MacBook Pro - Expresscard/34

[-Escher-]

i find something that may unswer 2 questions at once:

1.Why FW800 is gone
2.What is this Express card slot

http://www.xterasys.com/e94b.htm

I would say that apple will be releasing a bunch of new apps for this card including a fw800 very soon this year....

 

[MacTruck]

ExpressCard slot and no pcmcia is the dumbest thing apple did on this macbook not so pro.

 

[-Escher-]

Express cards are MUCH faster and smaler!

I'm sorry for those who have a PCMCIA app...Its going to be useless and obsolete........In 1-2 years....And you'll be forced to keep using your OLD notebooks....

They'll come up with a bunch of apps for EC soon! Like, for instance a FW800 that would be impossible with the turttle speed PCMCIA....

 

[maya]

Express cards are MUCH faster and smaler!

I'm sorry for those who have a PCMCIA app...Its going to be useless and obsolete........In 1-2 years....And you'll be forced to keep using your OLD notebooks....

They'll come up with a bunch of apps for EC soon! Like, for instance a FW800 that would be impossible with the turttle speed PCMCIA....

People always say in 1-2 years, however companies still make and stores still sell VHS players/recorders and tapes.

In 1-2 years, something better might be the new standard or the consumer might plan on buying a new notebook when more 3rd party solutions are released.

This seems like a jump forward and a leap backwards on Apples part.

 

[MacTruck]

Express cards are MUCH faster and smaler!

I'm sorry for those who have a PCMCIA app...Its going to be useless and obsolete........In 1-2 years....And you'll be forced to keep using your OLD notebooks....

They'll come up with a bunch of apps for EC soon! Like, for instance a FW800 that would be impossible with the turttle speed PCMCIA....

How small do you need a card. PCMCIA is just small enough not to lose. Faster than PCMCIA but to what purpose? Fast enough for usb2 and firewire 400. If apple left the damn firwire 800 port in there we wouldn't need to worry about it.

Its just another useless standard change to get us to buy more junk.

 

[Kelson]

Dude...you are really missing the point....

How small do you need a card. PCMCIA is just small enough not to lose. Faster than PCMCIA but to what purpose? Fast enough for usb2 and firewire 400. If apple left the damn firwire 800 port in there we wouldn't need to worry about it.

Its just another useless standard change to get us to buy more junk.

<FLAME>
I've been watching you complain about every little possible thing you can find, on every thread talking about the MacBook. I'll admit, that I am complaining about something also, but unlike you, actually know what I'm talking about.
</FLAME>

Now, I'll take a second to put more technical detail around exactly what the PCMCIA and Expresscard technologies are.

PCMCIA is a connection to an internal ISA-style bus (16-bit) or PCI bus (32-bit, called Cardbus). These are dying technology. ISA, VESA-LB, PCI, PCI-X, and AGP are dead technology. Maximum bandwidth rates for the Cardbus based PCMCIA cards is 132Mbyte/s. This is not sufficient for anything more than 10/100 Ethernet.

Expresscard is combination of a USB 2.0 and PCI Express connection, the card manufacturer can use either technology for the Expresscard. The USB 2.0 port has 480Mbyte/s, while the PCIe connection has 2.5Gbyte/s of bandwidth. That means you could connect 3 FW800 ports on a single Expresscard module, allowing only those people who need FW800 to get that functionality. I don't need FW800 and don't really care to have it, FW400 is enough for me to connect my external LaCie drive. I know some people do, but it is not a must have for everyone. It probably would have been better to put a FW800 port instead of FW400, I will grant that.

The communication bus in the MacBook is PCIe, which allowed for the ATI Radeon Mobility X1600 chipset to be used, as this chipset has a PCIe interface.

I imagine that in order for the PCMCIA to connect to the PCIe bus, another IC would have been required. I absolutely agree with Apple's decision to move toward supporting this technology.

My issue is with their method for transitioning from PCMCIA to Expresscard. Expresscard is a very new technology with very few Expresscards on the market at this time, while there are tons of PCMCIA cards available. Initially, they should have provided 1 Expresscard slot and 1 PCMCIA slot. This would allow their users to continue to use PCMCIA cards, then as Expresscards become available, transition over to using them.

