From: AC Brown (acb_at_acbrown.com)
Date: Thu Jul 20 2000 - 17:21:43 EDT
Date: 2000 Jul 20
To: <thinkpad_at_cs.utk.edu>
From: AC Brown <acb_at_acbrown.com>
Subj: T20 Evaluation: Ultrabay 2000 Peripherals and Compatibility
There are have been a number of questions on this board concerning the
new IBM A20 and T20 computers, especially compared to previous models.
I'm a long time Thinkpad user (750C, 755CD, 560, and 570), and I've had
experience with Toshiba, Compaq, and Powerbook notebooks. I recently
acquired a new T20 (2647-84U, Windows 2000), so I thought I'd post my
impressions after almost three weeks of use. I plan several postings on
the various aspects of the T20, especially compared with my previous
Thinkpads.
ULTRABAY 2000 PERIPHERALS
The T20 comes with a floppy diskette drive and either a CD-ROM or DVD
drive. All fit in the Ultrabay 2000 on the right side of the computer.
Only one drive can be used at a time in the T20. The drives can be
changed by pressing a small lever at the right rear of the case which
releases an Ultrabay 2000 ejection lever which in turn ejects the drive.
Hot swapping is supported, at least under Windows 2000.
The IBM web site lists the following Ultrabay 2000 devices: CD-R/W
drive, SuperDisk (LS-120) drive, ZIP drive (250 MB), second hard drive
adapter, an Ultrabay 2000 battery, as well as the CD-ROM and DVD drives.
The T20 docking station contains an Ultrabay 2000 slot, permitting two
drives to be used simultaneously. Also, a special cable is available
(but not furnished with the T20) allowing connection of the diskette
drive to the T20's parallel port (blocking use of a parallel printer);
the cable also permits connecting the diskette drive to the floppy
connector (not the parallel port) of the port replicator.
COMPATIBILITY
Ultrabay 2000 devices are the same shape and size and otherwise appear
identical with the UltraslimBay units for the TP 600 and the TP 570
Ultrabase. Also, they use the same connectors. However, the connectors
on the Ultrabase 2000 units are offset several millimeters from those
for the UltraslimBay; therefore, they are not interchangeable. Whether
this is meant to prevent insertion of electrically incompatible units or
is a result of some technical design imperative or is a marketing ploy
to force T20 users to buy new peripherals or is simply an oversight is not
clear to me. If it's for one of the latter reasons, shame on IBM!
As a sop to TP 570/600 users, the IBM web site does list a portable
drive bay that connects to a PCCard and permits UltraslimBay units to
be used with the T20.
While not documented, the external diskette drives from the TP 570 and
the TP 560 can be used with T20. The diskette connector on the rear of
the Port Replicator mates with that on the diskette cable that came with
the TP 560/570. I've tried using the TP 570 diskette with the T20 in
this way and it works fine. Also, the cable that IBM sells for using
the T20 diskette externally consists of two parts, a parallel port
adapter and a cable. From the illustrations, it appears the adapter
that attaches to the parallel port will take a TP 560/570 cable.
In summary, the available peripherals seem to cover most of needs of T20
owners, but in my opinion, IBM did a disservice to loyal users by not
designing their A20 and T20 computers to be compatible with TP 570/600
peripherals!
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