Sonnet adds FireWire 400 PCI card


Sonnet has announced the Allegro FW400 FireWire PCI adapter card, the latest addition to Sonnet's line of FireWire adapter cards. This card installs into any available PCI slot of a PowerMac and instantly adds the FireWire connections needed to connect high-speed digital peripherals.

The Allegro FW400 has three six-pin external FireWire ports and performs at the data transfer rate of up to 400 Mbits/s, and can connect up to 63 devices. It is compatible with OS 9 or higher, including OS X.

The Allegro FW400 is tagged to sell for $39.95 (SRP) and will be available on March 31 (Monday).

ATA/IDE cable kits

In related news, Sonnet yesterday announced new Tempo ATA/IDE Cable Kits. These cables are custom-made and pre-folded for easy installation in supported Power Mac G3/G4 machines, something that is nearly impossible to do with standard ATA drive cables.

Each cable kit supports up to four internal large drives, and are the ideal complement to any drive controller card, including Sonnet?s own line of Tempo drive controller cards: the Tempo ATA133, Tempo RAID133 and Tempo Trio. For more information about the Sonnet Tempo drive controller product lines, please refer to the Sonnet website at:

Both models of the Tempo ATA/IDE Cable Kit are available immediately and are priced at $29.95 (SRP).

Editor's note: This looks like a company rotating a new model (Allegra FW400) into their catalog and not a company arriving to the party late. As FireWire 800 products begin hitting the channel (a slew are expected within the next month or so), makers of FireWire 400 chipsets will phase out "legacy" products and make final adjustments to those that will continue. Thereupon, OEM outfits like Sonnet will be refreshing their end-user products in order to stay current.