Where can I find an adapter that will allow a standard PC card device
(PCMCIA CDPD Modem) to work on a Apple iBook through USB or Firewire?
The PC card has mac support on computers with PC card slots.  

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Request for Question Clarification by alexander-ga on 24 Apr 2002 21:21 PDT

What model of CDPD modem is it? As greg418 suggests, it is impractical
to create a generic "PCMCIA to USB" adapter, but there may be an
application-specific adapter, like your Clik drive adapter.

Hello,

YOUR CARD DOES EXIST!!! But... it's only compatible for PC (Win
98/2000) so far. A company called Arstech specialize in "bus
conversion - allow connecting through USB of standard ISA and PCMCIA
cards". This is exactly what you are looking for and they are the only
company which I know of which is persuing this field. "Currently we
have support on Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP . We plan support on other
OSes." is the tagline found on their company strategy page, and they
go onto describe how they are the first company able to support 16 bit
PCMCIA cards through USB thanks to custom coverter chips and use of a
"Universal Software Layer". This requires you to rewrite drivers for
your card, and/or use their already developed utilities. What follows
below is how they suggest using their PCMCIA-->USB converter in
software:

"In the case of a PCMCIA card , it is configured authomatically by the
system , based on the choices written inside of the card . One example
of a PCMCIA card is a PCMCIA modem , having - 8 I/O ports , located
anywhere in the I/O space without conflicts , and 1 IRQ , selected
from the free IRQs .

 The job of the user is to find what are the resources of the
particular card - base I/O port , number of ports , and IRQ number ,
and enter them using our enumeration utility . After this the USL
layer automatically redirects these resources through USB ."

Pictures can be found on a link listed below, and you can clearly see
this is the exact part you are looking for. Perhaps you can send them
a fax at (858)550-9519 (they do not have a phone number listed) and
request that a Macintosh USL utility be released. Anyways, they seem
to be the only company working on PCMCIA-->USB converters and would be
your best bet. The card is $79-$99 depending on how many you purchase
at a time, but considering this cost, and including possible macintosh
extension (driver) rewrites, I would strongly suggest purchasing a new
USB external modem for your iBook instead of worrying about the hassle
of converting PCMCIA-->USB. Good luck in your decision!


Additional Links:

Arstech PCMCIA-->USB Converter (with pictures):
http://www.arstech.com/usbpcmcia.htm


Arstech Website:
http://www.arstech.com/


Search Strategy:

usb "pcmcia card reader" modem 16 bit:
://www.google.com/search?q=usb+%22pcmcia+card+reader%22+modem+16+bit


Best of luck!
skermit-ga

Thank you very much for your response. Very clear and informative.

Is this the type of gadget you need?

http://www.teleadaptusa.com/nme/order_powerbookgsm.htm

Unfortunately I don't think that such a device could exist - the
cardbus (pcmcia) architecture is pretty "low-level" (comparable to the
PCI bus in desktops) and it would be a very "strange" fit to try to
adapt it to Firewire (it surely wouldn't be possible by USB - the
bandwidth is far from being "big" enough!).

You have to consider that in order for a Firewire Cardbus "carrier" to
exist, you'd have to serialize the signal coming from the multiple
pins of the pcmcia card and deserialize and decode it in software...
the only device that could handle a Cardbus carrier would actually be
a PCI card that would enable desktops to use PCMCIA cards (... and
such PCI cards do exist, but obviously, they are of no use for you!).
:-)

I think your best bet would be a "direct" USB or Firewire (though USB
would be much more probable) adapter to whatever your cardbus card
interfaces to, such as the one researchery-ga suggested...


Good Luck!

Well, the reason I think such a device may exist/be possible is that I
have a Iomega Click drive that is build into a PC card. It came with a
PC card adapter for USB, but only appears to work with the Click
drive. The modem I want to use is extremely low bandwidth (19.2k), so
interfacing through USB shoudln't be too much of a problem It is a 16
bit PC card, not a Cardbus card. I took the Iomega adapter apart, and
by looking at the two largest chips on it, it appears to have been
made by Shuttle Technology.

-john

johnmckee: Shuttle Technology (now SCM Microsystems
[http://www.scmmicrosystems.com]) actually makes OEM USB-ATA adapters
[http://www.scmmicrosystems.com/connectivity/usbata.html], so it is
very probable that your PocketZip (clik) is actually a standard ATA
drive interfaced by USB.

Unfortunately, that doesn't help you as you're trying to interface a
PC Card... As researchery and alexander have suggested, the easier way
around (even though it means a new purchase and not using the card you
already own) would be a USB-to-serial adapter (those are very common)
and then, to use a "standard" (serial) CDPD modem, or to find a USB
CDDP modem (which would probably include both serial adapter and modem
in one package, just like your clik includes an ATA adapter and disk
drive).