If you , like I , are a buff of shiny gyrate stuff — namely hard drives in all their bod , sizes , and configurations , Macworld Expo 2008 wasdefinitelythe place to be this week . Video , imaging , iTunes solicitation , and even Time Machine are making us all reassess our storage needs . Luckily the fat minds of storage engineers are ready and uncoerced to help us meet our pauperism .
From lilliputian pocket driving force to 720 TB behemoths , whatever your storage motivation might be , someone on the floor of Moscone Center had the solvent to your prayer . Here ’s a sampling of some of the novel and interesting storage systems I happen .
One of LaCie ’s Little Disk offerings
One of LaCie’s Little Disk offerings
LaCieswept past all competition for the Cute Yet Classy Award with its Sam Hecht - designedLittle phonograph recording line . Each of the three enclosures is elegantly plan , with fluent surfaces , well - balanced proportions , and deep , deep chocolatey colors ( Mmmm , chocolate … ) . Unfortunately , two of the three are also USB 2.0 - only .
Thelittlest Little Diskhouses a 1.3 - inch Samsung crusade , is available in 30 GB ( $ 129.99 ) and 40 GB ( $ 159.99 ) versions , and , like its sibling , shroud its USB cable system inside its typesetter’s case . One step up is the1.8 - inch version , which presently is available only in a 60 GB ( $ 139.99 ) version , although a LaCie spokesmodel told me that a 30 GB version is in the works . The 2.5 - inch rendering total both in a USB - only version ( 80 GB , 120 GB , 160 GB , 250 GB , or 320 GB ; $ 79.99 to $ 189.99 ) and a USB - plus - FireWire-400 translation ( 120 GB , 160 gigabyte , 250 GB , or 320 GiB ; $ 129.99 to $ 239.99 ) . If you savour thefrissonof find a lovelyobjet d’artin your travelling bag , break out the Little Disk melodic phrase .
Iomega , for its part , may win the Month Python “ I ’m not dead yet ! ” Award , seeing as how it has reinvent itself and hang on since the nose dive of the Zip and Jaz lines . In fact , with its line ofeGodrives , it seems to have come in up with a posh competition .
The eGo drive from Iomega
The self crusade from Iomega
set up last class as USB - only in 160 GB and 250 GB version ( $ 132.95 and $ 199.45 ) , the eGo line was upgrade this week with the addition of a dual - interface USB 2.0 and FireWire 400 model in 160 GB and 250 GB versions ( $ 151.95 and $ 218.45 ) . Each eGo is bus topology - power , and feature a in high spirits degree of shock protection that make it — according to an Iomega spokesdude , able to survive drops from 51 inch , far high than most other portable drives . The eGo is a looker , as well ; the USB - only model is available in red , black , depressed , pinkish , and silver ; and the dual - interface mannikin in red , dim , and blank .
Iomega was also register its before long - to - hit - its - site 1.5 TB UltraMax Pro drive , which houses two 750 GB drives ( each removable ) and which supports RAID 0 , 1 , or JBOD . ( JBOD , by the way , is an acronym for “ just a bunch of disks . ” badly . ) The UltraMax Pro has a triple user interface — that is , USB 2.0 , FireWire 400 , and FireWire 800 , unlike its cousin , the single - driveUltraMaxwhich add an eSATA larboard to the mix . And , no , Iomega does n’t bundle an eSATA emcee card — that part of the spate is up to you .
Speaking of diminished and attractive stuff , Sonnet Technologiesgoes one better with theSonnet Fusion F2 , a portable 640 GB SATA RAID store system ( $ 895 ) that ’s small , attractive , and tight . Inside an aluminum showcase that ’s a mere 5.9 - by-6.2 - by-0.72 inches are two 320 GB , 5,400 revolutions per minute , 2.5 - inch drives that can be configured in either RAID 0 or 1 modes , then connect to your MacBook Pro ’s Express/34 larboard over two eSATA cables to Sonnet’sTempo SATA Express 34eSATA card .
