HighPoint's e.SATA
"The Fastest External Storage Solution"
June 05, 2003
Manufactured by: HighPoint Technologies
Introduction
HighPoint Technologies, Inc. is a leader of Ultra DMA/ATA and Serial ATA RAID Controllers for data storage within the PC industry. Since its incorporation in 1995, the company has successfully launched a series of data storage management products and has been recognized as the technology leader in the I/O area.
For years now, Highpoint has been providing solutions to manage the latest high performance storage devices for personal computers. They have been supplying IC products like IDE and RAID controllers to mainboard manufacturers since the inception of such technologies. They have also manufactured UDMA, IDE RAID and now Serial ATA, SATA RAID host adapters to deliver such feature to the end user who doesn't have it. Their success have delivered intelligent, high-performance data storage solutions for multimedia and other applications to the consumers.
In response to the needs of the ever changing market, HighPoint Technologies tries to deliver new products to take advantage of this new technologies. Continuing their advances and growth, they are constantly introducing more unique and effective products. Today, we will be doing another "world exclusive" review of yet another great innovative product from HighPoint. Introducing, the e.SATA product line.
e.SATA
With Serial ATA fast becoming the standard now in today's computing, it is but natural to make full use of its other applications. Internal storage has just had its boost because of this technology. Now through the efforts of HighPoint Technologies, external storage will have its own boost too via the e.SATA solution. The first ever external SATA solution released on the market.
At the present, external storage has been dominated by IEEE1394 (Firewire) and USB 2.0. Both delivering transfer rates of up to 400Mb/s and 480Mb/s respectively. With the newly developed external Serial ATA (e.SATA), HighPoint Technologies will provide the fastest and most affordable external storage solution ever. The transfer rate is up to 1500 Mb/s, which is 3 times faster than USB2.0 and IEEE1394!
The newly developed e.SATA supports the secure, two-way transmission of data across the Serial ATA interface at speed of up to 1.5Gb/s. e.SATA connections allow data to flow both ways between the PC and external hard device. This means you can use your PC to control hard devices in an easy and creative way.
RocketMate 1000, Rocket 1511 & e.SATA B11
The e.SATA line consists of the RocketMate 1000, Rocket 1511 and e.SATA B11. This together with an regular ATA drive will comprise the fastest external storage solution to date.
RocketMate 1000- This is the most vital component of the e.SATA line. The RocketMate 1000 is an external disk enclosure that is designed to accompany the Rocket series Serial ATA controller cards. It is the solution for any PC user who has ever dreamed about an instant way to add a new peripheral. With this e.SATA component, it makes adding hard drive devices very easy, anyone can do it. You just simply plug them in and turn them on. "Hot-swapping" features makes it even much better, you don't even need to shutdown and restart your PC to attach or remove a hard disk. RocketMate 1000 connections allow data to flow both ways between the PC and the hard disk. It will support RAID functions as well when it works with Rocket series SATA RAID host adapters.
The RocketMate 1000 is designed for 3.5" hard disks, which is fully compatible with all standard IDE hard disk drives. This means you don't have to buy an SATA drive if you already have an existing standard ATA drive.
Rocket 1511- This is a single external (e.SATA) channel Serial ATA host adapter. This is necessary if you don't have any Serial ATA integrated in your motherboard. This PCI adapter is designed with one single external channel only solely for mating with the RocketMate 1000.
e.SATA B11- It is a single external channel Serial ATA bracket accessory. This accesory is needed if you already have an existing Serial ATA connector available or integrated in your motherboard. This is a really good and economical way of using the e.SATA connection as you don't have to buy an SATA host adapter card anymore. You can use a free SATA port on your motherboard and connect the RocketMate 1000 thru this e.SATA bracket accessory.
Note that if you don't have any SATA port available and would use an e.SATA host adapter, you won't need the B11 bracket accessory. Likewise, if you already have an SATA port integrated in your motherboard, you obviously don't need the Rocket 1511 SATA adapter but would just need the B11 bracket accessory. Both setup though would still need the RocketMate 1000 hard drive enclosure.