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Fusion F2 - Portable Storage Solution
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Portable 2-drive RAID SATA storage system with eSATA interfaceReviews & Case Studies


Digital Production.com interviews Robert Farnsworth, Sonnet's CEO, on the Fusion F2 at Macworld Expo 2008. SOURCE: Digital Production. DIGITAL PRODUCTION gratis testen. Hier bestellen.

Fusion F2 with MacBook Pro


Fusion F2 Benchmark

Driving Force
Fusion F2 employs two 500GB 7200 RPM or 5,400 RPM, 2.5" mobile hard drives that offer an optimal balance between speed, power consumption, and reliability. Sonnet chose these high-performance drives because they offer greater areal density than other mobile hard drives (pack more data per platter), use the 3 Gb/sec SATA interface, and deliver astonishing performance. Simply put, they are the fastest 2.5" mobile hard drives available today. Fusion F2’s drives are also extremely quiet and very rugged, making the Fusion F2 a great travel companion for your mobile studio.

Rugged for a Reason
Fusion F2 was devised as a high-performance, high-reliability alternative to existing portable drive solutions. Encased inside a thick aluminum shell, each of Fusion F2’s drives is individually shock-isolated, not only protecting the drives during transport, but also virtually eliminating cross-coupled vibration—a potential source of soft-error-induced skipped frames.

Versatile Performance
Fusion F2 is ideal for use on location as well as the office—various operating systems, editing applications and output demands requiring the flexibility and interoperability that Fusion F2 provides. Fusion storage systems support Mac OS® X, Windows® Vista, Windows XP Professional, and Linux®. It is compatible with capture cards from AJA, Blackmagic Design, Matrox, and Bluefish444, and works with all mainstream video editing applications including Apple® Final Cut Pro®, and Adobe® Premiere® Pro.

Key Features

Ultra-Portable—Two 2.5" SATA drives mounted side-by-side inside a 5.9" x 6.2" x 0.72" aluminum case are bus-powered for the ultimate in portability

Remarkably Fast—With its drives formatted as a RAID 0 volume, Fusion F2 delivers sustained data transfer rates up to 190MB/sec read and write, more than twice as fast as a pair of FireWire 800 drives

Field Video Certified–With its SATA data interface, Fusion F2 is the perfect storage companion for a portable video capture system that may saturate a notebook’s FireWire bus

Rugged and Reliable—Both drives are individually shock-isolated, virtually eliminating cross-coupled vibration, which, unchecked, can induce soft errors—a potential source of skipped frames

Cool and Quiet—Because of its efficient fanless design, if not for the cool blue LEDs, you may not even know that Fusion F2 was running

RoHS compliant

Compatible with Sonnet Tempo SATA Pro ExpressCard/34, Tempo SATA E4P, Tempo SATA X4P, and Tempo SATA E2P host controllers

Compatibility

Platform independent—Works with Mac®, Windows®(2) or Linux® computers with compatible host bus adapter installed

Technical Specifications

Part No.

FUS-F2-1000M7
(Fusion F2-1TB, 7200 RPM)
FUS-F2-1000M5
(Fusion F2-1TB, 5400 RPM)

Warranty

2-year limited warranty

External Connectors

Two eSATA, one power

Data Transfer Speed

Up to 190 MB/s, depending on interface used and configuration

Supported Video Formats

XDCAM HD, ProRes 422, ProRes 422 (HQ), HDV 720p30, HDV 1080i60, DVCPROHD 720p60, DVCPROHD 1080i60, DV50, DV25, 8-bit NTSC, 10-bit NTSC, ProRes 422 HD, ProRes HD (HQ)

Power Supply

Powered by FireWire port on computer or powered hub(3)

Operating Temperature

+32˚ F to 104˚ F (0˚ C to +40˚ C)

Dimensions

5.9 x 6.2 x .0.72 (14.9 x 15.7 x 1.8 cm)

Weight

1.22 lbs (0.55 kg)

Package Contents

Disk enclosure with two non-swappable 2.5" hard drives, two eSATA data cables, one power cable, slipcase, one FireWire 800-to-FireWire 400 adapter, User’s Guide

Accessories

Fusion F2 World Travel Power Adapter
World Travel Power Adapter (12V, 1.25V) for Fusion F2, FireWire 800 ExpressCard/34, and FireWire/USB ExpressCard/34

Part No.

