Port replicator through USB / PCI expansion

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From: Andrew Webber (awebber_at_wwwebbers.com)
Date: Wed Apr 19 2000 - 15:19:43 EDT


I saw this at Computer City. www.mobilityelectronics.com (model
200).

It seems to be a univeral port replicator that works through the
USB port. What's nice about this physically is that it doesn't
have to be right under/behind the notebook, it can be (well, _is_)
connected with a USB cable.

Also, although it's got a series of idiot lights up the "front"
(the curved side shown on the site), it could easily be placed with
all the connectors showing. Comes with parallel, serial, keyboard,
PS/2 mouse, 5 USBs, and an optional ethernet connection. (I think
that's it, but the PDF datasheet link is dead). Any thoughts on
this? Surely there is a hit on the ethernet connection, but apart
>from that (or not using that), is this a good solution. Price is
U$150 for what I think is the non-ethernet version.

Also seen on this site is the model 2000 (no price, "coming soon")
which looks like a mini-tower computer. No a port replicator, it's
got 4 drive bays, 3 full-length PCI slots, and a couple of USB
ports. Connects to the notebook using a CardBus slot. This sounds
interesting, but I wonder if the same thing couldn be accomplished
by networking a second computer, at least wrt additional drive
capacity.

The model 3000 is a combination: all the ports of the 200, but only
2 half-length PCI slots and only 2 bays.

Without knowing the cost of the 2000 and 3000, do these things make
any sense? And what about that model 200?

Thanks!


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