LaCie 2Big RAID solution waits for Apple to catch up with USB 3.0

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With USB 3.0 finally agreed upon, which allows for potential throughput of up to 4 gigabits per second, peripheral makers are slowly but surely dipping their toes into the waters of the new spec. Yesterday, LaCie announced that they were joining the fray with the world’s first USB 3.0 Dual-Drive RAID storage solution.

LaCie’s 2Big USB 3.0 is a dual-disc RAID 0/1 storage solution powered by Symwave’s dual SATA and RAID bridge controller. LaCite boasts that the 2Big will be capable of the highest throughput ever achieved in a USB 3.0 external storage product: it will even allow users to transfer high-definition uncompressed video at speeds up to 275MB per second, or prefer real time streaming and editing of multiple high-definition files at once.

That sounds like a great match for the Mac platform’s plethora of video professionals, but here’s the catch: there’s no support for USB 3.0 on any current Macs. Still, it’s pretty much a lock that you can expect at least one USB 3.0 port on Apple’s next Mac Pro refresh: USB 3.0 is exactly the sort of transfer standard that would appeal to the Mac Pro’s core audience of video professionals, especially considering Apple’s long-term effort to distance itself from Firewire.

If you’re interested in the LaCie 2Big RAID, you can luckily wait around for Apple to catch up with the USB 3.0 spec: both the 2Big and the Mac Pro refresh are due in the first quarter of 2010.

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