Opinion: smiley face
products: Apple PCMCIA Expansion Module,
SCM SwapBox Classic Combo
version: Apple: B, SCM: none
company: Apple Computer, Cupertino, Calif.
SCM Microsystems, Inc., Los Gatos, Calif.
phones: (800) 538 9696 x525 Apple
408 370 4888 SCM, 408 370 4880 fax
http: //www.apple.com (apple)
Price: Apple: $219
SCM: $199
Pros: Able to swap files between Mac PowerBooks and Intel desktops
Cons: Still a bit pricey, documentation could be better
Looking for an easy way to exchange large files between your Macintosh Powerbook and
your Intel desktop? With two newly updated products from Apple and SCM Microsystems, it
can be done, with a bit of persistence.
Before PC Card technology, you either had to confine yourself to swapping floppies or else
use modems and telecommunications. That's all a thing of the past, thankfully.
Apple has been selling its PCMCIA Expansion module since last fall, but only recently with a
new revision "B" has it become workable. The module replaces the left-hand battery on any
500 series Powerbook, and has room for two type II or a single type III PC Card. SCM's
Swap Box Classic Combo, which recently entered the retail channel, replaces a half-height 3.5
inch floppy drive bay on Intel desktops and has room for a single type II or III card along
with its own floppy drive.
We tested two hard drives that come on PC Card form factors: one from Simple Technology,
Inc. (STI-170 MB, Santa Ana, Calif. 800 367 7330, 714 476 1180) and one from SunDisk
(ATA 20 MB Flash Disk, Santa Clara, Calif. 408 562 0500). Simple's is a type III card that
has an actual rotating disk inside it, while SunDisk uses solid state flash memory and is a
type II size.
Once we got everything working, we were able to copy files from our Mac Powerbook 540 to
either PC Card hard disk, and then transfer the disk into our Windows-based Compaq and
read files without any problems.
Getting the Apple PCMCIA module installed was a two-step process: take out the battery, put
in the module. You'll also need to make sure that PC Exchange software is at least version
2.0.2 or greater: we had to update ours by installing the software from Apple's System 7.5
CD ROM.
Getting the SwapBox installed took a bit more work: we had to first replace our floppy drive,
then put a standard ISA-bus adapter in a free slot, connect up cables between it and the
SwapBox itself, and run some installation software to get the various PC Card drivers up and
running. (These drivers take up about 84 K of RAM, by the way, which is typical of PC Card
support on laptops.)
Both PC Card hard disks had to be formatted in the Intel/DOS machines first: this is a
necessary step to be able to swap the disks between DOS and Mac machines.
One of the nice things about this arrangement is that the entire Mac filename is preserved on
the disk -- this is a feature of the Macintosh PC Exchange software.
In other words, when the Mac version of Microsoft Word saves a file to the PC Card disk,
the entire filename is still seen by the Mac. On the DOS side, you see only 8.3 filenames, of
course, but you can read the file directly into Windows version of Microsoft Word readily.
We also tested two high-speed modems in the Mac PCMCIA slot to see how well they would
work with Mac Compuserve Information Manager, VersaTerm, and SmartCom. Both the
TDK DF2814 and the Megahertz 28.8/14.4 PCMCIA modems worked fine and were able to
send data at over 33 K bps or V.34 speeds. A one megabyte file, for example took less than
five minutes to send, nearly twice as fast as one sent via a 14.4 K bps link.
Documentation of both PC card disk products and the Apple and SCM adapters were all
somewhat lacking: Apple maintains a fax-back service (call 800 462 4396 and ask for
document number 10307) with a list of what cards have been tested in its expansion module.
However, when we got this document in late March it was two months old and didn't include
the Megahertz 28.8 modem, which we found worked well. Neither SunDisk's manual, which
has details on over a dozen different Intel laptops, or Simple's (which was a three-page
pamphlet) say anying about Apple PowerBooks.
Click here to return to the
previous
page
David Strom
Port Washington, NY 11050 USA
US TEL: 1 (516) 944-3407