Addonics 5×1eSATA Port Multiplier Announced

The Addonics 5X1 eSATA Port Multiplier (PM) enables SATA hard drives to be configured for a wide range of storage applications. Built to fit perfectly into the Addonics Storage Tower and many standard 2 bays or larger SCSI enclosure, this Port Multiplier can combine up to 5 SATA hard drives into one eSATA connection. The 5 drives can be set up as individual drives, as RAID set or with JBOD to become one large hard drive depending on the controller. When multiple PMs are combined with Addonics 4-Port eSATA controller, you can attach externally a whopping 20 SATA hard drives to your computer via 1 controller!

Press Release: Addonics Port Multiplier Connects Multiple SATA Drives to a Single Controller — Easy Solution for Building SATA Disk Enclosures for Digital Content Storage and Workstation/Networking Storage

Addonics Technologies today announced its 5×1 eSATA Port Multiplier (PM), which allows multiple drives to be connected to a SATA controller via one eSATA port for expanded storage and high speed 3GB/sec. throughput for a wide range of applications.

The Addonics port multiplier fits perfectly inside the Addonics Storage Tower, which Addonics announced in October. The Storage Tower is a compact aluminum drive enclosure solution that allows users to mix and match multiple drive interfaces as well as hard drive or optical storage devices. The Addonics 5×1 eSATA Port Multiplier is also designed to fit any standard SCSI enclosure that has 2 bays or larger, and has a 50-pin Centronic SCSI connector on the back plane.

The Port Multiplier can combine up to 5 SATA hard drives or optical drives into one eSATA connection to make it easier to build disk enclosures using SATA drives. The 5 drives can be set up as individual drives, as RAID, or as JBOD (just a bunch of disks) to become one large hard drive depending on the controller used. When multiple PMs are combined with the Addonics 4-Port eSATA controllers, users can attach externally as many as 20 SATA hard drives to their computer via 1 controller.

The solution is well suited for a variety of storage applications, including home and consumer electronics storage (digital content and high-definition video), JBOD or RAID storage arrays, and server and workstation storage. All devices connected to the Addonics Port Multiplier will be hot swappable. The solution is also operating system independent.

Addonics offers several controllers that support the PM standard. Addonics advises users to use one of its PM-supported controllers or verify that another manufacturer’s host controller supports the Port Multiplier. List price of the Addonics 5×1 eSATA Port Multiplier is $89.