SATA-IO cranks up Power Over eSATA initiative, not a moment too soon

The absence of built-in power in eSATA devices has left many scratching their heads in frustration -- not to mention the zanily designed devices that have been created to cope -- but it seems someone up there feels our pain. And by "up there," we mean the SATA-IO, which has finally sparked up a Power Over eSATA initiative in order to "provide power to eSATA devices without the need for a separate power connection." Put simply, the group is hoping to design a specification where power can be passed directly through a Power Over eSATA cable, and yes, they are aiming to "maintain compatibility with the existing eSATA connector form factor." Looking for a date of completion to circle? Try "the second half of 2008" -- and that's just for finalizing the paperwork.

[Image courtesy of ExtremeTech]
[Via Tom's Hardware, thanks Stephen]

[Erwos @ Jan 15th 2008 10:29AM]

This is a really good idea, and will be a huge help for people who want to use external enclosures without the cabling mess.

[Wilco @ Jan 15th 2008 10:56AM]

order to "provide power to eSATA devices sans the need for a separate power connection."

did they actually use the french word sans instead of without in their press release? Either Engadget is taking liberties with it's quotes or that usage is a lot more widespread than I thought :)

[Paul @ Jan 15th 2008 11:18AM]

While engadget is taking liberties with the quote, the usage of sans is really common, at least where I live (Cincinnati, Ohio) and quite frankly if a word like that is in common usage in Midwest USA then its got to be a pretty popular word.

[System48 @ Jan 15th 2008 11:48AM]

RE: Paul
I also live in Cincinnati and I'd say if it's popular here now then it was probably popular everywhere else about 5-10 years ago.

[john @ Jan 15th 2008 11:34AM]

Can't they pick another acronym? I'd like to keep the meaning in P.O.S.

[Saosin @ Jan 15th 2008 11:47AM]

Not a moment too soon. I guess it'll be able to power 3.5" drives?

[Randy @ Jan 15th 2008 11:50AM]

Great. I'm glad that they decided to put this capability in that arguably should have been part of the spec from day one.

[Rob @ Jan 15th 2008 2:09PM]

It's about time, now eSATA can actually be considered a competitor to USB and FireWire, this should have been in there to start with. I mean you can get these ports on modern notebooks but you still have to supply power to whatever you plug in. It seems like they developed eSATA just so you didn't have to have a wire coming out of your computers motherboard and didn't consider the other possabilities of it.

[Wwhat @ Jan 15th 2008 5:33PM]

Truth be told USB also requires an external powerbrick with 3.5" drives, and even most 2.5" drives require double USB connectors to satisfy powerneeds, so in that regard they are already competitive towards USB.
But it is still so weird they didn't specify powerlines in e-sata from the start, so very weird.

[Naveed @ Jan 15th 2008 11:32PM]

whats the point now that USB 3.0 is coming around.

[seth.estrada @ Jan 17th 2008 6:42PM]

@Naveed,
The point is that USB 3.0 is not coming around, while Sata II is already here. In other words, an "experimental 4.8 Gbps" is not as good as an actual, real world 3Gbps transfer rate, and, if USB 3.0 inherits the same lag in continuous transfer speed that plagues USB 2.0, then even the real world 4.8 Gbps won't be able to beat Sata II's current 3Gbps in any application for which anyone would care to have that much bandwidth.

This is an incredible development for the film/video and VFX industries; Sata and DAS is cheap compared to fiber, and gives better speeds/bandwidth than even FW800.