Updated Sony Driver Transforms Sonnet's Echo ExpressCard Adapter Fastest and Least Expensive SxS Memory Card Reader with Thunderbolt Technology

Sonnet Technologies announced on April 16, 2012 that the Echo™ ExpressCard® Thunderbolt™ Adapter, which enables the use of many Sonnet ExpressCard/34 cards with computers equipped with a Thunderbolt port—including the latest Apple® iMac®, Mac® mini, MacBook Air®, and MacBook® Pro models—can now function as an SxS™ memory card reader. Sonnet supported Sony® in its work to create a Thunderbolt technology-compatible Mac OS® X driver to enable this functionality. This updated driver also enables full functionality of Sonnet’s Qio™ E3 professional SxS media reader, when connected through the Echo adapter to a computer with a Thunderbolt port.

High-performance SxS memory cards are used in Sony’s popular XDCAM® EX™ line of professional HD camcorders and the ARRI® ALEXA line of digital cameras, and share the same form factor and connector as ExpressCard/34 adapter cards. These shared traits make ingesting footage from SxS media a quick, simple task in ExpressCard slot-equipped notebook computers. In any other situation, this process requires the use of a specialized media reader, such as Sonnet’s Qio™ pro media readers with multiple SxS slots for speedy file offloads. With the added capability to read SxS, SxS Pro™, and SxS-1™ cards, the Echo ExpressCard Thunderbolt Adapter instantly becomes the least expensive high-speed SxS memory card reader available, enabling Thunderbolt technology-equipped Mac computers to read SxS cards at over 100 MB/s.

When used with the Echo ExpressCard Thunderbolt Adapter, users can connect Sonnet’s Qio E3 professional SxS media reader, with its ExpressCard/34 interface card, to compatible computers with a Thunderbolt port. This setup supports concurrent data transfers from SxS memory cards in all three slots for even faster file ingest speeds.

“With the installation of Sony’s Thunderbolt technology-compatible driver for Mac OS X, Echo ExpressCard Thunderbolt Adapter users gain the ability to ingest footage through a small, rugged adapter using the latest I/O technology to improve workflow speeds significantly,” said Robert Farnsworth, CEO of Sonnet Technologies. “This new driver benefits users of our Qio E3 professional media reader, enabling them to connect their readers to Thunderbolt technology-equipped computers through the Echo ExpressCard adapter and ingest footage from multiple SxS memory cards at the same time.”

Developed by Intel® and brought to market with technical collaboration from Apple, Thunderbolt technology supports high-performance data services and high-resolution displays through a single compact port. The Echo ExpressCard Thunderbolt Adapter supports PCI Express technology with 2.5 Gbps throughput in both directions. The Sonnet adapter connects directly to a computer or at the end of a Thunderbolt device chain with a Thunderbolt cable, which is available at the Apple Store®.

“Thunderbolt delivers unparalleled performance, flexibility and simplicity to personal computing.” said Jason Ziller, Intel’s director of Thunderbolt marketing. “The Sonnet Echo ExpressCard Thunderbolt Adapter and Qio E3 help highlight what Thunderbolt technology makes possible.”

The Echo ExpressCard Thunderbolt Adapter—part number ECHO-E34—is compatible with all Apple computers running Mac OS X that are equipped with Thunderbolt ports. It is available now at a suggested retail price of $149.95 through Sonnet and Sonnet resellers.

A link to the driver is below. It says nothing about the Thunderbolt compatibility on the downloads page. As of this morning, the actual version of the driver that gets downloaded is 1.1.0.03142 (even though the text on Sony's site says "Latest Version for Mac : Ver:1.0.52020") http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/cat-recmedia/resource.downloads.bbsccms-assets-mkt-recmedia-downloads-upgrades.shtml

The Qio Professional Universal Media Reader/Writer Wins 2010 NAB Best of Show Black Diamond Award

