LaCie Breaks the HD Throughput Barrier with 35MB/s FireWire Desktop Hard Drive

HILLSBORO, OR (August 1, 2001) - LaCie, the only company shippinghigh-speed external FireWireâ hard drives in volume, announcedtoday that it is equipping the drives with a new FireWire controllerthat provides double the data throughput performance of previousFireWire drives. Available in 20GB,40GB, 60GB and 75GB capacities, the7200 rpm drives stream data to the computer at a sustained transferrate of 35MB/s and provide burst performance to 50MB/s. Ideal forstoring, exchanging and working on large files such as graphics, audioand digital videos, LaCie's new FireWire solutions eliminate qualityand video frame loss.

Depending upon capacity, the compact 3.5" drives can store more thanfive hours of DV video, more than 100 CD-Audio images and more than amile-high stack of text documents. The new drives can be quickly andeasily connected to the native FireWire ports that are standard withMacintosh G3, G4 and iMac DV systems as well as PCs incorporatingWindows 98 Second Edition or Windows 2000.

"The demand for high-capacity moveable hard drive storage has beenoverwhelming. Until now the biggest problem has been the performancebottleneck at the IDE drive and 1394 interface," said Scott Phillips,President of LaCie. "Users are aware of the quality of digital videoand audio that can be edited and quickly transported with FireWiredrives. With our new two-chip, single firmware interface design we'vevirtually eliminated the performance barrier by producing drives thatcan consistently deliver 35MB/s sustained data throughput to thecomputer. Twice as fast as the first-generation FireWire drives, thenew hard drives open up the data pipe that today's higher-performancevideo production and content development computers can handle. Simplystated, users won't see any data, quality or frame loss anymore whenthey are using the new FireWire drives with their projects."

Fully ATA 100-compliant, LaCie's new FireWire to IDE bridge supportsthe Ultra DMA mode 5 used in today's high-performance hard drives andoperating systems including including Mac OS, Mac OS X and Windows98SE, Windows Me,Windows 2000. By enhancing the external 20GB, 40GB,60GB and 75GB drives with a new built-in FireWire controller, LaCieprovides users with a fast and efficient means of exchanging largefiles such as high-resolution photos and digital videos with no risk ofdata loss.

LaCie's new FireWire controller is a 400 Mbps interface that isbased on a 1394 to IDE bridge dual chipset. The higher transfer rate ofthe latest-generation FireWire digital link makes the LaCie externalhard drive ideal for users storing large-volume video and graphic filesor capturing video from DV camcorders. The compact drives also providecontent developers with added security because complete projects can bestored on the drives, removed and locked up when they are not beingused.

With latest-generation FireWire support, the drives arehot-pluggable. Users can plug a LaCie drive in, remove it or swap itwith others without shutting down or rebooting the computer. The drivemounts automatically as soon as it is connected. There is no need forterminators, device IDs or elaborate setup. This allows the LaCieFireWire hard drive to be easily transferred between Macintosh G4workstations and Cubes, FireWire-equipped PowerBooks and iMac DVsystems. When plugged into a FireWire-equipped computer, the LaCieFireWire drive looks and performs just like any other drive on thesystem. When properly formatted, the drive can even be used to sharevideo and graphics files between Mac and Windows computers.

Used as a 'data shuttle,' the new LaCie FireWire hard drives make itpossible for several professionals to work successively on the sameproject from their own machine. In the event of a computer crash, theuser can also quickly plug the LaCie FireWire drive into another systemand continue working with a minimum of downtime.

Designed to match the performance of the leading FireWire or1394-equipped computers, the new LaCie FireWire drives have beenoptimized to provide an access time of 8-9ms and a sustained transferrate of up to 35 Mbytes per second (burst performance of 50MB/s). Thedrives have an enclosed, integrated universal power supply and two6-pin IEEE-1394 connections. There is no need for any external powersupplies.

Pricing, Availability

Available through authorized resellers, the suggested retail pricesfor the LaCie FireWire hard drives are 20GB - $229; 40GB - $279; 60GB -$329; and 75GB -$429. LaCie's 40GB an 60GB drives are also availablefrom the Apple Store.

The FireWire hard drives include the LaCie 1394 cable, an internalinternational power supply for worldwide use, and LaCie's silverliningPro drive utility software for MacOS environments. Silverlining is alsoincluded for Windows 98SE (Second Edition) and Windows 2000.Silverlining is the most comprehensive drive management software on themarket and the only driver able to manage USB, IDE, SCSI and FireWireperipherals at the same time.

For more information, contact LaCie, Ltd. at 22985 NW EvergreenParkway; Hillsboro, OR 97124 or call (503) 844-4500, Fax (503)844-4593. Visit LaCie's Web site at www.lacie.com