Today Data Robotics presented a new device that power users always wanted from the Drobo: a really fast interface to connect the external storage to your workstation. I’m speaking about eSATA which makes the new Drobo S much faster. These higher speeds, that also apply to the Firewire 800 and to a negligible degree to the USB 2.0 interface, also come – according to Data Robotics’ Director of Product Marketing Jim Sherhart – as part of a new processing unit and upgraded memory. The company says the data rates should tick in at about 80 MByte/s for eSATA and 60 MByte/s for Firewire 800 respectively. The Drobo S now also has a 5th hard drive slot. How these speeds will apply to the real world is something only benchmarks will be able to tell.
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