JMR Lightning Thunderbolt2 Storage Systems

JMR Electronics, Inc. debuts its Lightning Thunderbolt2 product family at NAB 2015.

This line of Lightning products promises to be performing and versatile Thunderbolt2 to PCIe peripherals and storage products. The Lightning products comprise of ten models, all based on just three Thunderbolt 2 to PCIe adapter boards, developed by JMR and providing 1, 2 or 4×8 PCIe slots. The variants of each model are in the packaging and additional features, such as an on-board RAID storage system; provision for desktop or rackmount installation; and provision for mounting the Apple Mac Pro computer inside the largest tower/rackmount model.

“Our new Lightning products offer affordable and powerful Thunderbolt 2 to PCIe expansion for both mobile and fixed media-centric applications where ruggedness, versatility, performance and absolute data integrity are required,” said Josef Rabinovitz, president and CEO, JMR. “The Lightning products are the natural choice for MacMini, MacBook and Mac Pro users having only Thunderbolt expansion available, but want to connect to PCIe connected peripherals (which are widely used in the digital video, digital cinema, corporate video and post production industries). Of course, all of the Lightning products are expandable by daisy chaining them to other Thunderbolt connected devices.“

LTNG-XS is a small desktop Thunderbolt2 to PCIe x8 adapter for use with a single compatible PCIe peripheral card. It includes an external power supply and internal cooling fan. This is not an end-point device as it includes a Thunderbolt daisy chain port for additional expansion.

LTNG-XD is a small desktop Thunderbolt2 to PCIe x8 adapter featuring two PCIe expansion slots (it contains a PCIe switch internally) for two compatible PCIe peripheral cards. It includes an external power supply and internal cooling fan. This is not an end-point device as it includes a Thunderbolt daisy chain port for additional expansion.

LTNG-XQ is a desktop Thunderbolt2 to PCIe x8 adapter featuring four PCIe expansion slots (it contains PCIe switches internally) for four compatible PCIe peripheral cards. The unit has two Thunderbolt 2 host I/O connections which utilizes two Thunderbolt buses to PCIe buses, each having 20Gb/s bandwidth. It includes an internal power supply and internal cooling fan. This is not an end-point device as it includes dual Thunderbolt daisy chain ports for additional expansion.

LTNG-XS-8-DT is a desktop Thunderbolt2 to RAID adapter product using one PCIe x8 expansion slot populated with a 6Gb SAS hardware RAID controller connected to an 8-drive internal RAID system (two x4 SAS connections internally) using SFF hot-swappable drives, either rotating disk or SSD. This unit includes an internal power supply and internal cooling fans. This is not an end-point device as it includes a Thunderbolt daisy chain port for additional expansion.

LTNG-XS-8-RM is same as the LTNG-XS-8-DT, except that it is a rackmount unit that slides into the JMR Mac Pro bracket model MPRO-DUAL-RM. This allows for easy installation and removal as a rack mounted product.

LTNG-XD-8-DT is the same as the LTNG-XS-8-DT, but provides two x8 PCIe expansion slots; one is occupied by a hardware 6Gb SAS RAID controller, leaving an open slot for users to install their own compatible peripheral cards as they desire.

LTNG-XD-8-RM is same as the LTNG-XD-8-DT, except that it is a rackmount unit that slides into the JMR Mac Pro bracket model MPRO-DUAL-RM. The product is easily installed and easily removed as a rack mounted product.

LTNG-XQ-8-DT is the same as the LTNG-XD-8-DT, except that it provides four x8 PCIe slots, one of which is occupied by a 6Gb SAS hardware RAID controller, leaving three open slots for users to install their own compatible peripheral cards as they desire. It includes eight hot-swap disk drive bays (SFF drives), internal power and cooling fans, and is not an end-point device as it includes two Thunderbolt daisy chain ports and like the other LTNG-XQ products, uses the multiple bus architecture of the Mac Pro, so there are two Thunderbolt connections to the host for higher performance.

LTNG-XQ-8-RM is the same as the LTNG-XQ-8-DT, except that it is a rackmount unit that slides into the JMR Mac Pro bracket model MPRO-DUAL-RM, and thus is an easily installed, easily removed rack mounted product.

LTNG-XQ-DTMP is a desktop tower product providing the features of the LTNG-XQ-8-DT (including a dual Thunderbolt bus architecture, onboard PCIe switches, four x8 PCIe slots, dual bus Thunderbolt expansion/daisy chain ports) but also provides mounting and cooling for the Mac Pro computer itself. Once installed, the Mac Pro I/O ports for USB, Ethernet, A/V and power switching are all brought to the front panel; the Thunderbolt cable connections are brought to the rear panel and also internally connected to the PCIe adapter using two Thunderbolt connections. The dual daisy-chaining ports are available at the rear panel for easy expansion. This puts the Mac Pro, the 4-slot expansion adapter, RAID controller, and an 8-drive RAID system (960GB to 24TB), with sufficient power and cooling, all in one desktop product, measuring 6-7/8″W x 18″H x 19″D and weighs 27 lbs (without the Mac Pro installed). The 8-drive RAID system uses SFF devices, either rotating disk, SSDs or hybrids. Using SSDs, the RAID system can provide data transfer rates in excess of 2,000MB/s. A rack mount adapter kit is available to convert this unit to a 4U rack mount product in a few minutes.