LaCie has announced today that its first Thunderbolt device, the Little Big Disk Thunderbolt external drive, is now available for purchase. The drive was announced all the way back in February for a summer launch, and now it is finally arriving atApple Stores -- though only the HDD variant. Its dual-disk design that can be configured in either RAID 0 or RAID 1, and comes in two configurations: 1TB with 7200rpm speeds, or 2TB with 5400rpm disk speeds.

In terms of performance, the new drive boasts read speeds of up to 190 MB/s, but according to LaCie users can daisy chain several Little Big Disks to maximize Thunderbolt's capabilities and reach transfer rates of 800 MB/s. The company will be releasing an SSD version of the drive in October that increases read speeds to over 480 MB/s.

Its rugged aluminum protective casing measures just 1.6 x 5.5 x 3.3 inches and weighs about 1.4 pounds. The drive is compact and light enough to carry in a backpack, but it's not exactly portable, as you'll need to a separate AC adapter to power it. The drive comes with a tiny fan in the back that emits almost no noise during operation.

Priced at $400 for the 1TB version and $500 for the 2TB model, the new Little Big Disk is not exactly cheap. Then again, your only other Thunderbolt-equipped storage option is the 4TB, $1,000 Promise Pegasus that debuted in June.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

AMD starts shipping 32nm 'Llano' APUs to OEM partners

AMD yesterday had some pleasant news to share with investors and customers: the first shipment of 32nm A-Series APUs just went out to OEM partners, with the first systems carrying them expected to arrive in mid-2011 as promised. The company’s interim CEO, Thomas Seifert, made the announcement during a conference call to discuss the recent change in its supply agreement with its manufacturing partner and spinoff GlobalFoundries.

AMD is already shipping C-Series (codenamed Ontario) and E-Series (codenamed Zacate) APUs as part of the new Fusion lineup, which brings multiple x86 cores and discrete-level DirectX 11 graphics onto the same piece of silicon. But these two are low-power parts designed for smaller netbooks, budget laptops and entry-level ultrathin notebooks.

The A-Series (codenamed Llano) on the other hand is targeted at mainstream laptops and desktops, and will be the first from AMD made using a 32-nanometer manufacturing process. It's not clear which products began shipping out specifically but if roadmap leaks and past demos are any indication we expect AMD to tackle the mobile segment first.

The desktop version of Llano could ship in the third and fourth quarters of 2011, with July 20 mentioned in the most recent leaked roadmaps as the release date for the first five chips. Later on the FX-Series (codenamed Zambezi) will come into play with four, six, and eight core variants aimed at Intel's fastest Core i5 and i7 processors.