14 DAY TRIAL // CeBIT is now almost upon us and it is no longer surprising to see leaks, rumors and previews of the products that are scheduled to be showcased at the expo. The trade show will be packed with all kinds of devices, from connectors and cables to top-tier graphics, display, storage and memory solutions, among other things. Unsurprisingly, Chieftec has no intention of sitting the event out and, while all the products it aims to demonstrate have not been revealed yet, two of them have managed to make themselves known. The company will take advantage of CeBIT 2010 to showcase a pair of HDD/SSD enclosures.
The Taiwanese company has been preparing two such products, namely the CEB-25S-U3 and CEB-35S-U3. These enclosures will be able to accommodate both hard disks and solid state drives. In order to be supported, the storage units must use either the 2.5-inch (for the CEB-25S-U3) or the 3.5-inch (CEB-35S-U3) form factor and also must operate on the SATA interface.
The two Chieftec enclosures will house drives that meet these conditions and will allow them to interface with a host computer via USB 3.0. This means that SATA HDDs and SSDs will be able to be used externally at speeds significantly higher than those achievable via USB 2.0.
The USB 3.0 standard has grown in popularity quite quickly because, even though it is still underrepresented, it is drastically superior to its predecessor. Compared with USB 2.0, the new standard reaches theoretical speeds of up to ten times faster (5.0 Gbps). It is unknown how close Chieftec's enclosures get to this theoretical maximum, but any speed improvement is welcome in the case of large-capacity devices.
The two drive enclosures are capable of hot plug and play and come with a built-in one-button backup function, in order to ensure data security and reliability. They will be showcased between March 2nd and 6th.