Promise Technology (www.promise.com/SANLink) has announced products with Thunderbolt technology. Promise SANLink is the first Fibre Channel to Thunderbolt adapter and provides media professionals with native high-speed access to their shared Fibre Channel SAN digital assets.
SANLink provides a dual 4Gbps Fibre Channel link that can be used to connect to external Fibre Channel storage or to an Xsan or StorNext network using a high-speed Thunderbolt port. Each adapter features full-duplex capable FC ports, that automatically detect connection speed and can each independently operate at 1, 2 or 4Gbps. Two Thunderbolts ports are provided with SANLink that enable daisy-chaining to other Thunderbolt peripherals, such as monitors, to be connected through SANLink up to six total devices.
The Promise SANLink is compatible with Thunderbolt technology that ships on the new MacBook Pro, Mac mini, iMac and MacBook Air. SANLink requires zero software install and simply works out-of-the-box with full hot-plug capability. No longer are Mac notebooks and desktops locked out of the SAN and limited to having to use a system with a PCIe slot for a Fibre Channel HBA card, says Promise CMO Alice Chang, CMO.
With Mac OS X 10.7 (“Lion”) shipping with Xsan, SANLink is the perfect companion for those users wanting an Xsan infrastructure, she adds. Combined with the new Thunderbolt enabled Mac mini, SANLink simplifies and greatly reduces the cost of deploying Xsan, Chang says
The SANLink’s dual ports offers performance to edit high definition uncompressed video supporting multiple simultaneous uncompressed HD streams. It works with both VTrak x10 and x30 series storage subsystems.
Like VTrak storage subsystems, SANLink is fully qualified for Mac OS X, Xsan and Final Cut Pro solutions. SANLink is generally available from the Apple website (http://www.apple.com) and Apple Authorized Resellers. SANLink is available for US$799.