@EFDA.ADF PCMCIA ADAPTER/A
@EFDA_94.ADF 08/10/1994 Different, added 4 pos[n], only two I/O ranges

193-353 IBM PCMCIA ADAPTER/A
194-402 Withdrawal: Selected Features (Options By IBM)
November 15, 1994, IBM withdrew IBM PCMCIA Adapter/A (67G5055). Replacement Two Slot Front Access PCMCIA Adapter 81G4256

pcmciamc.exe PCMCIA Adapter/A Option v1.0 (720K image),DOS PCMCIA drivers.
ISA2SLOT.EXE Win 3.1x / DOS utility to install Windows PCMCIA support
Readme for ISA2SLOT

Vadem VG469 Product Brief
Vadem VG469 Datasheet

Vadem VG-468 Product Brief
Vadem VG-468 Datasheet
Vadem Application Note 021

Q168303 Masking IRQ's for PCMCIA Devices
Q170084 How To Add PCMCIA Support to a Windows NT Device Driver
Q299364 Access Violation in Services.exe When You Insert an Unconfigured PC Card

ThinkPad PCMCIA Host Controllers

PCMCIA /A with Remote 2 Slot
   PCMCIA Sockets (separate board)
PCMCIA /A with Rear Opening Slots (Maybe Japan only?)
PCMCIA /A with Three 50 Pin Headers
Stinger under Linux Success?
Full WinNT4 Support (commercial)
Half-Assed W95 Support
95 Bezel Hack
More Refined 95 Bezel "Hack"
Hardware Installation
Software Installation
Installing the Adapter Device Driver
Troubleshooting
ADF Sections

Based on content by William Walsh (original HERE).

PCMCIA /A 81G4256: 2-Slot Front Access PCMCIA Adapter (O2MCPCM ?)

U3-U6 Littelfuse 0459001 surface mount fast blow fuse, 1 ampere rating.

Note: If your PCMCIA Reader suddenly refuses to read / write, and you have been pulling it out / reinserting it a bit, one of the Littelfuse (white ceramic) might have had a solder joint fail. Check the solder joints carefully, look for a "fracture". I resoldered one, and restored my reader to life...

PCMCIA Socket Card

Linking this to the PCMCIA/A adapter is an 80 pin IDC cable. Mine is made by Thomas and Betts. Each connector end is identified as a 311-8030. Thomas and Betts did away with their electronic cables division in 2000 by selling it off to Tyco International. Neither company would provide any information on this cable.

Rear Opening 2 Slot PCMCIA /A P/N 67G5054 / FRU 67G5055 (Stinger)

PCMCIA /A with Three 50 Pin Ports 67G5055 2-Slot PCMCIA (Stinger)

Ed.: This is a stump the chump card set. My guess... The rear access adapter shares the same FRU as the Japanese 2 slot rear loading PCMCIA /A. This card set is an earlier FRU, and advances in design eliminated the need for the detached card. Note that a FRU relates to functional equivalence, where this card is a rear slot model, and the Japanese rear loading PCMCIA /A is also a rear slot model. The Japanese 2 slot rear loading PCMCIA -MIGHT- be a reduced cost version...

PCMCIA Three Header, Front

Oddly, I cannot make out ANY traces going to the MCA edge connectors. It appears that there is a whoppin' big ground plane.

Note the utter lack of ANY chip. Not even a SIMMple logic chip to support POSID. Other MCA adapters exist that lack any POSID, and are invisible to POS (example - a gamecard). These cards sit on the bus and respond to industry standard I/O addresses.

PCMCIA Three Header, Rear

Again, where are ANY traces to the edge contacts?

PCMCIA Three Header, Tab

If you are using OS/2 version 3, install the ThinkPad 720 PCMCIA drivers... The PS/2 E is an ISA machine... Duh!

Note: An OPTIONS BY IBM HARDWARE MAINTENANCE MANUAL SUPPLEMENT (S83G-9902, 83G9902) is available in support of this product.
   These adapters come with the brackets required to install them into the special bay in the new IBM systems (6875 and 6885) or a standard 3.5-inch drive bay. Installation in a 5.25-inch drive bay requires the use of a standard 3.5-inch to 5.25-inch drive bay conversion kit (70G8165).

Stinger under Linux Success

> Did anyone ever make a working Stinger driver for Linux?

Heinz Rath wrote:
   The Stinger chipset is working under Linux! I have tested this with my Thinkpad 720 (MCA Based Laptop which also uses the Stinger chipset). Simply add the do_scan=0 boot parameter for PCMCIA or directly patch one line in kernel.

/linux-2.4.19/drivers/pcmcia/i82365.c
do_scan=1;   into  do_scan=0

The 2 sockets are detected and also the inserted Network card is found. Without the do_scan change the kernel will freeze when detecting the chip. The chip is a VD468. (Ed. Thought it was the 468 or 469...)

