Categories
Archive

VST Unleashes a Raft of Perifs


Chiba, Japan — VST Technologies announced a number of new accessories at Macworld Expo Tokyo that will be of interest to PowerBook users. The US$439 VST Expansion Bay CD-R/W is a re-writable CD burner designed for Lombard PowerBooks. According to booth staff, the expansion bay CD-R/W will definitely ship some time in the second quarter, but the company hopes to begin shipping the module by the end of April.

The company also showed the final design of their FireWire RAID Array. The housing accommodates up to four Firewire drives (either small, medium or tall VST enclosures) and includes a built-in 6-port FireWire hub so that only one FW connection to the drive is required. The tower also includes a bay that can accommodate a standard PowerBook battery, essentially acting as an Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS). What’s more, the tower houses a built-in smart charger that keeps the battery primed in case of a power outage.


click for a larger image

According to the company, the PowerBook battery can run the RAID tower for up to six hours and will give audible alerts if AC power is removed. The back of the enclosure is also quite clean and features a recessed power button to prevent accidentally powering the unit off.


click for a larger image

VST also announced a US$299 Zip 250 MB expansion bay module that should arrive in the channel this week.


click for a larger image

VST FireWire Zip 250 is an external, bus-powered drive that allows you to run it without an external power supply on FireWire equipped desktop Macs. The US$349 drive also runs sans-AC power on Pismo which supports bus-powered FireWire.


click for a larger image

VST also showed their famous FireWire, USB and new combination FW/USB hard drives on the show floor at Tokyo.


click for a larger image

By Jason O'Grady

Founded the PowerPage in 1995.