Silicon Image Simplifies ESATA Storage
Having selected the storage product, the enthusiast and the mainstream user both run into similar issues: The additional drive requires a SATA, USB 2.0 or eSATA port, and it will always appear as an additional volume. In short, you have to manage your drives.
Merging all your data onto a single volume is ideal, but it is only possible if the new drive offers sufficient storage capacity. The more drives you add, the more you will have to manage. As you run out of ports, future upgrades require you to replace older drives. Some devices aren't as flexible: If you want to expand the storage capacity of a PVR, most devices require you to exchange the hard drive.
Ideally, users should be able to add hard drives to a system to increase the storage capacity or storage performance. This addition of storage should not involve configuration and management issues. Imagine if you could add external hard drives as you need them.
Now, there is a solution. Silicon Image has come up with the new SteelVine family of storage processors for SATA. These are powerful SATA sub-controllers for external drives, and they include a virtualization layer and a port multiplier. This way they appear like a disk drive to your SATA host controller, but they can map and manage additional, cascaded SATA drives. It sounds difficult, but it really isn't!
Hard drives are cheap and adding drives is very appealing. But managing data across various drives requires some personal commitment, especially if you're diligent enough to make regular backups.