PWR-AC-12V

Rechargeable Battery Pack
Fusion F2 is compatible with all models of myPower ALL batteries from Tekkeon at an 8-19V setting. Sonnet recommends model MP3450i, which at a 56 Watt-hour capacity, should provide up to 9 hours of F2 run time.

Specifications subject to change without notice.

Mac OS LogoFor Windows LogoLinux LogoeSATA Logo

Remarkable Performance,
Diminutive Package
Speed, reliability, ruggedness, and convenience—these are the essential qualities of a storage system for on-location video capture. When you need to travel light, choose a Sonnet Fusion™ F2 portable SATA RAID storage system. Providing 1TB(1) of storage in a small enclosure, Fusion F2 uses eSATA connections to deliver the fastest performance yet from a 2-drive portable storage system, with data transfer rates up to twice as fast as FireWire®. By connecting Fusion F2 through a SATA host adapter like Sonnet’s Tempo SATA Pro ExpressCard/34, your notebook’s FireWire 800 port is left open for use by an AJA® Video Systems ioHD, which requires dedicated use of FireWire bandwidth. Fusion F2 is cool, quiet, and energy-efficient: side-by-side placement of its drives increases the metal case’s cooling surface area, thereby eliminating the need for a fan, and allowing it to be bus-powered so it can be used even when no grid power is available.

RAID to Go
Connected to a Sonnet Tempo SATA Pro ExpressCard/34 installed in a MacBook® Pro, and with its drives configured as a RAID 0 striped volume, the compact Fusion F2 is capable of up to 190 MB/sec sustained read and write data transfers, fast enough to handle multiple streams of ProRes 422 (HQ)! Compared to the slower 66 MB/sec performance from a pair of drives connected via FireWire 800, the advantage is clear—Fusion F2 provides you the capability to capture and play more streams of compressed video for field editing. With its drives configured as a RAID 1 mirrored volume, Fusion F2 still can capture Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) HD fed from an AJA ioHD. This protected mode also enables you to safely transfer data from Panasonic® P2, Sony® SxS Pro, or similar memory cards in the field. Verifying captured footage on a MacBook Pro/Fusion F2 system will provide you the peace of mind to erase and reuse cards on location.

Two Data Connections

Fusion F2 features two 3 Gb/sec eSATA data ports. By connecting via a direct SATA II interface with no bridge chip between the F2’s case and SATA II drives, there is no resulting communication slowdown, just the fastest data transfers possible.

Flexible Power Options

Fusion F2 can be powered by your computer through a spare FireWire(3) port using an included FireWire-to-power cable. For longer field work, Fusion F2 is compatible with all models of myPower ALL batteries from Tekkeon at an 8-19V setting. Sonnet recommends model MP3450i, which at a 56 Watt-hour capacity, should provide up to 9 hours of F2 run time. Other power options include another FireWire device, powered hub, or Sonnet's optional World Travel Power Adapter.

Fusion F2 On Location with Maday Productions

Quote MarkThe Fusion F2 should be in every
mobile editor's tool case. You cannot
deny its convenience, form factor,
and ease of use. As a matter of fact,
get two.
Quote Mark

— Jeremy Garchow, MADAY Productions. www.madayproductions.com
Sonnet Fusion F2 used on location, connected to Sonnet Tempo SATA Pro ExpressCard/34 plugged into a MacBook Pro along with AJA IoHD system.
Speed tests on MacBook Pro with Fusion F2 1TB connected to Sonnet Tempo SATA Pro ExpressCard/34. Fusion F2 1TB is 5-10% faster performance than the previous Fusion F2 640MB.
Fusino F2 Read/Write Performance Chart
Fusion F2 RAID 0 Speed Chart
Fusion F2 RAID 1 Speed Chart

Technical Notes:
(1) Although most hard drive manufacturers define 1 gigabyte as 1,000,000,000 byte, the computer operating systems usually calculate a gigabyte by dividing the bytes (whether it is disk capacity, file size, or system RAM) by 1,073,741,824 (). This distinction may be a cause of confusion, as a hard disk with a manufacturer rating of 500GB may have its capacity reported by the operating system as 454.7GB.

(2) Creating RAID volumes under Windows requires dynamic disk storage, a formatting option available with Windows Server 2003 SP1, Windows XP Professional (32- and 64-bit versions), or Windows Vista Enterprise or Ultimate (32- and 64-bit versions).

(3) Power available from six-pin FireWire 400 port, or FireWire 800 port. FireWire 800 adapter included.



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