FirmTek Ships Five-Bay, Hot-Swap, SATA Enclosure

FirmTek, LLC announced the SeriTek/5PM SATA enclosure with Port Multiplier technology. This breakthrough solution houses up to 5 hot-swappable drives, each with transfer rates as high as 3 gigabits per second, delivering potential aggregate hard drive performance beyond 220 megabytes per second with just one cable. When configured with three additional SeriTek/5PM enclosures (for a total of 20 drives), RAID 0 performance can exceed 700 megabytes per second. The remarkable performance and capacity of the SeriTek/5PM supports uncompressed streaming video, photography, storage and archiving, as well as other activities involving large media or image files. FirmTek’s established hot-swap compatibility also makes it easy for use! rs to move entire drives and arrays between any FirmT! ek-equipped systems, or into secure storage, in seconds.

In addition to its state-of-the-art support of Port Multiplication, the SeriTek/5PM delivers several exciting new features such as a front-panel power switch that carries a multi-second delay to prevent accidental power-down. "While Port Multiplication is the centerpiece of our FirmTek SeriTek/5PM product roll-out, FirmTek is very pleased to have engineered this latest SeriTek enclosure with several features requested by customers over the years," reports Chi Kim Stanford, VP of Business Development for FirmTek. "We have dedicated our resources to SATA solutions, and we are confident that users will find the latest FirmTek products deliver in all areas, from performance and reliability, to aesthetics and usability."

The SeriTek/5PM is made of attractive aluminum and features several other design elements to deliver security and reliability. It includes a unique temperature management system featuring two ultra-quite fans that have three user-selectable speeds, a fault LED and a mutable temperature and fan failure alarm. For further protection, FirmTek employs a server-class power supply as standard equipment.

The SeriTek/5PM is compatible with most Port Multiplier capable eSATA controller cards, as well as all SATA 3.5" hard drives. Port Multiplication is supported by most Macintosh systems running OS X 10.4.0 or later with a SATA PM host adapter installed. The enclosure is system independent, and will work with any Macintosh or Windows PC with a controller that correctly follows the eSATA II specifications for Port Multiplication.

Five Drives Running on a Single Cable
The remarkable technology included in the SeriTek/5PM is support for port multiplication. Driven by new controller cards supporting the eSATA II specification, this innovation allows each physical SATA port to drive multiple devices in enclosures like the SeriTek/5PM. Port multiplier technology optimizes up to 5 drives per enclosure, delivering much greater throughput without taxing the computer’s processor. When 20 high performance hard drives are configured in a RAID array (utilizing four SeriTek/5PMs), throughput can exceed 700Mb/sec (depending on the controller card), enabling multiple HD video streams to be streamed directly to disk. Port multiplication also delivers much greater simplicity for standard applications, as a single cable connects the computer with up to five drives (previous technology required a separate cable for each external SATA drive). For more advanced applications it dramatically increases on-hand hig! h-perfor! mance storage. With up to 20 RAID-configured drives connected simultaneously, accessible storage limits can be effectively eliminated for all but the most demanding applications.

Optimizing Security and Flexibility
FirmTek has pioneered products supporting ATA and SATA standards on the Macintosh for many years, and offers a variety of enclosures and interface solutions for demanding users. Since the introduction of Serial ATA, the ability to hot-swap drives between enclosures has been a key feature across FirmTek’s products. All FirmTek enclosures are designed to allow quick and easy removal and installation of drives, usually in about a minute, without shutting down or restarting the computer. This flexibility allows users to share important data quickly, transfer or duplicate files at the speed of SATA (instead of over sluggish networks, slow USB/FireWire, or Internet connections), and to keep more sensitive files locked up and secure with minimal effort.

Port Multiplication further enhances flexibility, as users are free to use multiple cards and multiple enclosures to create ideal RAID solutions in both size and performance. Depending on the application, users may opt for multiple cards, multiple enclosures or both to attain the solution that best meets their needs.

Hot-swappable external enclosures also provide effectively unlimited storage capacity, as users are not limited to the drive bays available. As volumes are filled to capacity, they are easily removed and replaced with new drives, ready to accept additional content. FirmTek’s direct backplane design makes installation as easy as 1-2-3, with no internal cabling, switches or other configuration involved.

To assist customers in maximizing their productivity and obtaining maximum benefit from their FirmTek solutions, FirmTek offers additional drive trays for $22.99 each, without any additional purchases required. This enables customers to keep an unlimited number of drives on hand and ready for action.

Price and Availability
The SeriTek/5PM, beginning at $539.95 is currently shipping.

FirmTek, LLC