PCMCIA USB ports?

[Michael R. Head]

On Sun, 2006-09-10 at 22:10 +1000, Karl Auer wrote:
> Hi there.
> 
> I have an IBM T30 laptop. I'd like to use it as a file server, and
> attach a nice big external drive to it. The problem is, it has only USB
> 1.0, i.e., very slow.

I've got the same laptop (had it for almost 4 years!). USB 1.0 is
definitely very slow. I've got all my drives attached to a G4 Mac Mini
running dapper ;-)

> However, the laptop does have two PCMCIA slots, so I am wondering:
> 
> - is there such a thing as a PCMCIA card with USB 2.0 ports that is
> supported by Ubuntu?

You might consider a PCMCIA external SATA interface... I haven't used
these devices, but you may want to check here:
http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html Some Cardbus models are
listed.

> - will the PCMCIA interface support a transfer rate as big as or bigger
> than USB 2.0? There's no point doing this if it doesn't.

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA, USB2.0 gives
~375Mb/s, according to
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/glossary/g/cardbus.htm, Cardbus (which I
think the PCMCIA spec that the T30 implements), runs at 50
megabytes/second. Multiply by 8bits/byte and you get that USB2.0 and
Cardbus have roughly the same bandwidth.

> Regards, K.

mike

> -- 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
> http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160 (mob)
> 
> 
-- 
Michael R. Head <burner at suppressingfire.org>
suppressingfire.org
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