Press

Other World Computing (OWC) today launched its FW800 PCI Card, an add-in card that supports the new IEEE 1394b FireWire 800 standard to any Macintosh or personal computer with an available PCI bus slot.

“OWC’s new FW800 PCI Card makes it possible for any Mac or PC user to add in the super-fast data transfer capabilities available with FireWire 800,” said Larry O’Connor, president and chief executive officer of Other World Computing. “The vast majority of personal computers in use today utilize either FireWire 400 (IEEE 1394a) and/or USB ports. In either case, FireWire 800 is dramatically faster – either twice as fast or 67 percent faster, respectively, than FireWire 400 and USB 2.0. And in the case of USB 1.1, this FireWire 800 card is close to 70 times faster. The FW800 PCI card is also backward compatible with any FireWire 400 device.”

The OWC FW800 PCI Card provides users with three nine-pin FireWire 800 ports and supports data transfer rates of up to 100 Megabytes per second (100MBps) between two or more devices. Priced at $79.95, the OWC FW800 PCI card is available immediately exclusively from Other World Computing at http://www.macsales.com/FW800PCI.

FireWire 800 External Hard Drive Enclosure Also Introduced
OWC also introduced today a new FireWire 800 external hard drive enclosure kit.Designed to support all 3.5-inch ATA/IDE hard drives, the new Mercury Elite Pro FW800/400 + USB 2.0/1.1 Enclosure Kit utilizes the Oxford 922 chipset and makes it possible to extend the usefulness/life of existing drives by making them FireWire and/or USB compatible.

Priced at $179.95, the Mercury Elite Pro FW800/400 + USB 2.0/1.1 Enclosure Kit includes two nine-pin FireWire 800 ports (IEEE 1394b), one six-pin FireWire 400 port (IEEE 1394a), and one five-pin USB 2.0/1.1 port. This enables data transfer speeds of up to 100MBps, 50MBps, 60MBps, or 1.5MBps, respectively.The Mercury Elite Pro FW800/400 + USB 2.0/1.1 Enclosure Kit is available immediately and exclusively from OWC at http://www.macsales.com/MEFW800KIT.

A Growing FireWire 800 Product Line from OWC
The new FW800 PCI Card and the Mercury Elite Pro FW800/400 + USB 2.0/1.1 Enclosure Kit further extend the line of FireWire 800 products available from Other World Computing. In April 2003, OWC launched its first FireWire 800 products with the introduction of its line of Mercury Elite Pro FW800 drives.

“Perfectly suited for anyone working with large data files – movies, videos, music, photography, databases or what have you – OWC’s Mercury Elite Pro FW800 drives are a great way to add super-fast storage capabilities to a new or existing computer,” O’Connor said. “Taken in context with today’s newest OWC product introductions, I feel we have shown once again our ongoing dedication to bringing the best products and services to our customers to help them extend the life and usefulness of their computing solutions.”

Additional details and complete pricing information about OWC’s Mercury Elite Pro FireWire 800/400 + USB 2.0/1.1 Storage Solutions can be found online at http://www.macsales.com/MEFW800PRO. Digital photographs of all OWC products, as well as digital copies of OWC logos, are available for download from the online newsroom at http://eshop.macsales.com/newsroom/. Pricing, ordering and availability information for other OWC products is available online exclusively at www.macsales.com.