With throughput arrogate to be “ up to ” 128MB / sec , the Fusion 2 may very well be a killer way for traveling video recording editor in chief to function with a couple of flat HD picture stream while on the move . And making the Fusion 2 more moveable is the fact that it ’s jalopy - powered — although that bus has to be your MacBook ’s FireWire motorcoach . ( A magnate cable system is included . ) But do n’t worry ; if you have a Fusion 2 , you wo n’t be needing that FireWire port wine , anyway .
Because of the impending wide sacking of a 500 GB 2.5 - inch drive fromHitachi , the Fusion 2 will soon bump up to 1 TB in capacity . Also benefitting from Hitachi ’s new driveway will solicit Technology(which wasboughtbyFabrikthis Tuesday ) . Its triple - interfaceG - cause miniwill hop up to 500 GB in March , and itsG - RAID miniskirt , which currently maxes out at 640 GB , will well up to 1 TB model . Both of these ride are bus - power and have unco solid building and cracking heat wastefulness — heat being the sworn enemy of every right - thinking hard ride vendor .
Speaking of hotness , Newer Technologyhas a new solution : Do n’t put your drive in a case at all . Instead , snap on aUSB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter($29.95 ) to a naked 3.5 - inch SATA or 2.5- and 3.5 - inch IDE / ATA ( PATA ) thrust , and sneak that drive into one of Newer ’s silicone ProtectaDrive sleeve to turn any au naturel , swapped - out hard drive you have lying around into a protect international parkway . The ProtectaDrive sleeves are uncommitted for3.5 - inch($9.95 ) and2.5 - inchdrives ( $ 7.95 ) .
A company that I profess to not having known of before the Expo , SansDigital , play some interesting newsworthiness concerning RAID controllers . They useSilicon Imagechipsets to manage its hardware foray controllers in its desktop drives — okay , so that ’s not so dry land - shattering . Whatisinteresting , however , is that the Silicon ImageSteelVinechipset it apply has a fresh characteristic set call SAFE33 and SAFE50 , which provide you to mirror 33 or 50 percentage of a thrust , leaving the rest of the drive devoid for whatever else you might want to use it for . That was news to me . I need to get out more .
SansDigital will be using this fresh chipset in its approaching MobileSTOR MS2UT+ and MobileSTOR MS2UTN+ dual - drive RAIDs , both with eSATA and USB 2.0 connection . Why the N in one drive ’s name and not the other ? accord to the SansDigital spokesengineer with whom I talk , the only difference between the two drive is that while the MS2UT+ has a full alphamerical LCD position display , the MS2UTN+ has just LED indicator . seemingly the N stands for “ No LCD . ”
SansDigital is also go from ARM processors to Intel Xscale core processors to increase the performance of its RAID controller — and it ’s not alone in its affection for that Intel chip . CalDigituses an Xscale gist central processor in its new CalDigit RAID Card . At a mere $ 549 , this card — on paper at least — gives Apple ’s $ 800 RAID poster , designed for the Mac Pro , a run for its moment ’ money . For one , it supports up to 16 drives equate to Apple ’s four — four internally RAIDed plus 12 externally RAIDed . It supports RAID 0 , 1 , 5 , 6 , 50 , 60 , and JBOD ; Apple skips RAID 6 . The CalDigit spokesinnovator with whom I talk claimed that the company ’s circuit card can sustain 500MB / sec transfer rate . It also has the usual maraud - calling card features , such as 256 MB of RAID memory cache and a 72 - hour championship battery .
Another interesting offering from CalDigit was its eight - drive HDOne foray , the new little brother to the caller ’s more - expensive ( and more capable)HDPro . The no - frills HDOne is designed for those of us who ’d do it to have gamy - focal ratio RAID performance ( a claimed 400MB / sec in RAID 5 mode , in this case ) , but who do n’t have deep pockets and whose older G5 car may still have PCI - X slot , and not the Mac Pro ’s PCI Express slots . The HDOne goes without expandable retention ( it has a fixed 256 megabyte ) and is not hot - swappable , but in retort for foreswear those niceties , you get an eight - drive , 2 TB speed ogre for just $ 2,299 . Compare that to the $ 3,999 for the HDPor , and the lack of red-hot - swapability does n’t look all that bad .
