What is eSATA? What are the salient features of eSATA?

eSATA stands for  External Serial Advanced Technology Attachment,  a variant of the SATA connection standard for storage devices. The letter "e" stands for both External which means outside.

The eSATA standard was standardized in 2004 and uses the same SATA pin for internal memory. The biggest difference is that eSATA has a slightly different, sturdier connector. The eSATA standard also supports cable lengths up to 2 m which is twice as long as the 1 m cable length supported by SATA.

eSATA is one of the industry standards for the connection of external storage devices. It competes with the Firewire, USB standard to provide faster data transfer rates between hardware devices. 

Because eSATA uses the same protocols as SATA, the data transfer rate is as high as that of an internal SATA hard drive. For example,  an eSATA 3.0 drive can transfer data at 6Gbps / 4.8 Gbps , including data encryption. Compared to Firewire 800 (800 Mbps) and USB 2.0 (480Mbps), this speed is many times faster, equivalent to USB 3.0 (5Gbps). 

eSATA communication

By offering fast transfer speeds, eSATA is a popular choice for connecting external hard drives. This connection is used by users who edit video, audio or graphics that need to store large amounts of data. Meanwhile, the  USB connection is more widely used for peripheral devices such as: Mouse, keyboard, printer, etc. FireWire connection is almost only used to transfer data to the device. external storage. 

Unlike other types of communication, the eSATA port does not provide power to connected devices. Therefore, users need to use a separate connector to supply power to the device. eSATA has another variant, eSATAp or EUHP.

eSATA is an upgraded specification of the SATA connection standard. However, eSATA uses a different physical connector than SATA. The connector is designed more firmly, supporting high-speed signal transmission and resisting EMI interference.

eSATA and SATA

Some early SATA hard drives and devices do not support the "hot-plug" capability, which is important for users who need fast data transfers.

Below is the maximum transfer rate of each type of theoretical communication:

In theory, the new USB standards should be faster than the eSATA standard. However, due to the effect of signal conversion, USB is still a bit slower, but most users do not realize this difference. Therefore, eSATA communication standard is less popular nowadays due to more convenient USB connection.