Will next gen MBP/iMacs have eSATA built in??
I think that this feature would be a great addition to apples next gen products, especially with Time Machine in Leopard and the emphasis on external hard drives. I feel that this is a much better way to connect to external hard drives than Firewire or USB and would open these ports up for other devices.
So my question is how hard is it to add this port to computers. Is this funcionality built into the motherboards and apple justs needs to add the port or is this tech not being uitlized by intel?
So my question is how hard is it to add this port to computers. Is this funcionality built into the motherboards and apple justs needs to add the port or is this tech not being uitlized by intel?
Comments
There are so many different ports as it is. FW800, FW400, USB 2.0, Ethernet, etc. Is there room for another standard? Seems to me they would have to drop one of those ports to make room on most designs.
Although FW400 is the de facto standard for camcorders, FW800 never caught on (aside from limited number of external disk enclosures). I would like to see eSATA take place over FW800.
That's misguided. eSATA is a drive interconnect while FW is a device connect that can daisychain 63 device and supports isochronous communication and networking.
You're never going to see eSATA become a network or audio conduit between devices. The more reasonable thing would be for Apple to support both eSATA AND Firewire as they overlap as far as drive connectivity but are vastly different in other areas.
Use a fucking hub. We need diversity not redundance.
Here's the problem with that idea: Even if I only split, say, one USB port into two, I'm only getting 240 Mb/s from each port. Split it into four, and I only get 120 Mb/s. With two onboard ports I get 480 Mb/s from each one. I have often ran out of USB ports, given that my PowerBook only has 2, but at those same times, my FW800 port remains empty. If it were a USB port, it would at least get used.
Isn't that only if more than one device is in use at the same time? If a device is idle it does not use any of the capacity. How many high speed dependent devices do you use at one time?
Well, if I'm using more that one flash drive, or if I want to use a USB hard drive and a flash drive, either while using my Logitech V450 mouse, I quickly run out of USB ports. Also, a flaw in the port design on the 15" laptops is that you only have one USB on each side. On my PowerBook, the USB 2.0 ports are low-power, so I need to use the Y-cable for my hard drive. Unfortunately, the Y-fork in the cable can't reach to both ports, since they are on opposite sides of the case.
Use a fucking hub. We need diversity not redundance.
Wow so much malice over nothing.
Firewire is hard to get on a PC. I bought all new hardware to upgrade my PC and the difference in price on ASUS Motherboards to go from one that didn't have FW400 and one that did was 100$ (Canadian).
I went the cheap route and bought a 25$ PCI card with 3xFW+bunch of USB2.0. Crummy card, I can't use the USB ports cause the connectors are horizontal and usb plug is wider than the expansion slots in the back of the PC. No way am I cutting metal for that.
Anyhow, FW is great. If firewire was more popular, we could have FlashDrives that ran at a real 400mbps speed, not a fake 480mbps. You guys know those flash drives don't really go 480mbps, right? FW is much faster, even though the max speed is lower.
Andrew
That's misguided. eSATA is a drive interconnect while FW is a device connect that can daisychain 63 device and supports isochronous communication and networking.
You're never going to see eSATA become a network or audio conduit between devices. The more reasonable thing would be for Apple to support both eSATA AND Firewire as they overlap as far as drive connectivity but are vastly different in other areas.
Aside from external hard disks, in which case eSATA is clearly a better solution, there just aren't that many FW800 devices. For most people, eSATA is more beneficial than FW800.
Remember the 'up-roar' on here when there wasn't FW800 on the original 15" MBP?
Aside from external hard disks, in which case eSATA is clearly a better solution, there just aren't that many FW800 devices. For most people, eSATA is more beneficial than FW800.
Negavite. eSATA ports on external hard drives are far less ubiqitous than USB or FW. If I have to make the choice between FW800 or eSATA I'm choosing FW as it's a more useful spec that can create adhoc networks, attach hard drives and works in audio and video environments and an interface connect.
eSATA does one thing. Hooks up an external drive sans the need to go through a bridge chip. Nice but not a replacement for FW.
If anything, Apple should drop FW400. Why? Because FW800 ports are backwards compatible. You just need a cable or adapter with the appropriate connections. The FW consortium went with the new connector for a very good reason. They should start pushing manufacturers to use it. Apple dropped the ball bigtime on this one.
Good point. I'm sure it would be no different than the jump from serial to USB. In fact, with the reverse compatibility you mentioned, even easier. The only problem is that for every FW800 device, there are 10 to 15 FW400's. The need for an adapter is going to be a sore spot for a lot of folks. Perhaps a gradual shift is in order, even though folks should realize that an eight-year-old interface is bound to be replaced soon.