Akitio Thunderbolt2 Portable Bus-Powered 10GbE Adapter

Akitio announced its portable Thunderbolt2 10GbE adapter.

Thunder2 10G Adapter provides a portable 10GbE solution. Itr utilizes a simplified design for 10GbE networking for modern workstations and ultrabooks which typically lack 1GbE connectivity or the capability to deploy an internal PCIe 10GbE network card (NIC), but may be equipped with a Thunderbolt connector capable of delivering up to 20Gb/s.

The Network Adapter offers a fanless, low-power, small form factor and low-cost 10GbE solution enabling 10GBase-T connectivity for Apple OS X and Windows environments and features the latest Thunderbolt2 I/O technology from Intel, with transfer speeds of up to 20Gb/s. The Thunderbolt2 adapter is for notebooks, such as the Apple MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and professional workstations that require reliable, accelerated access to external storage and networks for I/O demanding applications.

“We are excited to announce the industry’s first bus-powered adapter that brings Thunderbolt2 technology to 10GBase-T networks, while offering significant power, form factor and cost efficiencies,” said Nir Sever, COO, Tehuti Networks Ltd., which provides the controller for the new device. “We look forward to enabling a comprehensive line f desktop and notebook products with Thunderbolt2 technology enabled 10GbE networking.“

Akitio delivers products that optimize performance, speed, power, form factor and cost. Today’s increasing demand for media-rich entertainment requires accelerated access to data for the most demanding high-performance applications. Akitio products, such as the Thunder2 10G Adapter, provide users with reliable solutions for accessing and transferring data intensive applications such as 4K video and 3D stereoscopic film, multiple layers of complex, uncompressed real-time effects and high-definition HD video and audio editing delivering aggregate bandwidth and predictable data transfers.

The versatility of the Thunder2 10G adapter allows small form factor notebook platforms, such as Apple and HP ultrabook systems, to connect into high-performance storage and networks, and address the demands of rapidly evolving work environments by allowing access to enterprise data center networks. The Thunderbolt2 adapter supports Windows and OS X OSs.

“Akitio and Tehuti share the vision of ubiquitous 10GbE network connectivity across workstations and ultrabooks driven by Thunderbolt2,” said Richard Wright, VP, Akitio. “We view the introduction of the Akitio Thunder2 10G Adapter as a key milestone towards enabling this important industry transformation.“

The Thunder2 10G Adapter will be available starting in April for an MSRP of $429.