Sam460: a possible solution for the lack of SATA ports

I was looking for an alternative solution for the lack of a second internal SATA port of the Sam460.
I'm not happy with the proposed PCI card for adding more SATA ports and I don't want external boxes around for additional devices.

In order to add a cdrom as an internal device, the idea is to use a USB to SATA adaptor, as I don't think such device requires much in terms of data transfer.

There are many USB to SATA adpators out there, I think I will go for this one:


Some specs of this adaptor

Well, the question now is if UBoot does supports usb cdrom for booting.

@virgola

thats one of many Solutions :)
when booting fails :
copy the OS-CD to a bootable partition and give it the same Name.
In this Way i installed update1, my Burner was broken :)

@virgola
Nice suggestion :)

@virgola

Interesting adapter, if I go for a Sam460ex I'll probably pass on an optical drive altoghter, possibly with SSD or some other flash option. Fancy a silent and compact OS4 sytem.

Hoping OS4 will ship on a USB stick for Sam460ex, as Apple are doing with OSX on the new MacBook Air, see http://news.softpedia.com/news/New-Ma ... e-USB-Stick-162114.shtmlc

@Daniel

I don't know about USB, but I do think it'll ship on an SD Card. At the VCF, Max from ACube demonstrated it booting from SD card and the suggestion was that since both the 460 and the X1000 have inaccessible internal card readers...


If you want to go the USB stick route, though, I think that is also on the agenda. UBoot supports it, not sure about the AmigaOS. Anyway, not to worry. We'll know for sure by the end of the weekend.

@virgola

I don't understand how that adaptor works...

On the SAM460 motherboard I would connect a SATA cable then the other end of the SATA cable to that adaptor then what?

Thanks

@TheDaddy

Suppose you've got two sata devices: 1) Hard Disk and 2) cdrom.

On your motherboard (Sam460) you've got only one SATA connector and on that you plug your 1) Hard Disk bacause you require speed and a lot of data transfer will going on.

As for 2) the cdrom you can connect it to the sata plug on the adaptor, and the adaptor on the usb plug on your motherboard.

@virgola

>>As for 2) the cdrom you can connect it to the sata plug on the adaptor,

Yes...


>>and the adaptor on the usb plug on your motherboard.


How do you connect that USB to the motherboard?

I can't see where that USB type A connector can go on the motherboard.

Maybe you mean on the rear of the motherboard? This means that the cable will have to go from inside to the outside and then plug it on the rear of the motherboard.

@virgola

since the eventual adaptor will be placed on "PCI-express 1x lane slot" what's the matter?
We can still use the PCI-e 4x and PCI slots...

@TheDaddy
With something llike this you can connect usb devices directly to the motherboard

@virgola
Thinking about it, if you use the on board sata you lose the PCI-E X1 slot anyway, so the best course would be use a PCI card for multiple sata.
Unless you do without DVD-ROM at that point you could have an HD connected to the MOBO via your suggested adapter, all expansions slots available, and exchange data among machines by simply using Memory Cards and USB sticks.

I don't know about transfer speeds however, what would the difference be between an HD connected with this adapter, another connected to the PCI Sata card and another one connected to the on board Sata port? (big performance differences?)

@T-J

Sound good, sounds like SD card would be the way to go in that case.

@DAX

Well, I don't care if I loose the PCI-express 1x, I still have the PCI-express 4x for the video card.

@virgola

Mamma mia!

You still haven't told me how that adaptor would work.

It won't work unless you then add another adapter (like the motherboard to two USB connectors, something that needs to be verified) OR you connect it to the rear of the machine.

@TheDaddy

The motherboard already have usb connectors.
In order to use them, you require something I showed (you need to change the connector pins on the motherboard to something like standard female USB connector type A). Such cable is not an adaptor, simply a cable.

So you don't require to connect anything to the rear of the machine, as long you keep all these cables within the case.

Summarizing:
cd-rom > sata cable > sata to usb adaptor > usb cable > motherboard

@virgola

So one adaptor and one cable to connect an internal SATA device.

Thanks.