On Fri, 2010-08-13 at 18:34 +0200, Ariel Rocholl wrote:
> Hi all,
>=20
> For a commercial product, which has to provide proprietary 4-signal
> connection between two external devices, I am tempted to use SATA connect=
ors
> and cable. They are cheap, mass produced and thus readily available.
>=20
> I looked into http://www.sata-io.org/ website and couldn't find any legal
> limitation to use SATA connectors for something not being actually SATA
> technology. Does anyone have a suggestion on where to look at to know
> whether this could raise legal problems?

I don't know about legalities (I don't see how USING a SATA cable would
be "illegal", if you labelled it as a SATA connection then perhaps there
are licensing issues, but that's an uninformed opinion) but frankly I
think it's a bad idea.

Never underestimate your users. They WILL plug your device into a HD or
motherboard at some point. You WILL get complaints over the phone that
your device isn't working with the hard drive they want (even though of
course your device has NOTHING to do with connecting to a hard drive).

Lastly, SATA cables and connectors aren't really that strong, I've seen
them break, EASILY. They aren't meant for external connections (hence
the eSATA connector).

How many of these do you plan to make/sell? If it's in the millions then
perhaps the cost savings do make sense, otherwise, I wouldn't use
something like a SATA cable.

TTYL

--=20
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