USB 3 and eSATA may be the king and queen when it comes to external speed, but no technology is more promising than Intel’s Light Peak. While USB 3.0 was a marginal, linear progression from USB 2.0 and 1.0 before it, Light Peak is exponentially faster. For example, USB 3.0 has a theoretical top speed of 5.0Gbps. Though real-world speeds tend to hover around 100-130MB/s. Still, that’s a helluva lot better than their previous technologies. Light Peak on the other hand has a theoretical top speed of 10Gbps, which will obviously offer at least double the real-world transfer speeds. But what’s slightly surprising is that Intel showed off the successor to Light Peak — mind you, Light Peak still has 3-5 years before we actually see it in mainstream products.
If Light Peak is all the rage in geek world currently, the successor has to be something special, right? Right! Light Peak tops out at 10Gbps. Ok, awesome. But Intel’s even faster laser-based technology will allow data transmissions of up to 12.5Gbps across (4) laser beams, netting nearly ~50Gbps of total bandwidth. That’s inane! But that’s just the beginning…
Transferring large files onto flash drives these days, with multi-GB sized files, can be painfully slow at best, agonizingly tragic at worst. This is all over USB mind you. Extremely portable solutions other than USB are pretty much non-existent. Granted, once USB 3.0 starts going mainstream, USB 3.0 flash drives will of course flood the market and make us consumers happy campers. But what do we do until then? Use the Active Media Products USB/eSATA flash drive combo.
The beauty of this flash drive is of course the dual port design — USB 2.0 for compatibilities sake and blazing fast eSATA for those large transfers. The drive comes in 16GB or 32GB capacities thanks to it’s MLC NAND while remaining small and pockatable.
When all is said and done however, mobile eSATA in a 16-32GB flash drive doesn’t exactly sound cheap. But, in this case it actually is with the 16Gb version coming in at a “I’m ordering two now” $69.95 and the bigger 32GB sibling weighing in a tad heavier on the wallet at $109.95.
Ya, they’re more expensive than your typical flash drive. But your typical flash drive doesn’t yet come in 16/32GB variants, feature eSATA, and provide up to 100/50(MB/s) read/write transfer rates. The only thing that will top this is an eSATA/USB 3.0 combo. Either way, I’m getting one of these. eSATA is quickly becoming more common. Why not add another gadget to the collection?
TechFresh > TweakTown
Active Media Products
- February 15, 2010 8:11 am
How about some more USB 3.0 goodness? Fresh off of Buffalo’s 4-port USB 3.0 hub, another little USB 3.0 compatible piece of gadgetry you’ll want to add to your collection is the SIIG USB 3.0 to eSATA adatper. The gist of the adapter is pretty straight forward — it turns a USB 3.0 port into an eSATA port for that external USB 3.0 hard drive you don’t have yet. Hey, it never hurts to be ahead of the curve now does it?
For now, the adapter is Windows only, lacking support for both Linux and Mac. Though I expect the aforementioned OS’s to gain some support in due time. As an added bonus, this adapter is also backwards compatible with USB 2.0 and thanks to the increased power specs of USB 3.0, should power most external hard drives without a separate AC adpater. Super!
Pick yours up for $49.99 and prepare for the USB 3.0 onslaught that is set to begin later this year.
[Proudct Page: SIIG]
Everything USB
- September 4, 2009 6:47 am
Do you have the need for speed? Do you need a flash drive that is small and offers up copious amounts of storage? If so, why not take a gander at Kanguru’s 64GB dual-interface flash drive. The nifty feature of this flash drive isn’t necessarily the size (as more 64GB flash drives are becoming commonplace) but the dual-interface design with a USB 2.0 and eSATA connection ensuring you have the fastest speeds wherever you decide to hook up. With USB 3.0 around the corner, sadly this drive will obsolete mighty quick. If you’re a Windows 2000+, Linux 2.4, or Mac OS 9+ user, you shouldn’t have a problem dealing with the Kanguru. While I am highly intrigued, a lack of price, release date, and a rather lack of knowledge on this particular brand means I’m a tad hesitant. Anyone care to chime in on previous Kanguru models?
Source: Coated, Hardware Sphere, Hot Hardware, Ubergizmo, Press Release,
