does pata_marvell (88SE6145 driver) support external SATA port?

[David Madore <david.madore@ens.fr>]

Hi,

I have an Asus P5W64 WS motherboard, featuring a Marvell 88SE6145 ATA
controller, with three internal SATA ports and one external e-SATA
port.  I understand the Linux kernel driver for this controller is
called pata_marvell even though it's a SATA controller (/me confused,
but I think it says something like the controller is used in "legacy"
mode, whatever that means); I also understand that this driver will
not drive the third internal SATA port (reported on, e.g., <URL:
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-507061.html
 >): this is coherent with Alan Cox's comment when signing of the
driver (<URL: http://lkml.org/lkml/2006/10/16/157 >) that the driver
will "drive the SATA ports 1 & 2 in legacy mode".  However, no mention
was made of the external SATA port.

So:

Does the pata_marvell module support an external SATA port?

How can I know this without buying an external SATA drive and
discovering to my dismay that I can't use it? :-)

Cheers,

-- 
     David A. Madore
    (david.madore@ens.fr,
     http://www.madore.org/~david/ )