3Com 3C389 manual Point Enablers, Advantages, Disadvantages

1-4CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Point Enablers

Windows NT currently uses a point enabler called PCMCIA.SYS, which currently ships with Windows NT. OS/2 requires Card Services.

Point enablers are small programs that provide an interface directly to the PC Card controller; therefore, they must be written to support a particular type of controller. For the 3C389 PC Card, there are point enablers for the Intel chip (most PCs) and for the chip installed in the Toshiba 3300SL.

In the DOS environment only, you have the option of using these point enablers instead of Card and Socket Services.

Two point enablers are supplied for this PC Card:

■POINTTR.EXE—For PCs with Intel PCMCIA controllers, including the IBM ThinkPad, Toshiba 4500 and later, and many other makes.

■TOSHTR.EXE–For the Toshiba T3300SL.

When using the point enabler, it is vitally important that you make certain that the system resources used by the PC Card are different from and do not conflict with the system resources and any other PC Cards installed in your PC.

Advantages

Enablers consume no memory—they remove themselves after configuring the PC Card.

Disadvantages

You must specify the slot number; the point enabler will enable only that slot. Therefore, the PC Card must always be in a specific slot.

In some PCs, the slot may not be switched off when the PC is in suspend mode, so the PC Card will continue to consume power.