Shopping for fast FireWire-based hard drive storage at this week’s Macworld Conferences & Expo? Storage products maker LaCie announced today that it will use this week’s Expo to demonstrate FireWire drives operating at sustained transfer rates of 35MB/s with burst performance up to 50MB/s.
The drives are available in capacities ranging from 20GB to 75GB and utilize mechanisms that operate at 7200RPM. LaCie claimed the drives are suitable for exchanging audio and digital video, large files like graphics, and other demanding applications.
The drives themselves function with any Macintosh with a native FireWire port, and are also compatible with Windows 98 SE or Windows 2000-based PCs equipped with IEEE 1394 interfaces. The drives utilize a fully ATA 100-compliant FireWire to IDE bridge that supports Ultra DMA mode 5.
LaCie VP of marketing and sales Guillaume Mazieres said that the biggest problem in moveable FireWire-based has been low performance.
“Users are aware of the quality of digital video and audio that can be edited and quickly transported with FireWire drives. With our new two-chip, single firmware interface design we’ve virtually eliminated the performance barrier by producing drives that can consistently deliver 35MB/s sustained data thruput to the computer,” said Mazieres.
The drives come equipped with an integrated universal power supply and two 6-pin IEEE-1394 connections. They ship with a 1394 cable, and Silverlining Pro drive utility software. Prices range from US$229 for the 20GB drive to $429 for the 75GB models. LaCie noted that the 40 and 60GB models are available from the Apple Store.
Macworld Conferences & Expo takes place from July 18-20 at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City.