BIOS: Technology Means Business

At this week’s Macworld Conference and Expo, Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AMCC) is showcasing its hardware RAID storage expertise with the 3ware Sidecar, an external RAID storage solution for the Apple Mac Pro and Power Mac G5 with PCI Express workstations.

Offering storage capacities of up to 3TB and RAID 5 write and read speeds up to 200MB/s, the 3ware Sidecar is ideal for professional video and audio, high-end graphics, digital photography storage and other capacity-hungry applications.

“As a photographer, it is critical for me to protect my digital assets, as well as to have adequate capacity,” said Graham Welland, a Portland, Oregon-based amateur photographer. “I was struggling with multiple external FireWire drives that required manual backups for protection. My reseller, MacPac, recommended the 3ware Sidecar both for its performance and fault tolerance. I now use hardware RAID 5 for a much higher level of data protection, all in a smaller enclosure. My performance now matches my Quad processor Mac and I have plenty of room to grow”.

The 3ware Sidecar hardware RAID storage system is a desktop, external SATA II RAID solution that seamlessly integrates with the Apple Mac Pro and Power Mac G5 workstations. The 3ware Sidecar features an intuitive management software suite that simplifies the configuration, management and monitoring of the storage solution. Additionally, the Sidecar’s two meter Multi-lane SATA cable enables four lanes of high speed 3Gb/s SATA traffic to travel from the PCI Express RAID controller to the 4-bay external enclosure.

“The performance and capacity capabilities of AMCC’s 3ware Sidecar xSATA solution offer new storage flexibility to the Mac space especially for users who are restrained by the prohibitive cost of fibre channel at the very high end and by the performance limitations of USB, FireWire and eSATA-attached products at the low end,” said Scott Cleland, director of marketing at AMCC Storage. “The 3ware Sidecar provides true hardware RAID storage for the creative Mac user who demands high performance, capacity and RAID 5 data protection.”

AMCC’s 3ware Sidecar is available through AMCC’s worldwide network of distributors, VARs and direct market resellers. The Mac Pro driver ships with new 3ware Sidecars and can also be downloaded free of charge at www.3ware.com/support/download.asp. Support for Linux and Windows operating systems will be available later in Q1 2007.

AMCC is offering special 3ware Sidecar pricing on the company’s online store. Buyers will receive $300 off MSRP on the purchase of every 3ware Sidecar either at AMCC’s in-booth online store kiosk at Macworld, or via AMCC’s 3ware store at http://store.3ware.com. Discounted pricing will last through Macworld 2007. The suggested list price for the 3ware Sidecar is $1295; disk drives not included.

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