Other World Computing (OWC) has released its first FireWire 800 products: the Mercury Elite Pro FW800 series. The storage devices offer data transfer rates of over 60MB per second.
FireWire 800 is based on the IEEE 1394b specification. The new high-speed peripheral interface was introduced in January with Apple’s 17-inch PowerBook G4. It’s since been added to the most recent Power Mac G4 revision, as well. FireWire 800 provides twice the effective bandwidth of the FireWire interface found on most Macs, and it’s downwardly compatible with slower FireWire products as well.
The 7200RPM units used in OWC’s FW800 series are available with up to 250 GB of storage capacity and 8MB of cache memory. They’re compatible with Mac OS X and Mac OS 8.5-9.2.x.
The Mercury Elite Pro FW800 products sport two nine-pin FireWire 800 ports; one six-pin FireWire 400 port; one USB port; an LED activity indicator light; a copy of Intech HD SpeedTools; and all connecting cables. Pricing for the Mercury Elite Pro FW800 storage solutions range from US$249.99 for an 80GB Mercury Elite Pro with 2MB of cache to $519.99 for a 250GB solution with 8MB of cache.