One of the first hardware RAID adapters for Thunderbolt 2 has been announced from accessory maker HighPoint. The RocketStor 6328 features seven RAID configurations, supporting SAS and SATA hard drives and solid state drives.
The RocketStor 6328 is capable of a bi-directional transfer rate of 20Gbps through two Thunderbolt 2 ports. RAID configurations of 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50 and JBOD are supported through mini-SAS and eSATA connections. The RocketStor 6328 can also be used to chain up to six Thunderbolt devices together. The hardware adapter is fully backwards compatible with other HighPoint controllers,and has support built in for Apple RAID configurations created with Disk Utility.
Several hardware configurations are able to be used with the unit, including large storage setups featuring two mini-SAS units, two rack mount mini-SAS units and eight eSATA units. Only eight drives are directly supported with the unit, but the RocketStor allows for up to 20 with a SATA port multiplier, or up to 128 with an SAS expander.
HighPoint’s RocketStor 6328 has an MSRP of $700, and features a two-year limited warranty. The adapter is certified to be used with Mac and PC platforms making use of Thunderbolt 2 technology.
