From: david@twg.com (David Herron) Subject: How many PCMCIA slots Date: 10 Aug 1993 20:12:33 GMT
Greetings!
I am looking to get a laptop on which to run Linux.
There are a number of them that can support 20 megs of RAM, 200 megs of disk,
and PCMCIA slots. Well.. a few anyway. There's the NEC Versa, a couple
from Sager, AMS 7500C, and a new subnotebook from Compudyne. Probably
some others that I've forgotten or missed.
My question is: How many slots should one expect to need?
If memory expansion can go to 20 megs w/o using PCMCIA then you don't
need a slot for that.
The generic answer is: "as many as possible" but that begs the question.
My biggest desire in having PCMCIA is for ethernet. There's a couple
available which Linux supports (can someone send me the contact info for
these?? I've lost that list which was posted a couple weeks ago..) or will
support soon.
Other uses I can see down the road are: SCSI, audio, modem, flash cards,
cellular phone interface.
How many would be needed at one time? Ether & SCSI probably. The others
are less likely combinations except possibly SCSI & audio. Don't have any
idea how *soon* any needs other than ethernet would arise.
One factor is *availability*. I know there are SCSI & modem PCMCIA now. Are
any able to be used by Linux now? Can Linux use the flash cards at all?
Are there any audio PCMCIA cards now? Any of this going to happen in the
near future?
How likely could Linux allow for removing interface cards while the OS
is up and running? (It would give most Unix's conniptions.. 'cept SunOS
and their CD drives can be moved around at will)
<- David Herron <david@twg.com> (work) <david@davids.mmdf.com> (home)
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