Starting with FireWire 400 and 800 RAID devices, CalDigit has been serving millions of Mac users in the creative market since 2006.

In mid 2006, CalDigit shipped its first eSATA RAID, the S2VR Duo, a SATA II 3Gb/s RAID system designed for handling 3 streams of 10-bit Standard Definition (SD) video simultaneously. It was the fastest dual drive external SATA 3Gb/s RAID subsystem in the world. Later on, CalDigit started shipping the S2VR HD, the first 5-bay eSATA hardware RAID that could reach 230MB/s. It supported 10-bit uncompressed High Definition (HD) video without waiting for rendering, and without using expensive SCSI or Fibre Channel solutions.

At the 2007 NAB trade show, CalDigit released the first high-performance PCIe 8-bay RAID tower, the HDPro. This product featured unique Active Sustained Transfer Technology (ASTT) for the best transfer size and timing between the RAID controller cache and the host machine. As a result, the HDPro could eliminate performance drops, and optimize for a sustained data rate. With this new PCIe RAID on the market, video editors would not encounter any frame dropping issues when editing multiple streams of ProRes 422(HQ). Later on, CalDigit announced another PCIe RAID, the HDPro-24, a 24-bay RAID, and PCIe SAN storage device (Storage Area Network) which would support up to 1600MB/s across the entire PCIe network.

CalDigit was also the first company to support a USB 3.0 interface driver and storage device for Mac in 2008.

CalDigit is proud to be one of the few vertically integrated companies where we research, develop, design, and manufacture our products under one roof. Built from our extensive knowledge of high-speed PCIe architecture, combined with our extensive knowledge of video protocols, CalDigit has boasted a solid foundation to be one of the first Thunderbolt Developers since 2011.

While other manufacturers prefer to reduce costs by supplying docking stations with low-wattage power supplies, CalDigit includes full wattage power supplies with our docking stations. All of CalDigit’s power supplies are capable of providing more than enough reserve power for each port, and enough power to fully charge the host device. Other docks on market with an under-powered power supply can only transfer power from host charging devices to supply other power-hungry devices. Even though these manufacturers claim 96W host charging, when their dock is under full loading conditions, host charging could be reduced from 96W to only 46W. This can result in a dangerous slow draining situation. Be wary of marketing terms such as “dynamic charging” or “smart charging,” those are signs that these products only include a weak power supply.

To maximize flexibility, CalDigit revolutionized the TS2 to include a dual orientation design, allowing for vertical or horizontal placement in a compact form-factor. Users now have the freedom to place their docking station in any orientation that they would like. This unique design concept became a staple of the CalDigit Thunderbolt Station family of docks.

The majority of the Thunderbolt Docks on the market are manufactured by ODM factories to include a front facing Thunderbolt host port. Since the host port is always connected to the docking station, all of CalDigit’s docks sport a rear or side host port for a true clean desktop set-up that’s highly desirable.