June 9 - 6:30pm EDT   HighPoint has released the RocketRAID eSATA controller, specifically designed for the Mac Pro. The device is used to manage disk drives and provides additional disk cache. The controller features PCI-Express x4 bus speed, enabling transfer rates of up to 1000MB per second. RocketRAID eSATA also has integrated boot support allowing the controller to boot a Mac Pro system from a single drive or RAID configuration. The controller is also capable of supporting almost every type of eSATA hard disk configuration, such as Silicon Image Port Multipliers and eSATA drive kits. [full story]

June 4 - 3:45pm EDT   Sans Digital has relaunched its dual-bay RAID network-attached server, the MobileNAS MN2LP - 2 Bay RAID NAS Server, featuring an LCD readout display. The new LCD provides RAID, system info and the IP address. The two-disk server is geared towards file sharing on a home or office network. It offers both RAID 0 striping for better performance or RAID 1 mirroring for redundancy and better backup. It works over Mac networks via Bonjour networking and is compatible with Windows via CIFS as well as Linux via NFS -- it can support all three platforms at once. [full story]

May 19 - 10:00pm EDT   QStar Technologies has upgraded its flagship product, HSM, to be compatible with the upcoming Mac OS X 10.5 Snow Leopard. The software is geared for storage systems, with tools that can be used to manage data movement between multiple tiers of storage, both online and offline. A variety of storage technologies are supported, including DVD-RAM, BD, CAS, and PDD. [full story]

May 13 - 3:45pm EDT   Sans Digital had announced an expansion of its TowerRAID series through the addition of mini-SAS interfaces to its TowerRAID TR4X/TR4X-B and TR8X/TR8X-B. Features of the integrated mini-SAS ports combine four hard drive connections into one, reduce possible points of failure, and help to maintain uninterrupted data transfer. The mini-SAS technology is geared towards uses such as video editing, and provides Fibre Channel connectivity while enabling the TR4X and TR8X to support 3Gbps SAS or SATA hard drives. [full story]

April 27 - 6:20pm EDT   Sonnet has released the Fusion R400P, a four-drive RAID SATA rackmount storage system. The system supports RAID 0, 1, and JBOD and arrives in a 1U rackmount enclosure. It is available in configurations from driveless to 6TB and has an eSATA single-cable port. The new unit is based on Sonnet's Fusion R400Q series and can reach speeds of 220MB/sec in a RAID 0 configuration. [full story]

February 19 - 9:10pm EST   Sans Digital has released the AccuSTOR AS212X2 2U 12-bay SAS enclosure, which it says is the first JBOD rackmount to overcome the lack of monitoring ability when utilizing a RAID controller card. The enclosure is built with a selectable switch that allows hardware monitoring with various RAID controller interfaces. The feature also allows system administrators to check hard drive status, power supply and cooling fan information. [full story]

February 5 - 4:55pm EST   QNAP Systems has announced its latest Intel-based network attached storage (NAS) system, the TS-439 Pro Turbo NAS. The device utilizes a 1.6GHz Atom CPU and provides up to 6TB of storage, with support for online RAID capacity expansion and RAID level migration without turning off the server. The NAS can be connected using five USB 2.0 ports and two eSATA ports. Data can be protected with 256-bit volume-based encryption, automatic policy-based IP blocking, and instant SMS or e-mail alerts to warn of drive problems or failure. [full story]

February 3 - 10:25pm EST  Sans Digital has launched a new series of 8-bay MobileRAID towers, featuring dual channel SCSI, SAS and Fiber Channel connections and hardware RAID 6. RAID 6 balances between parity and speed, while allowing for up to two drive failures at one time without data loss. The MobileRAID towers utilize the engine structure of Sans Digital's AccuRAID rackmount systems, allowing for dual channel support, online expansion, online RAID migration, and RAID roaming. The three towers, the MR8S, MR8X and MR8F4, feature embedded Ethernet web management, allowing for local and remote access of the system status and alerts for system events. [full story]

January 21 - 4:20pm EST   Storage gear maker HighPoint has unveiled the RocketRAID 2684, its newest SATA/SAS-based RAID controller. The hardware uses an internal SFF-8087 connector, paired with an external SFF-8088 one. It supports SATA drives up to 1.5TB in size, and SAS drives spinning as fast as 15,000rpm. [full story]

January 5 - 8:20pm EST   LaCie has unveiled its latest external devices, the d2 DVD burner and a dual-drive RAID system. The DVD burner is driven by Windows XP Embedded and touts a maximum write speed of 22x. Users can choose from a USB 2.0 connection or FireWire, and write to DVD-R, DVD-RW, Dual Layer, CD-R or CD-RW media. The drive also features LightScribe technology for burning custom labels directly onto the discs. [full story]

January 5 - 5:45pm EST   EZQuest has revealed the Cinema Pro, a new RAID storage system geared towards video editing. The unit provides 16 bays in a 3U rack format, allowing for up to 24TB of capacity. It uses a 20Gbps external PCIe bus, and transfers approximately 900MBps in RAID 0 mode, or 870MBps in RAID 5; 1, 1E, 3, 6 and JBOD configurations are also supported. Tasks on the Pro are aided by an 800MHz Intel processor equipped with 2GB of SDRAM cache. [full story]

January 5 - 3:30pm EST   Storage tech builder ATTO has announced a preview demonstration of the FastStream SC 8500, a new RAID controller, for this week's Macworld Expo. The 8500 is meant for high-end storage functions such as video editing, and can handle as many as five uncompressed HD streams simultaneously. It includes four 8Gb Fibre Channel host interfaces, and can connect up to 128 3Gb SAS or SATA drives, or else eight to 16 JBOD enclosures. [full story]

December 18 - 7:35pm EST   Small Tree Communications has announced its abcSAN shared storage disk, launching at Macworld 2009 in January. The new SAN (storage area network) disk is a member of Small Tree's GraniteSTOR family, an iSCSI-based Ethernet-attached unit capable of over 600MB-per-second speeds. The disk array arrives with a user interface that features a one-pane window for managing RAID sets, volumes and shares. It can be set up as a SAN or network-attached storage, with 4 and 16 drive configuration to be offered. [full story]

December 16 - 8:55pm EST   Sonnet Technologies has unveiled the DX800RAID, an eight-bay SATA storage system with an integrated Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) expander that can be used to connect up to 16 individual eight-drive enclosures to a single RAID controller. The new system supports RAID 5 and RAID 6, protecting against data-loss if one or two drives fail. The company claims read speeds of up to 680MB per second and write speeds of up to 640MB per second. [full story]

November 23 - 2:10pm EST   Sans Digital has unveiled its latest RAID storage device, the 4-bay MR4UT enclosure. A RAID controller and 400MB per second I/O processor are integrated into the housing, eliminating the need for separate hardware or drivers. Users can configure the drives as RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 3, 5 or JBOD arrays, with the option to keep one drive as a hot spare to be used if an active drive fails. The HDD trays support 3.5-inch hot-swappable SATA I and SATA II drives, with write speeds claimed to reach 210MB per second and write speeds of 170MB per second via eSATA connections, with lower speeds when using the USB 2.0 interface. [full story]