On Tue, 9 Sep 2003 00:39:58 +0400, "Maxim S. Shatskih"
wrote:

On laptops, USB is very, very great. Maybe USB is one of the
greatest ideas
of
the laptop computing.
Without USB, you have nearly no ways of attaching hardware to
laptop.

The PC-Card (PCMCIA) and Cardbus interfaces were intended to be for
this, in exactly the same way that the ISA and PCI busses are the
mechanisms for attaching harware to a desktop.

Without USB, you will need:
- PS/2 hole for keyboard
- serial port for serial-attached hardware or serial mouse
- PS/2 hole for mouse
- parallel port for printer
- custom PCMCIA card for scanner

and so on. With USB, all you need is a hub, and only if you have more
then 2
devices to attach to the laptop.

Max


Port replicators have done this type of thing very well long before
USB. They are also more robust devices designed especially for easily
plugging/unplugging daily for years.