From: Aaron W. Brown (aaron_at_designcraft.com)
Date: Wed Apr 21 1999 - 00:07:17 EDT
I took a look at the TP570 announcement links, (thanks Jane), and I have
some questions:
In the "At a Glance" part of the TP570 description this bullet point
confused me:
-Web, LAN, and infrared communications
What does IBM mean by LAN here? Is there an ethernet port built in? I
was hoping but I didn't see any other reference to this in the TP570
description. Is there a "LAN" in the Ultrabase gadget? I have a feeling
they mean the optional port replicator EtherJet.
Here is the best description I saw of the Ultrabase, it's in the tour
link:
"One UltraBase bay holds a diskette drive or second battery; the other bay
holds a variety of convenient IBM UltraslimBay options - DVD, CD-ROM, Zip
100MB Drive, SuperDisk (LS-120) drive, or a second hard disk drive (6) with
adapter (common with the ThinkPad 600)."
V.90 modem - Does anyone know if the TP570 is the same internal v.90 as in
the TP600 (and later 770) I get the impression some people are still
replacing these with PC card duplicates. What's the list's opinion of the
current internal v.90 modem on a sample of phone lines as compared to PC
card replacements or even desktop modems?
This brings up my wishes for new thinkpads:
I wish IBM would build in a 10/100Mbps ethernet port. Seems like standard
equipment to me. PC card dongles are fragile and a pain.
Speaking of cables, I like all my cables to go out the back of the
laptop. Please put the most commonly used cables out the back. At home I
use my laptop on my lap. I'm usually in a reclining chair. For me the most
common cables (besides power) are modem and ethernet. For me these are PC
Card devices so they come out on the right side and have fragile, touchy
connections.
IBM, If you don't see the need for built in ethernet yet could you move
the PC cards to empty out the back? That way I could set my thinkpad in
more positions without touching the right side dongles. The right arm of my
chair wouldn't get in the way. Even without emptying out the back it would
be nice (but prevent the use of many PC cards) if you recessed the PC Card
"holder" further back into the machine to protect the dongles from
upward/downward pressure. This would also prevent dongle damage from
stepping on the dongle when I set the laptop on the floor . For
compatibility with those large dongle or XJACK cards that break the plane
(thickness) of the card you could allow the entire PC card "holder" to slide
back (and lock) a couple of inches. Then eject out for easy connections.
I wish IBM would make a quality v.90 modem and cable it out the back.
I wish IBM would make an effort to solve the following limitation
documented in the TP570 announcement:
-PC card modem cannot be used when internal modem is enabled due to
resource conflict.
-To use the PC card modem, disable the internal modem or disable the
following devices simultaneously on the Device Manager to release the COM1
resource for the PC card modem:
-Infrared communication port
-ThinkPad fast infrared port
-Communication port (COMA)
Are the above devices connected to the PCI bus? Sharable IRQ's would be
nice, please.
Aaron Brown
Jane Loyless wrote:
>http://isource.ibm.com/cgi-bin/goto?it=usa_annred&on=199-103
>
>http://www.pc.ibm.com/us/products/thinkpad/570tour/index.html
>
>http://www.direct.ibm.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce/SalesNav?family=ThinkPad+570&cn
t
>ry=840&lang=en_US
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