Sonnet Technologies has announced its first products with Thunderbolt technology at the 2011 NAB Show. Developed by Intel and brought to market with technical collaboration from Apple, Thunderbolt technology supports high-performance data services and high-resolution displays through a single, compact port. Thunderbolt appears on the latest MacBook Pros and is expected to expand to the entire Mac line.

Based on PCI Express and DisplayPort technologies, Thunderbolt provides support for two channels on the same connector with 10 Gbps of throughput per channel in both directions. 

Sonnet's Fusion storage products with Thunderbolt technology include a portable 2-drive SSD system, a 4-drive RAID 5 unit, and a professional 8-drive video edition RAID storage system. Sonnet's Echo Express PCIe 2.0 Expansion Chassis with Thunderbolt ports enable users to plug in high-performance PCIe 2.0 adapters such as video capture cards, Fibre Channel cards, Sonnet RAID controllers, and more to a computer with a Thunderbolt port. All of these products include two Thunderbolt ports to support daisy chaining of up to six devices to a single Thunderbolt port on the host computer.
Sonnet's Allegro FW800 Thunderbolt Adapter converts the Thunderbolt connector to a powered FireWire 800 port. Sonnet's Presto Gigabit Ethernet Thunderbolt Adapter converts a Thunderbolt connector to a Gigabit Ethernet port.

The Fusion F2TBR 2-drive portable solid state drive (SSD) storage system with Thunderbolt technology features 2.5-inch SSDs mounted side-by-side in an aluminum shell slightly larger than two stacked CD cases. With its SSDs configured as a RAID 0 set, the Fusion F2TBR achieves data transfers up to 640 MB/s read and 430 MB/s write, says says Robert Farnsworth, CEO of Sonnet Technologies.

The Fusion E400TBR5 4-drive RAID 5 desktop storage system featuring Thunderbolt technology includes an internal RAID controller that supports RAID 5 for file protection in case of a single drive failure, RAID 0 for maximum performance, and JBOD for maximum flexibility, he adds. Available in 4, 6, 8, or 12TB configurations, this compact multi-drive system takes advantage of the huge bandwidth available through the Thunderbolt interface connection.

The Fusion D800TBR5 8-drive RAID 5 desktop storage system featuring Thunderbolt technology includes an internal RAID controller that supports RAID 0, 1, 5, and JBOD. Available in 8, 12, 16, or 24TB configurations, Fusion D800TBR5 is perfectly suited for high-definition video editing, achieving data transfers up to 800 MB/s read and 730 MB/s write, fast enough to handle a single stream of uncompressed 10-bit 1080 4:4:4 HD, or multiple streams of ProRes 422, uncompressed 8-bit 1080 HD, DV, HDV, and DVCPRO video, according to Farnsworth.

Sonnet's Echo Express PCIe 2.0 Expansion Chassis with Thunderbolt Ports enables users to plug in PCI Express 2.0 adapter cards to any computer with a Thunderbolt port. Adapters such as professional video capture cards, 8Gb Fibre Channel cards, 10Gigabit Ethernet cards, and RAID controller cards are examples of the adapters that may be used.

Available in two sizes, the standard Echo Express PCIe 2.0 Expansion Chassis with Thunderbolt Ports supports one half-length, double-width, x16 (x4 mode) slot PCIe 2.0 card, and the XL model supports full-length cards. Both models have integrated universal power supplies and fans to cool the card.

The Allegro FW800 Thunderbolt Adapter enables users to plug a FireWire 800 device, including a bus-powered drive, into any computer with a Thunderbolt port. The Presto Gigabit Ethernet Thunderbolt Adapter adds a Gigabit Ethernet connection to any computer with a Thunderbolt port.

Sonnet Technologies' line of Thunderbolt technology products will be available from Sonnet and its authorized resellers beginning this summer. Pricing will be announced at a later date. More information on these products with Thunderbolt technology is available at http://www.sonnettech.com/nab2011/products .