On Sat, 15 Sep 2012, Chris Tofu wrote:
if you wanted to add PCMCIA capability to something
resembling an ISA
slot (but different in many ways, particularly the form factor), what
would be the best way to go about this? Obviously many micro controllers
have this built in (I would think). I'm looking for something quick and
dirty. Off the top of your head. I'm reading into this, but it doesn't
hurt to ask.
I took apart an HP Jornada VGA adapter (PCMCIA > VGA out) for connecting
to an external monitor. There's very little in there. There's a Trident
chip (9440-3), 2 memory chips, a couple of other chips (glue of some
sort I guess) and passive components. It's the closest thing I've seen
to a VGA on a chip solution (I haven't looked, but it's pretty close).
Therefore I need to either hack the PCMCIA interface to get it to work
w/say a Tandy 2000 bus (or another 8086/80186 based computer). Or create
a PCMCIA interface on a card to plug the pc card into, which kind of
seems like the long way, but might turn out to being the easier
solution. You tell me.
Keep in mind I don't need the hot swapping capability or card services
stack (can a card function w/o them?). Initially it was designed to add
memory. I'm thinking all the rest of the gobligook came along after they
realized people might want to add the kitchen sink to laptops and
handhelds. 16 bit capability is of course adequate. I imagine I'll have
to right a device driver.
ISA PCMCIA adapters are mondo pricey on eBay. Icarumba.
Look around for a PC/104 to PCMCIA (16-bit) adapter board. Make sure you
don't accidentally grab a PC/104-Plus to CardBus (32-bit) board though.
PC/104 is more or less ISA, but a PC/104-Plus to CardBus adapter board
would need a 32-bit PCI bus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC/104