LaCie Leverages Texas Instruments 1394 and USB Technology for External Hard Drive Series

DALLAS, March 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) today announced that LaCie has selected TI's 1394/FireWire and USB technology for its d2 Extreme Hard Drive Series including the d2, Big and Bigger Disks, and the Biggest FW800 4-drawer RAID.

"TI is pleased to work with a leader in the storage market," said Dan Harmon, TI's Interface Product Marketing Manager. "LaCie offers advanced capabilities and features ranging from biometric fingerprint access control to industry-leading data transfer rates that set the company apart from other players in the external disk drive market."

The LaCie Extreme Series -- including the d2, Big and Bigger Disks -- offer Triple Interface and up to 2TB in a compact aluminum alloy case designed by Neil Poulton. Featuring the most advanced technology in the industry, its build-in RAID 0 configuration achieves transfer rates up to 50 percent faster than regular FireWire drives capable of 800 Mbps, making it ideal for audio/video professionals or digital content creators working with large files.

The LaCie Biggest FW800 is a FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 dual interface RAID subsystem with hardware RAID controller. It's equipped with internal SATA drives for fast performance, and a sleek silver design with lockable hard disk drawers to prevent accidental removal or damage. Leveraging TI interfaces, including 1394 a, 1394 b and USB 2.0, the LaCie Extreme Series and LaCie Biggest FW800 are universally compatible with almost any computer and can be daisy-chained with peripherals or expanded via FireWire.

"Our entire Extreme Series and Biggest FW800 RAID now take advantage of TI's FireWire and USB technologies," said Olivier Mirloup, LaCie Hard Disk Drive Business Unit Manager. "TI's programmable architecture across their interface lines provides the performance and flexibility needed to offer enhanced features in our external storage devices. We're pleased to work together to provide our customers with value-added features that simplify storage."

TI's Comprehensive Leadership in Interface

Not only does TI lead in 1394 devices, but it retains the industry's largest portfolio of interface solutions and provides the right products to solve design problems in customers' applications. TI sees continued demand for interface in every region and in every leading market. The company continues to develop diverse, leading-edge, high-performance products to meet demand, and empower customers to differentiate their products and win in their markets.

About Texas Instruments:

Texas Instruments Incorporated provides innovative DSP and analog technologies to meet our customers' real world signal processing requirements. In addition to Semiconductor, the company includes the Education Technology business. TI is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has manufacturing, design or sales operations in more than 25 countries.

Texas Instruments is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TXN. More information is located on the World Wide Web at http://www.ti.com/.

About LaCie

LaCie creates external storage solutions and color monitors that help professionals and everyday users easily manage their digital lives. Powerful technology combined with unique designs by the internationally acclaimed Philippe Starck, Neil Poulton, Porsche Design GmbH, Ora-Oto and Karim Rashid make LaCie the world leader in storage innovation. Established in France in 1989, Lacie is now headquartered in North America, Europe and Asia and listed on the Paris Nouveau Marche (code 5431). For more information, visit http://www.lacie.com/.

Trademarks

All registered trademarks and other trademarks belong to their respective owners.