Sonnet - Tempo SATA Express/34: SATA Express34 Card for MacBook and PC Notebooks

Key Benefits

Two eSATA ports

3 Gb/s per SATA II controller port

FIS-based Port Multiplier-aware to support up to 10 disk drives⁽¹⁾

Supports Mac OS® X, Windows® Vista, Windows XP Pro, and RAID features

Drive activity LEDs

Mac Compatibility

MacBook Pro (15" and 17")

Mac OS X⁽³⁾ Version 10.5, 10.4, or 10.3

Windows Compatibility

PC notebook (with ExpressCard/54 or ExpressCard/34 slot)

Windows Vista

Windows XP SP2

Technical Specifications

Part No.	TSATAII-E342P
Hardware
Warranty	1-year limited warranty
RoHS Compliant	Yes
Bus Interface	ExpressCard/34
External Connectors	Two eSATA
Drives Supported	Up to 10⁽¹⁾
Data Transfer Rate	Up to 126 MB per second per port

Specifications subject to change without notice.

SATA On-the-Go
Sonnet's Tempo™ SATA ExpressCard/34 ushers in a new level of higher disk performance capability for the mobile professional. Whether you capture and edit video content in the field, the studio, or home, Tempo SATA ExpressCard/34 sets the bar high for mobile storage products.

The Tempo SATA ExpressCard/34 controller has two external, 3Gb/s, SATA II ports, and plugs directly into a MacBook® Pro (15" or 17") or Windows notebooks with an ExpressCard/54 or ExpressCard/34 slot.

Imagine connecting up to 10 drives⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾ for high-performance applications, such as Apple's Final Cut Pro®. With two external SATA drives attached in a RAID 0 array, the Tempo SATA ExpressCard/34 can support sustained write and read data transfer speeds of 100 and 110 MB/sec, respectively, which is about three times as fast as USB 2.0 or FireWire connections to the same drive setup.

Offering native SATA speed in a compact mobile package, Sonnet's Tempo SATA ExpressCard/34 redefines the definition of disk speed for the creative person on-the-go.

Tempo SATA ExpressCard/34 gives you access to as many as 10 drives wherever you work.

Technical Notes:
(1) Support for 10 drives requires the use of drive enclosures employing port multipliers (like Sonnet's Fusion D500P, Fusion D400Q, or Fusion R400Q). When using an enclosure without a port multiplier, Tempo SATA ExpressCard/34 will support 2 drives.

(2) Western Digital manufactures Desktop edition (WD Caviar, Caviar SE, Caviar SE16, and Raptor X) hard drives and Enterprise (RAID) Edition (WD RE, RE2, and Raptor) hard drives. Each type of hard drive is designed to work specifically in either a desktop computer environment, or connected to a RAID controller (hardware or software-based). If you intend to configure Western Digital drives in a RAID set, Sonnet and WD recommend using only their Enterprise edition hard drives. For more information, see this Western Digital FAQ.

(3) While some customers have successfully used external hard drives with USB 2.0/eSATA dual interface, these products (based on the Oxford Semiconductor OXU931DS storage controller chip) exhibit underlying errors that prevent them from being fully compatible with this Sonnet product under Mac OS X. Kernel panics occurring when the drive is connected, and the drive not being recognized by the operating system are known issues. These drives include, but are not limited to:

• Western Digital My Book™ Premium ES Edition™
• Seagate Technology FreeAgent™ Pro

External hard drives with USB 2.0/eSATA dual interface based on the JMicron 20336 are fully compatible. These drives include but are not limited to:

• OWC Mercury On-The-Go USB 2.0/eSATA
2.5" Portable

Sonnet's Fusion D400Q and R400Q quad-interface storage systems are not affected by these issues, and are fully supported.