NAB: mini SeriTek/SpyderHUB offers FireWire/USB/eSATA

FirmTek on Monday announced the SeriTek/SpyderHUB, which provides USB and FireWire host connection options plus hardware RAID, eSATA Mac OS boot capability and FireWire daisy chaining capability in an ultra-small external design. The ultra small, four-ounce device offers the ability to connect to external hard drives using any eSATA enclosure such as the SeriTek/2EN2, allowing users to attach and boot from up to two eSATA hard drives at a remote location. Supporting both desktop and notebook computers, it allows professionals to utilize eSATA enclosures from computers that do not support a Serial ATA host adapter.

"The SeriTek/SpyderHUB provides a new innovative solution which expands eSATA enclosure connectivity while adding Mac OS X boot capability and maintaining the highest eSATA performance standards," said Chi Kim Stanford, Vice President of Business Development. "The SeriTek/SpyderHUB allows eSATA enclosures to be used for high performance multimedia content creation on the Mac Pro and moved to a MacBook Air, MacBook Pro or another portable platform."

The SeriTek/SpyderHUB can be utilized in JBOD mode as a tool for sharing data among systems using USB or FireWire host connections. It can be also used to create a hardware RAID. The SeriTek/SpyderHUB supports JBOD, RAID 0 and SPAN (concatenate) formats. The RAID 0 setting includes the ability to create a striped RAID set while SPAN allows two SATA hard drives to be combined into one large volume.

In addition, users can create a hardware RAID and partition it with the "Master Boot Record" format to provide compatibility with both Mac OS X and Windows platforms. The built-in hardware RAID support provided by the SeriTek/SpyderHUB expands the users RAID options to include multiple OS support.

When connected to a computer via FireWire, the SeriTek/SpyderHUB can also be used to daisy chain additional FireWire devices. It operates using bus power; however, an optional power adapter is also available from the company to preserve battery life.

Other features include FireWire 400 connectivity (with optional adapter), power and activity LEDs for each hard drive, and a Kensington Security Slot. The FirmTek SeriTek/SpyderHUB will be available in the second quarter of 2008; however, pricing was not available.