Echo ExpressCard Thunderbolt

It seems that today if we do not have a machine equipped with the Thunderbolt connection, capable of transmitting 10Gb per second per channel, we have been left behind. This type of technology allows, among other things, users who have computers with little internal storage to resort to large amounts of external storage and obtain high speeds.

However, the Thunderbolt connection has not reached all types of devices, such as card readers. To solve this problem, Sonnet Technologies has developed a solution by releasing the Echo ExpressCard Thunderbolt adapter, which will be shown next September at IBC, along with other Thunderbolt-related products from the company.

The Echo allows you to connect a wide range of ExpressCard/34 cards, connected to your computer via Thunderbolt. This adapter allows you to choose the connections and add more to your configuration, thus achieving higher performance with increased speed well above others such as USB or FireWire.

And one of its biggest advantages is its ability to support different interface types, such as eSATA, FireWire 800, CompactFlash, SDXC and SxS (from Sony).

It also supports common ExpressCard/34 adapters such as DiO, Sonnect’s Pro CompactFlash and SDXC readers; Qio adapters, which allow the use of Qio CF4 and E3 readers; and others for special devices such as AJA io Express, Prism Sound ADA-8XR and Orpheus.

On the other hand, the Echo also creates a solution for those Mac customers who need to have ExpressCard, as Apple eliminated the possibility of having these slots when they recalled the 17-inch MacBook Pro.

These two articles(the Mac Observer and ProPhoto Coalition) contain evaluations after testing the product.

There are two versions of Echo available; the regular version, which offers up to 2.5Gb/s with ExpressCard and costs $149.95; and the Pro version, priced at $169.95, capable of operating at speeds up to 5.0Gb/s (with ExpressCard 2.0).

Here you can see all the features of the Echo ExpressCard Thunderbolt.