Initially Serial ATA (SATA) was designed as an internal “inside-the-box” interface technology, bringing improved performance and new features to internal PC or consumer storage. Creative designers quickly realized this innovative interface could reliably be expanded outside the PC, bringing the same performance and features to external storage needs rather than relying on USB or IEEE-1394 interfaces. Using external SATA, or eSATA as it’s more widely known, customers may now utilize shielded cable lengths up to 2 meters outside the PC to take advantage of the benefits SATA brings to storage. SATA is now out of the box as an external standard, with specifically defined cables, connectors, and signal requirements released as new standards in mid-2004. eSATA provides more performance than existing solutions and is compatible with hot-plugged hardware