Posted by Landon Sheely:
   I purchased one of these a while ago for a project I was working on and had it installed in my 8595. It did, indeed, work great under DOS/Win and OS/2 Warp. Problem is that the adapter uses the "stinger" chipset which is the same as what IBM used in the ThinkPad 720 series. This chipset is unsupported in Win9x and, if memory serves, you can only use the real mode drivers and not have any 32-bit support. Tis a bummer.

Editor's Note: NT 4.0 will not even SEE it.

Full WinNT4 Support

David Ress was stalking the chimera, and bagged it!
   I would like to report that I just finished testing my PCMCIA Adapter/A under NT, and it looks like all is well. Looks like CardWare for NT solves our problem. Latest version is 6.00.041, and this version includes the refinements to work with the MCA bus. The download is a trial version that only works for 14 days.

Tested a 3Com EtherLink III LAN PC Card (model 3C589D-TP) and it found it right away. Interesting enough, it provided me with the IO address, IRQ and other information necessary to install it, including opening the Network control panel. Oh, you need SP6 in order to install CardWare for NT.

I have been experimenting with the CardWare for NT software for the past two nights, and based on the cards I have tried, I can honestly say that if the PCMCIA card is on CardWare's list of supported adapters, it will work no problems. If it is not, then it takes a little monkeying.

That said, it appears that New Media GameJammer and WAVJammer appears to be the only sound PCMCIA adapter on CardWare's list. Does this mean your card does not work, of course not. My DaqCard-1200 from National Instruments is not listed either. It mounts, but CardWare for NT is not aware of its driver. Just takes some fiddling with the PC Card Database.

For supported adapters, it may simply require the installation of a driver and a reboot - as I found out last night with the Adaptec APA1640 SlimSCSI card (needs sparrow.sys). Funny, for a while I had four SCSI adapters in my 9533. Tall about overkill.

Tested PC Cards
NT Trial Version

Half-Assed W95 Support

From the god-Emperor of Microchannel:
   Well, I am reporting "success" with the Stinger under W95. I got a mixed result that you all might accept- Install Ezplay. When it complains about not being able to rename config.pcm to config.sys, hit OK. Fire up Exploiter and save c:\ezplay\config.pcm as c:\config.sys

Now open up c:\windows\ios.ini and add "diskdrv.sys" to the area with the rest of the IBM PCMCIA drivers. Reboot.

Results- you will be able to use your hard drives in protected mode. The two PCMCIA slots and your CD Rom will be in compatibility mode. You got to suffer a little bit...

The problem seems to be when IOS tries to issue Int 25 commands to the PCMCIA and CD. The diskdrv.sys is the crux of the matter. Look in IOS.LOG for errors.

I tried must_chain, non_disk, monolithic. I got the same results with just the diskdrv.sys entry, so I just left it that way. I'm not totally sure what this will do with communications and network PC cards. It worked with my 105MB PCMCIA HD. YMMD

95 Bezel Hack

Got tired of the dorky look of a bare B: drive bay. Did some measurements and started cutting. Basically, you cut the bottom of the PCMCIA opening flush with the bottom of the horizontal angle of the blank floppy cover.

Measure 1.5" from the left and right edges of the floppy bezel. Those are the edges of the left and right side of the opening. I am still fighting with the top edge of the opening. .43" was too low. Much easier to cut excess away than put it back...

More Refined 95 Bezel "Hack"

Tom Webster quit doing one arm pushups long enough to type:
   Installation on a Model 95 is quite simple. Use a QIC Tape Drive bezel, IBM part number 34F2719 (ASM 34F2721), and add four 0.156 inch high, 0.127 ID, 0.25 (or there abouts) OD spacers, or equivalent stack of number 4 flat washers, between the 'drive' and the skid.

This centers the 'drive' vertically in the bezel opening with ample clearance to insert/remove the PCMCIA cards. NO BEZEL HACKING REQUIRED.

Two Slot PCMCIA Adapter for MCA Part Numbers:

Operating System requirements DOS 5.0 and higher, Windows 3.1 and OS/2 2.1 The adapter supports the R2.1 PCMCIA specifications.

Hardware Installation

I prefer mounting the PCMCIA into the B: drive bay in a 95, but it works just as well in the A: drive bay...

Hardware installation (Adapter and Bay Assembly):

1. Mark cables as J1 and J2
2. Plug the J1 cable into J1 connector on logic card
3. Plug the J2 cable into J2 connector on logic card
4. Power-off computer and unplug power cord
5. Remove Computer cover
6. Plug logic card into 16-bit slot
7. Mount bay card assembly into external DASD bay
8. Plug J1 cable J1 connector on bay card
9. Plug J2 cable into J2 connector on bay card
10. Verify cables will not interfere with re-installation of cover.
    Re-route cables if they interference.
11. Re-install Computer cover
12. Plug power cords back in the outlets and power-on the computer

Software Installation

Copy the files from the enclosed Micro Channel Options diskette onto the back-up copy of your system reference diskette. Start Update the System Configuration.

