E-Sata Daisy Chain?

[wildwell]

I don't think e-Sata can be daisy chained? Can anyone confirm this for me?
Will it make a difference (as far as daisy chaining is concerned) if I'm using 3Gbps e-Sata II instead of 1.5Gbps e-Sata?
Thanks in advance.

 

[Mekugi Ana]

SATA and by consequence eSATA is specifically designed to work in a one drive one cable model. Technically eSATA was an afterthought brought into existence because USB and Firewire couldn't provide the same data bandwidth as SATA. There are recent developments that allow the use of SATA port multipliers, but the motherboard or SATA card has to support it and I don't know if that also applies to eSATA ports or how you would power a multiplier like that.

 

[wildwell]

SATA port multipliers? Is this similar to a SATA hub, internal or external?

If you're talking about a close proximity external hub ("multiplier"), would a machine (specifically an Apple Xserve unit) with a second 750w power supply be a possible solution to power it?

 

[Mekugi Ana]

Sort of like a hub, not really clear on the tech. I've only ever seen internal port multipliers, don't know about externals

 

[Mekugi Ana]

Found this: http://www.sataport.com/

So I guess they do exist. Though I say again your motherboard or eSATA card needs to be port multiplier compatible

 

[Mekugi Ana]

http://blog.irisink.com/2007/05/05/esata-port-multipliers-for-mac-os-x/

This is a Mac specific article on the subject