14 DAY TRIAL // Until we get to find out what hardware news come from Apple today, I think that some news from the Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AMCC) can't be that bad... after all, hardware is pushed forward by the applications that use it, but the other way around is also true, since new features that can be found in hardware products lead to new software tools and the inclusion of additional features into the existing programs.
At Macworld, AMCC is going to exhibit the 3ware Sidecar, and external RAID storage solution for the Mac Pro and Power Mac G5 computers. The storage capacities made available by this solution can go up to 3TB and RAID 5 write and read operations can be as fast as 200MB/s! Knowing these, it doesn't take an IQ over 200 to figure out that the 3ware Sidecar aims at the pro video and audio markets, high-end graphics, digital photography storage and other storage space-hungry fields of activity.
The 3ware Sidecar hardware RAID storage system is an external desktop SATA II RAID solution that is able to integrate without problems with the Apple workstations mentioned earlier. A management software suite has been included to ease the configuration, monitoring and management tasks that need to be performed when using such a storage solution. On the other hand, the two meter Multi-lane SATA cable of the Sidecar allows the use of four high speed 3Gb/s SATA lanes from the PCI Express RAID controller to the 4-bay external enclosure.
The 3ware Sidecar is available for a 300$ off the manufacturer's suggested retail price of 1,295$ if you purchase it from the in-booth online store kiosk at Macworld or via AMCC's 3 ware store. These discounts will be available only this week, and it's good to know that the disk drives are not included into the package.