PCMCIA/PCCard XTIDE Option Bootrom card? \ VOGONS

PCMCIA/PCCard XTIDE Option Bootrom card?

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First post, by SkyHawk

Posted on 2025-02-04, 22:50

SkyHawk Offline

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Rank: Newbie
Posts: 69
Joined: 2004-10-07, 04:32

So I'm in a conversation where someone with an old notebook PC wants larger drive support.

This is outside my wheelhouse, but would it be feasible for an inexpensive-ish homebrew PCCard with an EEPROM and a bit of wiring/logic to insert XTIDE as an Option ROM to the system BIOS at boot-time?

That way all the hardware and BIOSes can just stay original, an 8GB CompactFlash card can be installed in lieu of a HDD, and just having the OptionROM board in one of the PCMCIA slots would allow the system to operate reliably?

Reply 1 of 1, by Bondi

Posted on 2025-02-05, 10:35

Bondi Offline

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Posts: 857
Joined: 2019-04-01, 11:45

From what understood form the discussion with yyzkevin(the guy that is making a pcmcia network/sound card) it is actually possible to have this kind of option rom on a pcmcia card. His card actually supports it and uses it for network boot of his of the emulated ne2000 card. So any laptop bios that supports network boot or potentially pcmcia storage boot has an idea on how to access pcmcia cards.

PCMCIA Sound Cards chart
archive.org: PCMCIA software, manuals, drivers

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