Moving further up — wayfurther up — the storage food for thought chain , I gossip theATTObooth . This maker of seriously gamy - end equipment was establish its fresh business of SAS ( serial publication attached SCSSI ) foray comptroller and host transcriber . Before you read on , be previse : As the ATTO spokesmagician explain , “ We only play at the gamey end of the market . ” One of ATTO ’s title to fame — aside from top execution — is that it has engineered its RAID restrainer in such a way so that if a parkway fails , you could swap it out and stay to shape at still - blaze speed while the array rebuilds itself .
If you need to take a tone at some of the oblation at this degree of carrying into action , check out the ship’s company ’s newExpressSAS RAID R380 Adapter , an eight - lane PCI Express card with eight international port prevail at 3Gb / sec per port , and with SAS , SATA , SATA II connectivity ; and theExpressSAS RAID R380 Adapter , with the same specs except that you’re able to select whether you require those eight ports to be four internal and four external , or all eight home . For those of you who might care , lie with that although these two cards are PCI Express 2.0 “ compliant , ” they ’re not able-bodied to take advantage of all that 2.0 speed ; expect that improvement to arrive in mid - April , concord to the aforementioned ATTO rep .
ATTO was also show off itsFastStream Storage Appliancefamily . These equipment are “ storage control heads ” that you could put in front of either RAID raiment or JBODs , thus aggregate all the carrying out you put behind them , and have it as one really , reallyfast and capacious RAID organization . If you interpret the aggregation conception , you know how knock-down this can be . For example , HP’sStorageWorks Arraysare built around ATTO ’s FastStream Storage Appliances — HP , in fact , display a 720 TB StorageWorks Array in its booth . If you do n’t quite follow all this deep geekitude , do n’t perspire it for a nanosecond — you’re never work to join one of these “ convenience ” to your home base Mac . For one thing , they tend between & 8,000 and $ 15,000 dollars per .
at long last — just because sheer surplus is so much fun — let me leave behind you with one final colossus system : the ably namedSATABeast XifromNexsan . ( Macworld laboratory director James Galbraith looked at this same product in our Expo Notes web log . )
What makes the Beast ( pictured aright ) a beast ? Well , it ’s a wrack - mounted RAID array in an enclosure ( that some would call an homage to the Xserve and others would call a blatant countercurrent - off ) that domiciliate an insane 42 TB of storage . Gnarly bits : It has duple RAID controllers ; dual 4Gb / sec Fibre Channel and threefold iSCSI ports per controller ; two redundant 760W power supply ; supports RAID 0 , 1 , 1 + 0 , 4 , 5 , and 6 and can support multiple RAID sets and multiple volumes per set ; all its drives , controllers , and power supplies are hot - swappable ; and the Nexsan spokesbrainiac with whom I address take that it ’s throughput is in the 800MB / sec chain . Oh , and he also said that its toll is “ under $ 50,000 ; ” might that mean $ 49,999.99 ?
severely , though , all the mellow - oddment store offerings at this yr ’s exposition essay what we all already knew : That the Mac is well - entrenched in the gamey end of the depicted object - creation market , and that there are lot of folk making mickle of money off of plenty of people who are willing to pay plenty for plenty of superpower .
Tune in at the end of Friday when the tone of the Expo Daily Roundup will be by all odds less geeky . We ’re talking cute microphone , nifty iPod boom - box seat , aphrodisiacal iPhone geared wheel , and more — a selection of some of the more interesting gadget that I found on the Expo flooring . Like you , after Thursday ’s geekfest I just require to relax . After all , it ’s the last day of the show .
[ Rik Myslewski has been writing about the Mac since 1989 . He has been editor in chief of MacAddict ( now Mac|Life ) , executive editor in chief of MacUser and director of MacUser Labs , and executive manufacturer of Macworld Live . ]
