MacDirectory Magazine

Winter-Spring 2009 (#40)

MacDirectory magazine is the premiere creative lifestyle magazine for Apple enthusiasts featuring interviews, in-depth tech reviews, Apple news, insights, latest Apple patents, apps, market analysis, entertainment and more.

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122 MacDirectory PROFILE CALDIGIT > BRINGING INNOVATION TO MEDIA PRODUCTION Based in Southern California, the company CalDigit continues to strive to be the "go- to" supplier for the music Industry, photographers, and video editors. In fact, the company engineers and manufactures all of its own products. And if customers have any technical questions or concerns, CalDigit can provide the answers. Their superior technical support is offered even after a warranty expires. Innovative Products The company strives to stay ahead of its competition by developing new techno- logies that will be beneficial to its end users. As such, all products, which incidentally all can be configured to RAID 0, RAID 1, and JBOD, are exclusively designed with its customers in mind. "CalDigit is based upon innovation; we are not a 'me-too' storage company," says Lauren O'Grady, a marketing assis- tant at CalDigit. "When we design our products, CalDigit doesn't make cost of material an issue. We only think of how to make the best products in the industry to help users." In order to ensure that its products function at an optimal level, CalDigit uses only the highest-quality components. After all, if a product does not function, end users will suffer from a loss of productivity. Along similar lines, every CalDigit product undergoes real world testing – so as to ensure a top-notch end product. Of course, the products are aesthetically pleasing – namely with a sophisticated modular design. CalDigit HDOne One of the more popular products at Caldigit is the HDOne, which supports RAID levels 0,1,5, 6 and JBOD. The HDOne, itself, is essentially a pared down version of the original HDPro. "All of our users loved the HDPro but it had features that not all of our users needed," explains O'Grady. "As a result, we trimmed down our HDPro and created the HDOne -- a more affordable product that still gives the users the performance and protection they need." More specifically, the HDPro is an 8-drive RAID storage unit with a PCIe interface. The company utilizes PCIe as it is a cutting edge technology that offers the fastest speed. In fact, this technology is five times faster than a fiber channel, and in RAID 5, users can reach sustained speeds of up to 450 MB/s. The company developed technology called Active Sustained Transfer Technology that keeps your data in check – and prevents the high and low peaks that can cause dropped frames. Additionally, the unit, like all of the company's units, has a modular design. Further, the unit's drives are hot swappable, and the fan and power supply are cool swappable as well. "What is also nice about this product is that it can also be used with our eLane- 1ex ExpressCard 34mm to edit up to 8 bit uncompressed HD on a laptop at hardware RAID 5 speeds of 190 MB/s," says O'Grady. "The express card is also a popular request." Recent Product One of the more recent items that CalDigit created is a product called the CalDigit VR. "CalDigit wanted to create a high end disk RAID technology that everyone could afford and we came up with the CalDigit VR," says O'Grady. The VR is a two drive, quadruple interface (USB, FW 400, FW 800 and eSATA) storage solution. The product is unique as it comes with an environmental monitor that regulates a system's ambient temperature, fan RPM, and hard drive health status. Further, this information can be viewed through the Graphic User Interface or the LCD panel on the front of the VR. The Graphic User Interface also provides password protection, an error log, an event log, firmware updates and RAID configuration. The LCD displays the hard drive health status, drive capacity, RAID level, fan RPM, ambient temperature and users are able to configure the RAID through the display as well. "The LCD panel gives a nice visual reference of what's going on within your system. If anything were to occur, such as fan failure or over heating, an event notification via email or an audible alarm will alert the user," explains O'Grady. Visit for more information. WORDS BY LARISA REDINS

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