Pure Performance, Pure SATAsfaction!
Why install an eSATA card into your computer just to connect your external drives when it already has USB 2.0 ports, and maybe even FireWire® 400 or FireWire 800 ports, too? Speed, plain and simple. The eSATA interface offers faster transfer speeds than those other connections—if you plan to work with files and not just back them up, you need eSATA—it delivers the fastest data transfers from storage devices with multiple interfaces (1). But, not all eSATA cards are alike. Sonnet's Tempo™ SATA X4P eSATA host controller delivers outstanding performance and simple scalability previously unattainable with mainstream technologies.

Tempo SATA X4P was designed with high definition video work in mind—its PCI-X interface offers huge bandwidth for sustained data throughput, so the card never slows you down. It also offers unprecedented storage expandability—its support for high-performance multi-drive storage systems with port multipliers or hardware RAID controllers enable it to handle up to twenty hard drives (2)(3) at the same time! Port multipliers and hardware RAID controllers manage the data flow of up to five drives in one enclosure, transferring files between your computer and drives through a single locking cable. Connect four storage systems, and using today's highest-capacity drives, you can access an astounding 60 Terabytes of storage!

For maximum performance, you can create a single, large RAID 0 set across multiple drives in two or more enclosures to capture and process uncompressed high definition video, or conquer other high-bandwidth applications. You can just as easily create smaller RAID sets to work with multiple streams of compressed video. For fantastic flexibility, you can work with 20 drives individually and hot-swap(4) them out as needed. You can even work with a combination of RAID sets and individual drives—your choices aren't limited. When your storage needs have outgrown standard solutions, get a Tempo SATA X4P—it'll give you room to grow and blazing performance for the most demanding applications.

Key Benefits

• Affordable solution for adding four external SATA ports to your computer
• SATA II compliant, 1.5 Gb/s and 3 Gb/s auto-negotiation
• FIS-based Port Multiplier-aware to support up to 20 disk drives
• PCI-X host bus interface for high-performance applications
• Spread Spectrum Clocking (SSC) support for compatibility with all SATA drives
• Supports Mac OS® X, Windows Vista (Enterprise or Ultimate), Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP Pro RAID features
• Hot-swap drive support

Mac Compatibility

• Power Mac G5 (with PCI slots(5) or PCI-X slots)
• Power Mac G4 (with PCI slots)
• Xserve G4 or G5 (with PCI or PCI-X slot) (6)
• Mac OS X(1) Version 10.5, 10.4.11, or 10.3
• Mac OS X(1) Server Version 10.5, 10.4.11, or 10.3

Windows Compatibility

• PC (with PCI(4) or PCI-X slots)
• Windows® 7
• Windows Vista®
• Windows XP SP2
• Windows Server 2008
• Windows Server 2003

Technical Notes

(1) Sonnet Tempo cards are compatible with most external SATA storage. However, external hard drives with USB 2.0/eSATA dual interface based on the Oxford Semiconductor OXU931DS storage controller chip may not be compatible with Mac OS X when connected via SATA. Known issues are kernel panics occurring when the drive is connected, or the drive not being recognized by the operating system.

Summary of external SATA storage

• Storage with eSATA alone - Compatible
• Storage with triple interfaces - Compatible
• Storage with quad interfaces - Compatible
• Storage with eSATA plus Firewire 400 and/or 800 - Compatible
• Storage with port multiplier support (multiple drives) - Compatible
• Storage with RAID 0, 1, or 5 (multiple drives) - Compatible
• Storage with eSATA plus USB (based on JMicron 20366) - Compatible
  These compatible drives include, but are not limited to:
  - OWC Mercury On-the-Go USB 2.0/eSATA 2.5" portable
• Storage with eSATA plus USB
  (based on Oxford OXU931DS) - Not compatible
  These incompatible drives include, but are not limited to:
  - Western Digital My Book™ Premium ES Edition™
  - Seagate Technology FreeAgent™ Pro

(2) Support for up to 20 drives requires the use of drive enclosures employing either an FIS-based port multiplier (like Sonnet's Fusion D500P) or a hardware RAID controller (like Sonnet's Fusion D400QR5 or R400QR5).

(3) Western Digital manufactures Desktop edition (WD Caviar, Caviar SE, Caviar SE16, and Raptor X) hard drives and Enterprise (RAID) Edition (WD RE, RE2, and Raptor) hard drives. Each type of hard drive is designed to work specifically in either a desktop computer environment, or connected to a RAID controller (hardware or software-based). If you intend to configure Western Digital drives in a RAID set, Sonnet and WD recommend using only their Enterprise edition hard drives. For more information, see this Western Digital FAQ.

(4) SATA drive hot swapping is not natively supported in a desktop or server PC running Windows. SATA drives connected to Tempo SATA X4P appear to the system as not-removable hard drives and there is no mechanism in Windows to prepare them for removal.

(5) Performance will be lower in PCI-only machines.

(6) Xserve not compatible with Sonnet SATA cable locking feature.