Spec Will Cut External Drive Power Cords

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."

Comments

no excuse

[krog]

USB has supported bus power forever. There's a protocol (devices can use up to 100mA without asking, up to 500mA with host device permission) and it works. eSATA, a newer spec, did not learn from this??

How about for internal drives as well?

[DoofusOfDeath]

Is there much of a reason that we couldn't have single power+data connectors for internal HDD / DVD drives as well? Things are better now that IDE cables are less common, but I'd still be happy for a cleaner interior of my cases.

Re:How about for internal drives as well?

[poot_rootbeer]

Is there much of a reason that we couldn't have single power+data connectors for internal HDD / DVD drives as well?

Nostalgia? The big ol' 4-pin Molex power connectors are practically the only thing inside a PC case that are still the same as they were when IBM first introduced them to the desktop twenty-seven years ago. If we get rid of those, we'll be severing the last remaining connection to the machine's origins.

Re:Should have been in the spec from day 1

[WarlockD]

Maybe because of the fact that some drives use both 5v and 12v. Or that the 3.3v (does any drive use that yet?) was needed

To be honest, I don't even see if its possible for internal drives 3.5. Most of those drives use upwards of an amp off the 12v, and pushing 12watts down a little sata cable sounds like it would cause interference. Heck, it also means we have to add yet another 12v rail to the motherboard to support the power. It would be nice, however, for it on the eSATA connector. But thats the only time I would say it would be that useful.

Wha-d-ya-mean "power cable?"

[DanQuixote]

One of my tech support calls was about 1980, my friend's mom had a computer, and she bought a printer, which she tried to hook up herself, but it wasn't working.

I went over there and quickly spied the problem... the data cable was connected, but there was no power cable hooked up.

She quite innocently and logically asked, "why do I need a separate power cable?"

People don't really give a damn that the power system and the data system are two separate systems. It really is completely reasonable for them to expect a single cable to power as well as communicate.

These folks shouldn't pat themselves on the back for a "new feature", they should try harder next time to close a bug out in something much less than 30 years!

This is a basic usability requirement that people persistantly ignore despite the rat's nests of cables running around all their gear. This is certainly one of the biggest reasons for the popularity of USB!

Re:Wha-d-ya-mean "power cable?"

[harrkev]

She quite innocently and logically asked, "why do I need a separate power cable?"

Does she also plug her cable feed (or sattelite receiver) into her television and expect it to work without plugging the TV into 120V?

Re:Wha-d-ya-mean "power cable?"

[Frenchy_2001]

"why do I need a separate power cable?"
because most computer systems are not designed to provide the few amps of current that a laser printer can need?
Because most of those interface are designed for low power peripherals and have specs mirroring that (USB for example can feed 0.5A into its own cable), but more powerful peripherals get plugged into it. So, to work, they need more power and get an external adapter.

The *REAL* problem comes from people unable (or, much more likely unwilling) to follow directions. Most recent piece of equipment, be them electronics or computer peripherals include a quick plug guide, but those people will NOT read it.
My wife is one of them. She will NOT follow any instruction, but will then complain loudly that it does not work. Packages get ripped open and manuals discarded to the side while she tries to figure out the way to use it, gets frustrated after 5 minutes and complain it wont work. She will not open a manual, no matter what amount of frustration she will endure.

Is that new spec good and interesting? Sure, but then dont complain that you get crashes on your computer, because that new magic peripheral just pushed your power supply over its limit (most brand computer has very little overhead in its power supply).

Re:Should have been in the spec from day 1

[Znork]

I can easily think of actual technical issues on this one.

See, historically, disks have had their power supported by the PSU directly. Now you want to replace IDE and put SATA connectors on the motherboard. That's fine. Then you want the SATA connectors to supply power enough to drive one disk? Ok... Then you want the SATA connectors to supply enough power to drive four disks? That's an 80W or more power bus over the motherboard; motherboard manufacturers had just about gotten over having to add new power connectors for CPU's and partly for PCIe, and now you want them to take the hit for disk power too, and presumably do some engineering for it too, (such as stabilizing the power so your computer doesn't crash as parts of the MB loses power when the disk spins up)?

Call it political or call it technical, but in this case it was probably not just simply adding the connectors that was the problem (you could have gotten around the issue by placing a PSU connector next to any SATA contact, of course, but imagine the bitching about that).

First make a working Expresscard eSATA

[Anonymous Coward]

Good, now maybe someone can make a working implementation of eSATA on an expresscard.

Apparently Silicon Image, who makes the SII3132 chipset and driver used in ALL expresscards supporting OS X, is now claiming that the failure of their drivers after updating to OS X 10.5 (they work with 10.4 & Windows) when using a Western Digital MyBook Premium ES or a Seagate Freeagent Pro external drive is a problem with the drive and not their drivers. They point to some issue with the Oxford chipset used in the enclosures. Oddly, the drives work with the card and with Windows and OS X 10.4.

Where does that leave everyone who owned a working card and drive, and upgraded to Leopard? It leaves us with the door slammed in our faces. Fortunately, this problem has now been covered by my bloggers and others are becoming aware of just how shitty the Silicon Image Chipset is. If you search for them on wikipedia, you'll find that this isn't the first time they've released a buggy chipset and not fixed it. Another of their SATA chipsets would corrupt drives under heavy loads.

So lets see if these tech companies can first implement the existing spec properly, and then worry about introducing a new standard.