On 2004-10-15 bruno@openline.com.br wrote:

> is there any way to hook at same time an CF card
> and a network card on Sharp Mobilon HC-4600 to
> be able to run hpcmips NETBSD port and a network?

  I don't know if there are any combination network/flash cards.  It would
be possible to use NFS root while attached to the network, if that would
work for you.  If you have the 32MB memory and only want a very few small
applications, it should be possible to do a MD root.

  In theory, you could use the Ratoc CF USB card to attach both USB
storage and network.  My driver for this is almost complete.  However, my
opinion is that this card is not worth using with NetBSD due to poor
performance, chip bugs (can't use low speed devices off a hub, meaning all
mice and some keyboards can only be used directly), the inability to
reasonably play USB audio in most situations, the card dongle (a standard
PCMCIA dongle, which is likely to break easily), USB power requirements,
and price.  Unfortunately, the card seems to hit some obscure hardware
problems in my Clio.  I'll try to finish the driver soon on my desktop,
although I definitely recommend avoiding it.  Hopefully Ratoc will update
their card to the newer chip or the Twin-Paradox card will actually appear
and they will provide documentation (although they just said "we only
support CE" when I asked previously).

> if not, does workpad z50 have this hability?

  It looks like the z50 has both CF and PCMCIA slots, so it should work
well (and many NetBSD/hpcmips users seem to have z50s).

Matthew Orgass
darkstar@city-net.com