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Freecom, a Mitsubishi-owned supplier of external hard drives and portable storage devices, has unveiled the world’s first external hard disk drive (HDD) that supports USB 3.0 interconnection standard, which will reach the market only sometimes next year. Thanks to SuperSpeed USB, the new external hard drive offers much higher PC-to-HDD transfer speed than previous-generation solutions powered by USB 2.0.
“The rapid transfer speeds of USB 3.0 are going to make sharing information easier than ever before, and with the rise of interactive web applications and new media showing no signs of slowing, it’s arrived just in time,” said Axel Lucassen, managing director of Freecom.
Freecom Hard Drive XS 3.0 offers transfer speeds of approximately 130MB/s with USB 3.0 interconnection, significantly faster than existing solutions. In fact, performance of the Hard Drive XS 3.0 is limited by speed of hard drive, not the interface. USB 3.0 theoretically offers transfer speeds of up to 500MB/s.
“We now can transfer a 5GB movie in just 38 seconds – it’s unbelievably fast. Besides being SuperSpeed ready, the Hard Drive XS 3.0 also outperforms the competition in terms of security. Our USB 3.0 solution will have high-speed hardware encryption with AES 256 bit – this not only the fastest but also the safest storage solution on the market,” said Mr. Lucassen.
In order to take advantage of high-performance interconnection, personal computers have to support USB 3.0 as well. At present there are no computers with USB 3.0, therefore, end-users have to install dedicated SuperSpeed USB 3.0 controllers into their systems. Obviously, the Freecom Hard Drive XS 3.0 is backwards-compatible and will work with all USB 2.0 enabled computers and notebooks, as well as forthcoming USB 3.0 models.
The Hard Drive XS 3.0 will be available in Europe from mid-November in 1TB, 1.5TB and 2TB capacities. Prices start at €119 ($173) for 1TB. Besides hard drives themselves, Freecom also offers USB 3.0 controller card for desktops for €25.95 ($37.8) and the Express controller card for notebooks for €29.95 ($43.6).
