Mac Book Pro – Expresscard/34 and P2 Cards

[Noah Kadner]

PCMCIA to USB 2, FW400 or ExpressCard adapter should do the job. Or FW400 to camera or P2 drive.

Noah

[David S.]

That’s the concern.

There are no USB adapters that are 32-bit to accept these cards.

If you are rotating 4GB P2 cards to a PB, no cost effective USB or Firewire solutions exists to keep the camera rolling.

At least with the new Intel PBs

David S.

[Gary Adcock]

[David Saraceno] “Jan, I’d be more than willing to buy a MacBook Pro to test, if you can get me a HVX200 to test it on.”

that would be a little late as I am testing the cards on a new MB tomorrow before the show opens.

see everyone at the FCPUG meeting tomorrow night.

Gary Adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation
Chicago, IL USA

[David S.]

[gary adcock] “that would be a little late as I am testing the cards on a new MB tomorrow before the show opens.

see everyone at the FCPUG meeting tomorrow night.”

Thanks for ruining my Christmas Gary.

Jan, please ignore Gary’s post.

🙂

David S.

[David S.]

This on Express Cards from another forum:

“ExpressCard Slot

Over the long run, another new feature of the MacBook Pro – its ExpressCard/34 expansion slot – might provide a solution to the modem problem, in addition to supporting other interesting options, but in the short run it’s not likely to be much use to anyone. ExpressCard is an industry standard that was first introduced a couple of years ago as a higher-performance successor to the original PCMCIA format and the subsequent CardBus standard for adding hardware to laptops. It’s based on a combination of USB 2.0 and PCI Express connection technologies. The standard defines two physical formats, one 54 mm wide and the other 34 mm wide. Apple has chosen to implement only the 34-mm (1.34-inch) version.

The problem is that no one is yet making modems – or for that matter much of anything else – in this format, even though the standard was finalized more than two years ago. Only a handful of cards, none of them modems, are listed at the official ExpressCard site, and so far there’s no mention there of Mac compatibility. After a Google search turned up no leads, I went directly to the Web sites of Pretec and Socket Communications, both of which make CompactFlash and SDIO (Secure Digital) card modems, but neither had any ExpressCard products listed.

On the Expo floor, a few prototype ExpressCards were on display, under glass, at the Belkin booth, but there were no modems among them; the only ExpressCard/34 options were FireWire 400, Gigabit Ethernet, and a reader/writer for small flash-memory cards. (Those cards, as well as a SATA II RAID card in the larger ExpressCard/54 format, are scheduled to ship in March; prices haven’t been set.).”

David S.

[Rennie Klymyk]

Hopefully Apple will have both PCMCIA and ExpressCard/34 slots in the 17″ when it comes out. They do have to make a 17″