--- Robert F Schaefer <rschaefe_at_gcfn.org> wrote:
> > A related question would be, does anyone know a cheap source of
> > PCMCIA boards?
I pick them up at hamfests, etc. I won't pay more than $5/10BaseT
ethernet card w/o dongle, but I still have more cards than dongles.
> > Specifically, to actually use this thing, I'll want an
> > ethernet adaptor (10Mb), and probably some linear flash.
Linear FLASH? You mean unlike the ATA cards for cameras? The two
kinds of PCMCIA memory cards I'm aware of have two completely different
drivers - the cards like you use with an Apple Newton are strictly
memory devices. Digital Camera-style ATA FLASH cards look like a
disk drive to the OS. Those are common, plentiful and cheap (I
picked up some 16Mb cards recently in a sale for $10 each).
> > Some SRAM that will operate at (is the low voltage 3 or 1.5 on those?)
> > the lower voltage would probably be good too.
This is old... I'm pretty sure the PCMCIA is 5V only.
> > (where...) Can one still get PCMCIA hard disks that will work in
> > this thing too?
IBM has things like the "MicroDrive", but modern PCMCIA disks tend
to specifically be "CompactFlash Type III" - you can get CF->PCMCIA
adapters cheap, but you'll probably have to alter them mechanically
to provide clearance for the HDA of a MicroDrive. I do not know
the physical height off the top of my head, but the PS-2/E card is
"quad type-I, dual type-II" - meaning that if you found an old
PCMCIA hard disk that was Type-III, you'd have a mechanical interference
problem. Dunno about MicroDrives.
> > I do have a specific and on-topic reason for wanting the flash and SRAM
> > boards. I intend to use the machine as a way of bootstraping a Minix
> > installation for my "Poqet PC," if I can manage it. The
> > Poqet will read linear flash, but not write it, and will read and
> > write SRAM.
There's nothing this board can do that a Linux laptop with PCMCIA
slots couldn't also do. It's not magical, just cool. You can also
pick up a PCM "Swap Box" for typically under $50 that puts a single
Type-II/dual Type-I PCMCIA socket in your ISA-equipped desktop. I've
used one under Win95 and Linux to dump CF cards.
> I noticed there is a dutch auction for 5 (IIRC) of these on epay
> currently, with an opening bid of $50/ea.
Ow! Way overpriced. I personally value them at between $10 and $20
for the CPU, plus another $5-$10 for the PCMCIA card, only because
they are interesting. Form-factor aside, they are a 16MB 50MHz 386/486.
Nothing spectacular. The only thing that makes them interesting is
size.
-ethan
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Received on Fri Apr 05 2002 - 12:52:33 BST