More on Compact Flash and the U810

OK, it seems that the ATA LIF connector on Toshiba drives (like the U810 has) are not entirely compatible with ATA ZIF connectors (like some iPods have). No idea why - but it makes a difference when looking for CF-ATA adapters.

The one I had before was ZIF and wouldn't work. I thought it was the CF Fixed/Removable problem but I was wrong. I saw other people with the U1010 - which, for whatever reason, uses a pin-style connector (very like compact flash) for at least some of its drives - have no problems with CF cards with Removable mode.

So, it must be the adapter and I need to find one that is Toshiba LIF rather than iPod ZIF. Another trawl around ebay nets me an alternative mode, the MW-CF18ZIFADP which is orange and only seems to come from Taiwan. I know it has ZIF in the name and says iPOD compatible but in very small letters it also says "compatible with Toshiba". I now have one and it works - with the additional benefit that it has a metal shell that make it exactly the same size as a Tosh drive and thus fits snugly in the U810 without rattling about.

The ZIF/LIF difference is subtle though - both work fine in my ICY-DOCK USB caddy for 1.8" drives, just not with the U810 ribbon cable - go figure!

Now, it's great to hear about all these 64GB and 100GB CF cards but, quite frankly, I'm not seeing any. Looks like the 133x Transcend is the one I can get. It's good for around 20 MB/s read/write which is not bad in comparision with the Tosh drives which are faster at peak but way slower when you get to the inner tracks. There are cheaper Adata and Peak 32Gb cards but these have a write spead of around 3 MB/s and read at 10 MB/s which is pretty glacial. Pretec have announced 266x and faster cards at this size but I've yet to see many for sale. I guess when you can charge 2-3 times as much for the same stuff in SSD format it's pretty obvious where the effort goes.

Non-Portable Computers

May day job is working on Digital Archives and Libraries - when I say non-portable this is what I mean.

..though that's a bit old-hat - now working on the next generation.

Will be scooting over to the USA at the end of November for PASIG so may do a bit of shopping then - depends on whose currency sinks lower though!

U810 and Zaurus

It's been quiet for a while - RS still don't have the PCI-E connectors - they have the 3.9mm high ones but not the 5.9mm ones I require. And I have to buy 5-off which is a tad expensive. If I do go this route I would like to try one of the EEE PC SSD cards in the slot - conics.net have some interesting possibilities but i know enough EEE owners to borrow a stock one for testing.

I am in two minds, however, so I have also bought some surface mount USB connectors from Maplin since the BIOS supports boot-from-USB. Now just need to get some time.

I have a Zaurus (Akita) as well and I've now moved all my stuff off onto the U810 so I can play with it a bit more - I'm currently using Cacko but feel the urge for a full X distro - I curently use pdaxQTrom (thanks Meanie!) but the X->QT hack is a little tardy and my Z doesn't overclock well.

I've not got a CF card working in the U810 yet but haven't really been trying - Toshiba have now released a 120GB 5mm drive which is now tempting me even more - if I can find one! Couple that with a 32GB USB or PCI-E SSD and things start to get interesting.