can SATA devices be daisy chained?

[lozina]

can SATA devices be daisy chained?

how many devices can one channel support?

 

[Hardlin]

I don't believe they can be. Currently all the boards I have seen only handle one device per channel.

I bet the real answer is somewhere on this site http://www.serialata.org/

 

[ub3rnewb]

Wow, so SATA II does not mean 3Gb/s...

 

[Hardlin]

Also, in this document: http://www.sata-io.org/docs/serialata%2...%20with%20ultra%20ata%20technology.pdf

It states on page 6:

Serial ATA ? Point to Point Connections for Dedicated Bandwidth
Serial ATA uses a point-to-point connection topology, meaning that each source is connected to one destination. Each
channel has the capability to work independently so that there is no contention between drives and thus no sharing of
interface bandwidth. This connection strategy also negates the need for master/slave jumper settings on devices.

 

[lozina]

Dangit, now I need to get a PCI card for more slots? SATA is teh suck!!!

 

[ub3rnewb]

I would rather have four SATA connections than one of those big-ass ribbon cables...

 

[Some1ne]

SATA is teh suck!!!

Why? You can get mainboards with 8 SATA ports built-in. Back when everything was still IDE, boards with more than 3 channels (so 6 devices) were rare.

 

[Chaotic42]

It's a shame they're not. That would have been an awesome move. I guess it would have negated the need for add-on cards though.