[geeks] PCMCIA Flash

[Dan Sikorski]

On Tue, 2003-01-28 at 00:26, vance at neurotica.com wrote:
> Ok.  I just got myself a PDA that has a Type-III PCMCIA slot, and a
> Type-II CompactFlash slot.  It's a ROM-based WindowsCE machine and I
> intend to install NetBSD/hpcmips 1.6 on it.  Now, I've been looking at
> some of my options for storage...  tell me if you have any additional
> suggestions:

Ooh! sounds like fun! i just got a compaq ipaq model 3835 and was
thinking about a similar project!
 
> 1GB CompactFlash
> Pros:	No moving parts.
> Cons:	Expensive.  Small capacity.

the expensive aspect has turned me off to this option, that and flash
has a limited number of writes in it's lifetime.  even if that's a high
number, i still shy away from it.
 
> 1GB Microdrive
> Pros:	I get employee price.
> Cons:	Moving parts.  Small capacity.

This is what i was thinking of using with a compact flash-pcmcia adapter
 
> The above two would be used in combination with a PCMCIA 802.11 card which
> would be no problem under NetBSD.

I'm in a bit of a different situation.  My ipaq has a "secure digital"
slot in in, and i can get either a single or dual slot pcmcia sleeve for
it.  I haven't really decided weather i should get a decent sized secure
digital card, use that and the wireless in a single pcmcia sleeve, or go
for the dual sleeve and use the microdrive and the wireless card.  (i
already have a spare orinoco silver card.)  But then, i don't know that
the secure digital slot would be supported in anything but wince.
 
> 5GB PCMCIA Hard Drive
> Pros:	Good deal.  Great capacity.
> Cons:	Moving parts.

I wasn't as aware of these.  What is pricing like?
 
> PCMCIA Flash (I don't know what capacities are available.)
> Pros:	??
> Cons:	No moving parts.

you'll probably have an easier time finding compact flash.  At least
that's what i've seen more of.
 
> The problem with the above two is that I'd have to use a CF 802.11 card,
> and I have no idea whether that would work fine under NetBSD.

i don't/won't have that problem.  Only thing is that the dual pcmcia
sleeve makes the ipaq nothing short of huge!
 
> I would appreciate any help.

Let me know what you end up doing.  After i use my ipaq for work-related
pda uses, i'll make a little project out of it.  Do you know anything
about how input is (or isn't) handled by netBSD and/or linux on
handhelds?  (i really haven't looked into this all too much yet.

Here's my grand plan.

I want to load linux or netbsd on my ipaq to run XMMS on it.  Sound
strange? it should, but let me continue.  XMMS has an output plugin for
ESD (the Enlightened Sound Daemon).  This allows the output of XMMS to
be piped over the network to a machine running ESD which will then
output that sound through the sound card.  See where this is going? 
Either running XMMS locally on the ipaq, or running it on another
machine on the network and displaying it on the ipaq, i'll have the
ultimate remote controlled, network attached mp3 player.  I'll be able
to stick a sparc5 on the network in the stack with my audio stuff,
outputting mp3's from my fileserver without a horrible interface like
i've seen from similar commercial products.  All of this controlled by
my handheld ipaq via wireless LAN anywhere i can get 802.11b signal. 
I've done ESD over the network from machines to a sparc5, but haven't
done the handheld/wireless aspect of it.  An extended objective to this
could be to see if i can manage some IP multicasting to send the audio
stream to multiple ESD boxes in multiple rooms.

It sounds cool to me anyway....

	-Dan Sikorski