Introduction

I would like to thank Addonics for supplying the review sample.

Addonics may be unknown to some of you, but the company has been around for quite some time and the diversity of products offered is nothing to scoff at. The following is an excerpt from the Addonics "about us" page:

Incorporated in 1998, Addonics is a privately held company located in the Silicon Valley, California. Its mission is to provide professionals and business users a complete family of innovative storage solutions with the highest quality and best compatibility in mind. Our business focus is to deliver a family of data storage building blocks that can be easily put together to form a variety of data storage solutions. These building blocks consist of sub systems, IO converters, storage enclosures, racks, controllers, interface boards, mounting brackets, interface cables, power cables, adapters and connectors. In as much as possible, the building blocks are designed as independent modules that can be used as stand alone or combined in many possibilities, similar to the LEGO blocks, to form powerful and flexible storage solutions.

We have the pleasure of taking a look at their latest card reader, the Pocket eSATA/USB DigiDrive. While there are many card readers out there, check out the feature set below as it does hold a few surprises.

Features from the product website:

• High Speed eSATA and USB 2.0 connection
• 4 slots for direct access of Compact Flash (CF), Secure Digital (SD) and SDHC (SD 2.0), Multi Media Card (MMC), Memory Stick (MS)
• Choice of Read/Write or READ only models
• Maximum data transfer rate (depending on the speed of the flash media): eSATA - up to 1500 Mbits/sec, USB 2.0 - up to 480 Mbits/sec
• Read and write to 15 different popular digital media (some media may require additional adapter) - Micro SD, Sony M2, Secure Digital (SD) and SDHC (SD 2.0), mini SD, Multi Media Card (MMC & MMC Plus 4.2), Reduced Size MMC (RS-MMC)(adapter needed), Memory Stick (MS)(Magic Gate), Memory Stick Pro (MS Pro 4bit), Memory Stick Duo (MS Duo), Memory Stick Pro Duo (MS Pro Duo), Compact Flash Type I (CF I), Compact Flash Type II (CF II), MicroDrive, Smart Media, xD
• Single drive icon to access one media at a time
• Upgradeable firmware to ensure future compatibility
• Green LED to indicate media access
• Backward compatible to USB 1.1
• Powered from USB port
• Complete Plug and Play

Packaging & Contents

The DigiDrive ships in a plain white cardboard box, with a label denoting the contents. Addonics offers a wide variety of card readers, all of which look rather similar. A picture and the actual card reader variant inside are clearly visible on the glued on label. There is no real packaging system in place. The cables have simply been placed on top of the actual unit, which in turn is protected by a bubble wrap bag.


Addonics includes all required cables. You receive USB 2.0 and eSATA cables in addition to a "power USB" one. The latter is needed to supply the juice to the DigiDrive when using the eSATA interface. On top of that you receive a simple but needed manual, as this card reader has two different operating modes M1 and M2, but we will get to that later.

A Closer Look

The entire DigiDrive casing is made of plastic. While it makes a solid impression, the edges seems a bit unfinished and rough. While the overall design is subject to personal scrutiny, I am not a big fan of the round corners and lines. Luckily Addonics also offers an internal version with the same feature set for a more permanent setup within your working environment.


There is nothing out of the ordinary in front of the device. There are the four openings for the different types of flash media format - each clearly labeled. On top of that, you have a green LED on the top left corner. This one lights up and also blinks when reading a card, denoting power and access respectively. Turning the DigiDrive around, we have a few items that need explaining. First off, there are the mini USB connector all the way to the left and the power connector all the way to the right. The latter is simply wired to the USB port to supply the device with power. In the center there is the eSATA port and a switch labeled M1 and M2. These adjust the way the DigiDrive is detected in windows:

• M1 mode – force flash media to become fixed disk type
• M2 mode – force flash media to become removable disk type

Interestingly enough M2 mode is not recommended if you are using eSATA on a hot-swap port. We will try out both modes in our performance part of this review.


Curiosity got the best of me once more, thus I took the unit apart. First you are required to pull off the blue shell, which then allows you to rip open the inner, silver casing apart - revealing the PCB. Doing so will void your warranty, so I explicitly suggest you do not open your DigiDrive.


The PCB has a marking for an internal power connector right where the "power USB" plug is soldered on, which may suggest that the internal and external version of the DigiDrive use the same PCB. You will also find the name "Vionix Technologies" on the PCB. There is a website under that name, but it lacks any interesting information.


There are two interesting ICs on the PCB. First, we have the OnSpec xSil146, which connects the different media types to a PATA host. Then there is the JMicron JMB20338, which is an USB 2.0 & SATA to PATA bridge chip. So this IC simply takes the PATA input/output and converts it into USB 2.0 or SATA I or II output - in our case eSATA. There is also a wire running from the "power USB" connector to the actual mini USB port. So all this connector does is route power straight to the real USB connector unto the PCB.


There is nothing special about inserting the flash media into the device. As you can see, we will be using an A-DATA 633x CF card to review the DigiDrive. This is one of the fastest on the market and it will be interesting to see how the card reader from Addonics fares with such a capable Compact Flash card.