thuderbolt-equipped Macs who are interested in getting the best possible speeds with their existing multi-interface drives are no longer limited to slow USB or FireWire connections. In addition, businesses, photographers or other creative professionals who have upgraded their Macs to versions without ExpressCard/34 slots are now able to capitalize on their previous investment in eSATA hard drives. The ExpressCard/34 maximum bus speed is 2.5Gb/s, which limits eSATA 3Gb/s transfer speeds. The eSATA Hub clears this bottleneck, since Thunderbolt’s 10Gb/s provides more than enough speed to accommodate 3Gb/s. Achieve the full speed potential of your eSATA drives.
The eSATA Hub’s dual Thunderbolt ports allow users to daisy chain other Thunderbolt peripherals. This means users can connect up to 12 eSATA drives (6 Hubs x 2 eSATA drives per Hub) to a Mac while maintaining full eSATA 3Gb/s speeds. It also helps organize desktops by connecting both a Thunderbolt compatible display and storage device via a single cable (sold separately via Apple) to their Mac.
The eSATA Hub Thunderbolt Series is available through the LaCie Online Store and LaCie Storage Partners starting at the suggested retail price of US$199.
More info here.
Source: LaCie
