SUBJECT: Orange Micro breaks through the price/performance
barrier with its Fast SCSI, Ultra SCSI and Ultra Wide SCSI, PCI
cards. Starting at $49.
Anaheim, CA On the heels of Apple’s announcement of its new “Blue”
G3’s which are missing the traditional Apple SCSI port, Orange Micro
has introduced three highly price-competitive SCSI cards.
Apple’s previously built-in SCSI ports were based on SCSI-1
technology, and had a data transfer rate of only 5MB/sec. All of
Orange Micro’s new offerings, the Grappler SCSI 906F, the Grappler
SCSI 930U and the Grappler SCSI 940UW were designed using the more
advanced SCSI-2 or SCSI-3 technology. The cards will transfer data at
10, 20 or 40MB/sec respectively.
Economical SCSI; 10MB/sec
Many of the “Blue G3” customers are looking for an inexpensive way to
hook their existing, slower SCSI devices such as scanners and Zip
drives to their new G3. The Grappler SCSI 906F is a Fast SCSI-2
device capable of 10 MB/sec through-put. It is double the speed of
Apple’s original SCSI and lists for only $49. This device will allow
G3 customers to boot* from an attached SCSI device.
Mid-range performance; 20MB/sec
The Grappler SCSI 930U is aimed at the Macintosh desktop user who
needs to connect SCSI peripherals such as standard disk drives,
scanners, Iomega Jaz and Zip drives. It is based on SCSI-3 technology
and will allow users to connect up to 7 devices. Users will be able
to boot* from an external disk drive. The Grappler SCSI 930U will
list for only $68.
High-Performance; 40MB/sec
This top of the line Grappler SCSI 940UW pipelines data at a
blistering 40MB/sec for up to 15 SCSI daisy-chained peripherals.
That’s 8 times faster than Apples original built-in SCSI port.
Customers for this Ultra Wide SCSI-3 interface are expected to be
users of high performance internal disk drives (7,200 or 10,000 RPM)
or sizeable external disk arrays (e.g. RAID configurations). This
Grappler SCSI card will allow users to boot* from external SCSI
devices. This Grappler SCSI 940UW will list at $149.
Benchmark information
Based on benchmarks run by the National Software Testing Laboratories
(NSTL of Conshohocken, PA) using three fast 10,000 RPM hard drives in
a striped array, the Grappler SCSI proprietary RISC processor
designed card outpaced the Adaptec 2940UW by 24% in overall composite
performance. This establishes that the Grappler SCSI 940UW is the
superior choice for high performance user with extended disk arrays
at a price of nearly half that of its main competitor. Pricing and
Availability
All of the Grappler SCSI family will be available for shipment in
February. Once again, the list prices for the Grappler 906F is $49,
the Grappler SCSI 930U is $68, and the Grappler SCSI 940UW is $149.
Recent pricing for similar products announced by Adaptec, another
SCSI card manufacturer, indicates that Orange Micro Grapplers offer
double the throughput performance for the same price.
Orange Micro is one of Apple’s oldest developers with two decades of
Apple enhancement product innovation. For more information, contact
Orange Micro (714)779-2772, or visit www.orangemicro.com.
* Free download software will be available to customers in the early
March timeframe to allow for bootable devices on the new Apple Blue G3’s.