[Duo2400] PC card - Duo Laptop conumdrum...

[Ivan Drucker]

>1) Surely there are external PC card readers that connect via SCSI ports to 
>provide PC card abilities to early powerbooks?

I don't remember any such products, but Scott in another message found 
one intended for PC's apparently.

>2) Assuming #1 is a "yes" shouldn't there also be a way to use a PC card 
>modem with a duo? or is there a software problem w/ that idea?

I think there would be lots of issues there -- you'd need some kind of 
driver so that the OS could see the existence of PC card slots via SCSI. 
I don't know if any such drivers exist, since I don't remember any 
SCSI-PC Card adapters sold for the Mac. I guess a device that was smart 
enough could work with a storage card such as a flash card without 
drivers, but that would be it -- there would be no way to use a network 
card, a modem card, or any other non-storage PC cards.

>3) Would it be possible to replace the SCSI HD in a Duo 210-280c with a PC 
>card reader, for a large Flash Card w/ a PC card adapter? (and to that 
>end...)

>4) On the Duo 2300c's Mobo, there is a SCSI and a IDE connector for HDs. I 
>am 
>wondering would it be possible to make the internal SCSI HD connector into a 
>PC card reader?

Even if some such device existed such as you're looking for, it would 
probably be tough to fit inside the machine. In theory, if the components 
were small enough, perhaps it could work at a technical level -- but 
you'd still need a driver. Otherwise the OS wouldn't have any idea there 
were PC cards out there -- only some SCSI device it doesn't recognize.

If we're strictly talking about storage, you MIGHT (as in, long shot) be 
able to use the computer's internal IDE connector to work with a flash 
storage card, since those are designed around the ATA interface, though I 
don't know much about the technical specifics involved. There have been 
some laptops designed around the Toshiba 1.8" drives (the ones in the 
iPods), and those are essentially the same as flash cards from an 
interface point of view.

Ivan.