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Spec Will Cut External Drive Power Cords

Posted by Zonk on from the could-have-used-that-about-24-hours-ago dept.

Lucas123 writes "The Serial ATA International Organization just revealed that it is well along the way to finishing a specification that would remove separate power cords to external SATA drives or optical disk drives, allowing them to draw power from the host system. The resulting new cable, being called Power Over eSATA, will be compatible with the existing eSATA connector and support the current maximum interface transfer rate of 3Gb/s. The SATA organization expects the new cables to be released later this year to drive makers."

5 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. Cables by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I wish they'd do something about this piss-poor connectors. I've had a number of them fail and had to junk them because they do not make a good solid connection, nothing prevents vibration from letting them slip.

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    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    1. Re:Cables by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      and a non-native interface Every single interface since IDE and SCSI have been non-native. That's what Integrated Drive Electronics means. The controller no longer sends native commands like 'move disk head' and 'read bytes' it sends abstract commands like 'read block 1406.' Your on disk controller translates these in to native commands. It is no harder to build a device that accepts FireWire commands directly and translates them in to native commands than it is to build one that understands SCSI or SATA. Most current FireWire drives go via SCSI or ATA because there is a much bigger demand for ATA drives than FireWire, but FireWire commands are almost identical to SCSI commands so such a drive could easily be built.
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      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  2. Should have been in the spec from day 1 by krog · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seriously -- it's two more pins. Why wasn't the spec designed right in the first place?

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    Cretin - a powerful and flexible CD reencoder
    1. Re:Should have been in the spec from day 1 by RingDev · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It could have been a political issue in the industry as well. If there was strong opposition to any specific power over SATA spec, it could have held up the spec. Where as, going live with the widely accepted standard, and gaining a foothold, the spec now has the power to determine what the manufacturers should do as opposed to the other way around.

      -Rick

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      "Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
  3. Re:Obligatory remark... by krog · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No one obligated you to say something that threadbare and devoid of humor. No one. You did it on your own.

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    Cretin - a powerful and flexible CD reencoder