Thunderbolt Shows its Speedy Side at Computex 2011 With Products from Promise and LaCie

Apple is trying to convince many that Thunderbolt is the next big thing when it comes to input/output technology, yet Thunderbolt-ready devices aren’t yet available to consumers who wish to utilize their new Mac’s Thunderbolt interface. Manufacturers have already announced a few Thunderbolt powered devices as seen on the NAB show floor, and at this year’s Computex, LaCie and Promise are demonstrating just how fast Thunderbolt enabled storage can be.

Promise demoed two storage systems branded as the Pegasus R4 and Pegasus R6 in four and six bay configurations respectively. These storage arrays have two Thunderbolt ports so they can be daisy chained to the same interface (up to six devices), although video output requires that the last connection be via DisplayPort. The arrays support RAID 0/1/5/6 and RAID 10, and support both 3.5” and 2.5” drives. While 6 Gbps drives are supported, only a transfer rate of 850 MB/s was noted in RAID 0 by AnandTech. With performing transfer rates at 633 MB/s in reading and 734 MB/s in writing, the Pegasus storage arrays aren’t too shabby when it comes to moving storage from your Mac to your hard drives, and speed and data-redundancy geeks can look for a late June release. Past the break, we have a quick video on Promise’s hardware demo and more on LaCie’s competitive alternative.

LaCie also demoed their Little Big Disk solutions, which revved up to transfer speeds of 835 MB/s, which was no push-over on the show floor. Unlike Promise’s storage arrays, LaCie’s Little Big Disk external hard drives are small and perfect for consumer desktops, and also provide the capability to be daisy chained if you want to add more storage. SlashGear claims the above transfer speeds were maintained while streaming multiple 1080p video feeds, incredibly impressive and much likely highly desired from the video community. Available later this Summer, Lacie is also gearing up to help you feed that speed addiction.

When these devices finally do hit the market, hopefully they’ll be in time for an upcoming MacBook Air refresh, which is rumored to feature the Thunderbolt interface as current MacBook Air supplies dwindle.

[Promise Pegasus R4 & R6 via AnandTech, Hardmac | LaCie via SlashGear]
Image via AnandTech