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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/838
138 MacDirectory
PROFILE
G-TECHNOLOGY > KEEPING COMPUTING QUICK AND COOL
G-Technology Inc. manufactures external
disk storage solutions for digital photo-
graphers and videography enthusiasts all
over the world.
"We understand video from both the
production side and the storage side.
There are people in the company who
have worked in the video editing field for
over 15 years and we combine that
expertise with strong knowledge of
external disk storage devices." said Pete
Schlatter, director of marketing of G-
Technology. "Our products are designed
for the heavy use found in a professional
production environment and you can
find our products in post production
facilities all over the world. The home
user really benefits from this heavy-duty,
industrial design."
External disk storage systems are perfect
for backing up important files on your
system. Also, by using an external disk
storage system for saving data such as
pictures or movies, users can actually
increase performance by relieving the
strain on the internal system drive. All G-
Tech external disk drives feature some
type of cooling technology which can
significantly increase hard drive life. Also
many G-Tech products also feature RAID
protection that safeguards data from
drive failure.
"Performance, reliability, and style is our
mission here at G-Tech. We want the end
user experience to be the best," Schlatter
said. "The performance must be superior
to any other products on the market and
our reliability has to be outstanding. We
only buy Hitachi disk drives because
we've found that they are the most
dependable. And of course, our industrial
design speaks for itself."
With the mission statement in mind, G-
Technology will release three new
products to the market this fall. eSATA
interface technology is a main feature of
the new G-Technology external storage
drives. Initially SATA was designed as an
internal or inside-the-box interface
technology, bringing improved
performance and new features to
internally mounted consumer storage.
eSATA, or "external" SATA brings these
features to external storage, including
significantly increased performance over
FireWire and USB interfaces. SATA is now
out of the box as an external standard,
with specifically defined cables,
connectors, and signal requirements
released as new standard in mid-2004.
The G-RAID3 family of drives is an
upgrade to the hugely popular G-RAID2.
The G-RAID3 features (2) internal
7200RPM Hitachi disk drives, onboard
RAID controller, quad interface including
eSATA, FW800, FW400 and USB 2.0, and
a new larger, quieter fan. The RAID
controller features the new 936 chipset
from Oxford Semiconductor with
software selectable RAID 0 or RAID 1
operation. RAID 0 or "fast" mode
configures the controller for maximum
performance – up to 120MB/sec over
eSATA. RAID 1 or "protected" mode sets
up the controller for data redundancy. If
a hard disk fails while in RAID 1 mode,
you will not lose your data. In this age of
digital photos and video, this feature is
becoming very important.
Next on the list is an update to the G-
RAID mini, a portable bus-powered
version of the G-RAID3 that shares the
same new features. Bus-powered means
the drive gets its power from the FW
connection, eliminating the need for a
dedicated power supply. This makes it
perfect for photographers and
videographers out in the field working
with laptops. Like the G-RAID 3, in RAID
1 "protected" mode, data is copied to
both internal 2.5" drives at the same time
-- so you don't have to worry about
disaster striking due to hard drive failure.
Last, but not least, is the G-RAID Pro, a
very cool looking 4 drive external solution
featuring removable drives, onboard RAID
controller, integrated 200W power supply
and eSATA, FW800 and USB 2.0 interface.
The RAID controller can be configured as
RAID 0 or RAID 5, giving you very high
performance (over 200MB/sec) and
failsafe operation. In RAID 5 mode if any
one of the 4 drives fail, you don't lose any
data —and you can even keep on using
the unit!
G-Tech has a comprehensive line of high
performance, reliable and stylish
products. Go to