Sonnet Technologies has announced the Echo Express SE 10 Gigabit Ethernet Thunderbolt Adapter and the Echo Express SE eSATA Pro 4-Port Thunderbolt Adapter.

These new adapters pair Sonnet's just-released Echo Express SE Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis for PCI Express (PCIe) cards with either a Sonnet Pro one-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) adapter card or four-port 6Gb eSATA adapter card, respectively, in value-priced bundles designed to provide high-speed data and storage interfaces to iMac, Mac mini, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro computers with a Thunderbolt port. The adapters ship with the interface cards preinstalled.

The Echo Express SE 10GbE is a Thunderbolt-to-10GbE adapter that bundles Sonnet's Echo Express SE Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis for PCIe cards and the Presto 10GbE PCIe Card with Fibre SFP+, providing a near plug-and-play solution for adding 10GbE connectivity to any computer with a Thunderbolt port. This adapter enables users to connect their computers to high-speed infrastructure and storage without stepping down in speed.

The Echo Express SE eSATA Pro 4-Port is a Thunderbolt-to-eSATA adapter that bundles Sonnet's Echo Express SE Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis for PCIe cards and the Tempo SATA Pro 6Gb 4-Port eSATA host controller, providing a plug-and-play solution for adding four high-performance eSATA ports to any computer with a Thunderbolt port.

This adapter enables users to connect single- and multidrive storage systems to any computer with a Thunderbolt port so that they can take advantage of the 6 Gb/s eSATA interface's superior throughput compared to all FireWire and USB interfaces. The Tempo SATA Pro 6Gb 4-Port card supports aggregate transfer speeds of up to 760 MB/s.

Each Echo Express SE value bundle comes with its adapter card preinstalled, so physical setup only involves connecting the external power supply plus necessary interface cables among the Echo Express SE chassis, computer, and data or storage devices. Measuring 5.7 inches wide by 8.8 inches long by 2.9 inches tall and weighing less than three pounds, each chassis takes up very little space wherever it's used.

Dual Thunderbolt ports support daisy-chaining of devices, and an automatic temperature-controlled fan quietly cools the installed card. Each Echo adapter conserves energy by powering on/off when the computer to which it is connected powers on/off or wakes/sleeps.

The Echo Express SE 10GbE (part number ECHO-EXP-SE10G) and the Echo Express SE eSATA Pro 4-Port (part number ECHO-EXP-SE4S) are now available for US$999 and $599, respectively. More information is available at www.sonnettech.com/product/thunderbolt/index.html .