What
is SATA?
The Serial ATA (SATA) interface represents a
great advance in storage technology. The requirement for faster data
throughput has evolved with applications like digital video creation, editing &
production. Serial ATA is the evolution of the ATA hard drive interface from
parallel architecture to serial. Advancements to the interface encompass
greater speed, more efficient cabling and advanced features for integration into servers
and networked storage environments. The initial implementation of SATA is rated at
150MB/sec with a planned roadmap to 600MB/sec.
What type of drives do you use in
the XtraSATA drives?
Currently, we use parallel ATA drives inside
the enclosures with a converter board to SATA. Although it is not quite as efficient
as direct SATA drives, we have not been able to locate suppliers with direct SATA drive
enclosures. Even with the parallel ATA drives though, the performance is the fastest
we have seen for external drives - faster than USB 2.0, Firewire, and even Firewire 800.
What is the transfer rate with
XtraSATA hard drives?
Although the theoretical transfer rate of
firewire is 1200 Mbps or 150MB/sec, in "real" use, the 1st generation drives
transfer data at around 60MB/sec for both the read & write speeds.
What are the best applications for
XtraSATA firewire hard drives?
Digital Video
Running Applications
Backup (faster & more reliable than tape
& cartridge-type backup systems)
External bootable drives
Extra data storage
Transferring data from one computer to
another (with "hot-swapping" there is no need to shutdown & reboot systems
when plugging-in the firewire drives)
Large video and audio files
What are the hard drive
specifications in the XtraSATA enclosures?
The 3.5" hard drives used in the XtraSATA
drives are typically Maxtor, IBM/Hitachi, Western Digital or Samsung hard drives.
They typcially have the following specifications:
|
