HighPoint Brings 4-port USB 3.0 to Mac Pro
by Anand Lal Shimpi on August 25, 2011 12:50 PM ESTEarlier this week HighPoint introduced its first 4-port USB 3.0 HBA for Apple's Mac Pro. The RocketU Quad USB 3.0 features four independent USB 3.0 controllers, allowing each port to receive a full 5Gbps of bandwidth. The four controllers route into a PLX PCIe switch, which then fans out to a PCIe 2.0 x4 interface guaranteeing nearly full bandwidth to the host.
The RocketU Quad USB 3.0 also supports RAID 0/1/5/10 and JBOD across its USB ports for those users looking to build a low cost, high speed external storage array. No word on what the drivers or associated UI looks like under OS X.
HighPoint claims immediate availability at a price of $125 for the card. Native USB 3.0 support has been absent from all Macs. With its update to Ivy Bridge based platforms in 2012 it's likely that Apple will finally add official support at that point given that it'll be built into Intel's 7-series chipsets.
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quiksilvr - Thursday, August 25, 2011 - link
This is on Amazon for $89...http://www.amazon.com/HighPoint-RocketU-1144A-Supe...
KITH - Thursday, August 25, 2011 - link
Are you sure that is the Mac supported version?jonbarry - Thursday, August 25, 2011 - link
Called HighPoint and they said Mac support version will be available by Sep...blueeyesm - Friday, August 26, 2011 - link
of interface to use. This limits the product significantly to only Mac Pros.I would have thought a USB 3.0 hub to the thunderbolt bus would have been designed instead. That way, you can reach a wider range of products from Apple.