- Kelson

 

[LethalWolfe]

We are talking about the same company that did a hatch job to 3.5" floppies years ago and just dropped PCI-X like a hot potato. For better or worse Apple really doesn't transition it just moves on (at least in terms of hardware). I wouldn't be surprised if before the end of the year there are a lot more Expresscard options out there and then this discussion becomes moot.


Lethal

 

[kalisphoenix]

We are talking about the same company that did a hatch job to 3.5" floppies years ago

Yeah, that just broke my heart

 

[Surreal]

So, anybody else notice that all of the FW800 expresscards are expresscard/54?

on the upside, they don't need external power...

 

[macrants]

Perfect opportunity to upgrade your phone!

Get any EVDO-capable phone, and use Bluetooth Dial Up Networking (DUN) to connect to the Internet. It's not an Expresscard, but it'll work. You'll still pay the $80/mo. for unlimited data, but have a bonus voice plan on the phone to go with it. Sprint's been great about it, and Verizon's just barely caved on letting you use EVDO phones to connect to the Web. I use my PPC-6700 to DUN over Bluetooth (it's faster via USB, but who wants to mess with cables?). The RAZR V3C is EVDO DUN capable, I think.

Anyway, you have options! Eventually, there will be Expresscard/34 EVDO modems and FW800 ports, but for now it's just memory card readers... sigh...

 

[Amuraivel]

What I think is pretty lame about the Express card port is that it is the smaller of the two standards. Why? The MBP has a huge footprint, and the smaller standard can be used on one side of the larger standard==>more functionality.


Dropping the modem, probably an OK move.
Dropping S-Video, probably acceptable
It should be called just MacBook if it is missing FW800....


The new mini and this corner cutting approach seems pretty lame.

Just like leaving out a DL drive.

 

[Surreal]

What I think is pretty lame about the Express card port is that it is the smaller of the two standards.

to my knowledge, there are no FW800 expresscard/34 modules yet. there are a few expresscard/54 (no external power either...which is greatly appreciated) but i have yet to find a FW800 expresscard/34 module

which is to say, i agree.

 

[djbahdow01]

I'm in the same boat. My boss at work offered to buy me a Dell XPS laptop. I held out for the Intel Powerbook (Dual booting here I come), mainly because Dells are garbage and I can do all but 1 or 2 tasks with OS X. I have a Verison card that I need for when I'm on call at work, and now I see that the PCMCIA card that the company supplies won't work because Apple dropped the port. Great.

Anyone have an idea if an adapter exists out there? Haven't been able to find one on the Apple site or Google...

Either way you would have been out of luck, the Dells already have the Expresscard technologyas well, even the low end $700 ones. Not sure on a PCMCIA adapter yet, i was confused at the Expresscard tech when I was trying to install a Wireless card in a cheap dell for a family member. Couldn't find any info on it at all.

 

[sozkan]

EVDO works on MACBOOK PRO

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=2216162

 

[Timepass]

We are talking about the same company that did a hatch job to 3.5" floppies years ago and just dropped PCI-X like a hot potato. For better or worse Apple really doesn't transition it just moves on (at least in terms of hardware). I wouldn't be surprised if before the end of the year there are a lot more Expresscard options out there and then this discussion becomes moot.


Lethal

Oh I think the move is where everything is heading. Just I think apple made the move to earily. Like when they drop the floppy drive I think they drop it to earily and before there was really a good replacement out yet.

Now in a 1 to 2 years after apple drop the floppy there was penty of good replacement out for the floppy that was cheap enough to be a good replacement.

Sum it up I think the move over to the 34mm card is where everything is going just apple made the move to earily. Mind you the replacement parts for it will be out a lot quicker. I wish they had set it to be able to handle both. Like have the 34mm port be 54mm wide and be able to handle both cards or something like that. it would of made the transition less painful.

 

[Herzart]

I don't know the answer but....

I'm

 

[Herzart]

Don't know the answer but

Big wireless convention in early April, expect to hear new ExpressCards coming out of it and hopefully adapters for PCMCIA cards as well as new phone Expresscards for all the carriers.