ATX power supply with embedded homeplug av adapter

Question

Are there ATX power supplies which have homeplug av (networking over power lines) adapter built-in? I'd like to have one cable to provide power and networking instead of two.

Thanks,

Answer 1

I have one, but I built it myself. It is very cool it that I and plug in my PC to the power outlet and communicate directly to HomePlug powerline devices. I cracked open a standard PC power supply and added the required Powerline Interface circuits (soldering required) and used a mini-PCI adapted to the PC’s PCI bus.
Now it must be said that I am an electrical engineer and used to work for Intellon developing software for their HomePlug chips. So this is probably beyond the scope of the normal PC enthusiast. Also, there are some down sides, such as things like surge protectors and UPS’s will attenuate the powerline signal strength and impact the ability to communicate. I built this as a working prototype to demo the concept and raise capital for a making this concept commercial, but then I got involved with a different project and that kind of took a backseat.

Answer 2

Sorry, Never seen anything like this... Nor do I think it exists, it would require extra internal cabling and I do not think there is high enough demand for anyone to make this - it just wouldn't be cost effective.

Update to comments -

I am not saying it is impossible, but... USB networking sucks which would be the easiest implementation (from PSU to internal USB header). For descent networking, it would either have to have a new dedicated section on the motherboard or have a dedicated internal card/link to PCI/PCI Express.

Next (and probably most importantly) - Cost! Testing and licenscing for official HomePlug "Status" costs and I doubt you will be able to release a device for under £10-£15, this will greatly increase the cost of a PSU when probably less than one in a thousand people actually would buy it (Wired is probably 7-8/10) and Wireless the majority.

With regards to Apple - Again, I doubt there is a big target market - On top of this, I do not think it is worth investment - if you start with what I wrote above, I think that within the next 10 years, we are not going to see wired connections on home machines (I hope I am wrong!).

The fact is (talking home users) - Most machines now have at least gigabit cards whilst nearly every home user only has 100Mb Routers/Hubs/Switches. Nearly everyone wants internet speed but rarely actually copies files from machine to machine over a network (most people either do not do it or use USB sticks). Because of this - and the fact that wireless is getting better, I just think that wired will be phased out and 10 Gigabit wired connections will be the standard for business machines and available on premium consumer equipment.

Said rather a lot here! I hope someone finds it interesting!