micro sd - sata interface

[codifies]

Now feel free to shoot me down in flames! (it does seem a bit of a mad idea at first!)

there are number of SoC boards out there without sata

While a device auto detecting the geometry of a sata device might be a PitA - this could be set manually and stored, I wouldn't envision that you'd be swapping drives every few days... (or ever?)

Indeed the interface could even be sold permanently attached to a cost effective (say) 500gb sata drive...

for a prototype you could use one of the wifi sd cards that have been hacked an work with an open software stack...