Orange Micro demonstrated their new Grappler+ PCI card last week for the editors of Macworld. The Grappler+ PCI card features a fast SCSI (SCSI-2) connection and two serial ports on a single PCI card. Orange Micro president Arthur Scotten said that the Grappler+ will be available at the end of April and should cost around $100.
The Grappler+ is designed to fill a void felt by Mac users who have Blue and White G3s or G4s and also have older peripherals that use SCSI and/or serial connections–connections that these new Macs lack. In order to use these devices right now, most Mac users use a SCSI PCI card and a serial PCI card or a serial converter using the computer’s modem slot. The Grappler+ is intended to satisfy both needs using a single PCI slot.
Scotten also discussed Orange Micro’s forthcoming products. He said the company is working on a FireWire/SCSI PCI card for both the Mac and PC.
Finally, Scotten reviewed the state of Orange Micro’s venerable PC compatibility cards. The company currently offers a card that is based upon a 450MHz AMD processor. Scotten said that Orange Micro will continue to support its PC-compatibility line of products.