The thought of using eSATA instead of USB or FireWire for connecting external harddrives is quite tempting. eSATA has better transfer rates as the drive will appear just an internal harddrive. However, there is the disadvantage of having to use an external power supply. SATA-IO has decided to change this with next specification of eSATA interface. The new specification will be compatible with the current standard, but let eSATA units draw power through their Power Over eSATA cables.
“Today, eSATA devices require an external power adapter to supply the necessary voltage for operation. The new SATA-IO specification will eliminate this requirement by providing power for a single drive directly from the host system using the Power Over eSATA cable. Key benefits will be to maintain compatibility with the existing eSATA connector form factor and retain high performance at the current maximum interface transfer rate of 3Gb/s (gigabits per second). External SATA offers the only 3Gb/s bus optimized for storage performance.”
Whether this will improve things and the overall interest for eSATA remains to be seen, but it sure sounds like a positive development.