Sonnet's Qio Universal Media Reader/Writer was recently awarded 2010 Nation Association of Broadcasters Best of Show Black Diamond Award by DV Magazine. This recognition of a revolutionary device is much deserved, as the Qio has provided unparalleled capabilities for both in-studio or on-location applications of video ingestion. Qio is a boon for video professionals using Panasonic P2 and/or Sony/Sandisk SxS memory cards. Qio doesn't just provide slots for one or the other, or even one of each, it provides two slots for each! What's more is the Qio also includes two UDMA capable CompactFlash slots make it indispensable for professional still photographers. Qio also reads memory cards including SDHC using the included 21-in-1 Multimedia Memory Card. Qio reads SxS, P2, and UMDA CompactFlash at their maximum throughput, even when reading two cards at the same time! As if this functionality isn't enough, Qio (pronounced Cue-Eye-Oh) has a built in SATA RAID controller with four eSATA ports for use with a range of eSATA storage devices like Sonnet's Fusion F2 portable raids for on the go transfers between media.

Because the Qio attaches to computers via PCIe, directly on desktop computers, and via ExpressCard/34 on notebook computers, it doubles as a full fledged ExpressCard and PC Card/PC CardBus reader. As long as the drivers for a specific PC Card or ExpressCard are available for your operating system, Qio will let you deploy it with modern systems! You can enable swapping the Qio between desktop and notebook configurations by buying a Qio setup for either desktop or notebook and then purchase a spare Qio interface card for the other machine. Qio even includes a XLR 4-pin adapter cable can route battery power (from third party external batteries, sold separately) to the Qio plus attached Fusion F2's.

Qio Universal Media Read/Writer for P2 PC Card, SxS ExpressCard, and CompactFlash/SDHC + SATA

Can I 'rescan' the PCI expansion slots?

This is in response to a question we saw on an archived Apple Discussion board": "Can I 'rescan' the PCI expansion slots?" Many of the answers you've been provided with here are incorrect. By specification, PCIe (PCI Express) is supposed to feature hot swap capability. This is why the ExpressCard standard features it for the higher end of the specification without modification. The has nothing to do with drivers or any of the other erroneous information put forth in this thread.

The inability of Mac OS X and Windows (Windows requires user intervention via their bizarre "device manager" interface) to hot swap PCIe based devices may stem from the fact that vendors didn't expect devices on the market which took advantage of PCIe's hot swap capability. Since Apple has implemented hot swap on the MacBook Pro's ExpressCard slot [1], there is no reason why they shouldn't be able to do the same with Macs featuring PCIe slots. At my day job, Synchrotech, we have to answer to people wanting to use Sony/Sandisk SxS cards on PowerMac G5 (PCIe) and Mac Pro systems almost every day. When we explain that a PCIe to ExpressCard reader currently requires a reboot between card swaps.

To put this in perspective MS argues that PCIe hot swap isn't possible, and that manually refreshing to rescan is the fault of BIOS/Firmware. Putting this theory to the test, we sent a PCIe to ExpressCard reader with several PCIe based ExpressCards to the OpenBSD team. Within three days the OpenBSD developers had implemented full hot swap PCIe in the kernel and we were able to hot swap PCIe based ExpressCards on a desktop PC with no issues.

The ability to add an inexpensive PCIe to ExpressCard reader to and PCIe based Macs and have them hot swap is crucial with the emergence of the Sony/Sandisk SxS cards and the professional cameras using them. Apple could easily become the premier platform for ingesting and processing these cards. We doubt it will be any more trouble for Apple to implement PCIe hot swap in the kernel than it was for the OpenBSD team.

[1] Important to remind people that ExpressCard is a dual bus standard. For slow and simple minded devices, ExpressCard employs USB 2.0. For high performance and complex applications ExpressCard utilizes PCIe. The ExpressCard standard effectively defines no new busses, it merely provides a different form factor and set of connectors for the existing PCIe and USB 2.0 standards.

SxS PRO Device Drivers

We have not tested any of our PCIe to ExpressCard readers with Sony/Sandisk's SxS Pro ExpressCards, but we understand that drivers are required on both The Windows and Mac OS X platforms in order to use the SxS Pro ExpressCards.

Sony Support Site Download: SxS PRO Device Driver