For All Systems

Having successfully installed this option into the computer, you are now ready to plug PCMCIA cards into it. This adapter allows the hot plugging and removal of PCMCIA cards. Depending on the PCMCIA card that is used, you may be required to install the drivers which were supplied with that card.

Installing the Adapter Device Driver

DOS Driver Installation

1. Install DOS (Disable PCMCIA drivers, if they were included with DOS)
2. Insert Option Disk in A:, type A:\UINSTALL and press ENTER
3. Select INSTALL DOS PCMCIA DEVICE DRIVERS for IBM Machines
4. Follow the installation instructions shown on the display
5. Select Option 17: Any with INTEL PCIC

Restart the system The Option Driver will install two logical drives (i.e. D and E) for PCMCIA memory cards under DOS. Use the utility EZPLAY.EXE to obtain the PCMCIA cards information (card information structure- CIS) by typing EZPLAY and pressing enter. Some PCMCIA cards such as the PCMCIA IR cards need to be enabled by its software first in order to display CIS.

Windows 3.1 Driver Installation (includes DOS installation)

1. Start Windows (Enhanced Mode)
2. Select FILE from the Program Manager Window
3. Select RUN from the pull-down menu
4. Insert Option Disk in A:, type A:\PCMINSTW and press ENTER
5. Select Select any with INTEL PCIC
6. Follow the installation instructions shown on the display
7. Restart system The Option Driver will install two logical drives (i.e. D and E) for PCMCIA memory cards under DOS and Windows. Click on the icon PlayAtWill to obtain PCMCIA card information (card information structure- CIS)
8. The utility DICRMU01.SYS may cause some configuration to run slowly. If slow operation occurs, please edit the CONFIG.SYS file by selecting the file editor and insert REM at the beginning of the line DEVICE=C:\EZPLAY\DICRMU01.SYS

OS/2 2.1 Driver Installation

1. Start OS/2
2. Start Full Screen OS/2
3. Insert Option Disk in A:, type A:\PCMINST2 and press ENTER
4. Select Select any with INTEL PCIC
5. Follow the installation instructions shown on the display
6. Shutdown and Restart the system
7. Click on PlayAtWill icon to obtain PCMCIA card information (card information structure- CIS)

Personal Experience: To install the dual slot adapter under OS/2 v.3, go to OS/2 System, System Setup, Selective Install, click on the button to the left of PCMCIA Support, choose the IBM ThinkPad 720.

Preparing this Adapter for Use

Having successfully installed this option into the computer, you are now ready to plug PCMCIA cards into it. This adapter allows the HOT PLUGGING and REMOVAL of PCMCIA cards Depending on the PCMCIA card that you choose to use, you may be required to install the drivers which were supplied with that card.

Troubleshooting

Adapter does not operate

1. Confirm logic card is installed correctly in computer's 16-Bit slot.
2. Confirm bay card is installed correctly in a 3.5 or 5.25 Inch bay.
3. Confirm that device drivers and support software have been installed and are operational. You will see a response from these drivers during the power on or re-booting sequence. (Ed. Use F8 during boot to do a step-by-step confirmation under DOS/W9x)

PCMCIA card does not operate in a slot

1. Make sure that the card is completely inserted in the slot. There will be an audible beep when the card is properly inserted or removed.
2. Make sure that the device drivers for the PCMCIA card have been installed in this computer.

PCMCIA card does not operate in either port

1. Confirm cables are plugged according to instructions.
2. Confirm bay card is installed in 3.5 or 5.25 Inch bay

Error message Invalid Drive Letter appears

This may occur if the host computer has assigned drive letters above C: for devices such as a CD-ROM, additional hard disk or partitioned hard drives.

Insert the following statement in the CONFIG.SYS before any device driver statements: lastdrive = # where # equals the letter of the last drive in the system. You must include two letters for the adapter and letters for all of the previously configured drives.

DOS Configuration Example

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
FILES=30
BUFFERS=30
DOS=HIGH,umb
SHELL=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM /P /E:512
LASTDRIVE=M
STACKS=9,258

DEVICE=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE
DEVICE=C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.SYS
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS X=C800-C9FF
DEVICE=C:\EZPLAY\SSDOSAT.SYS /O
DEVICE=C:\EZPLAY\IBMDOSCS.SYS
DEVICE=C:\EZPLAY\RMUDOSAT.SYS /MA=C800-C9FF
DEVICE=C:\EZPLAY\AUTODRV.SYS C:\EZPLAY\AUTODRV.INI
DEVICE=C:\EZPLAY\DISKDRV.SYS

The CONFIG.SYS File

DOS CONFIG.SYS

The installation program modifies the DOS CONFIG.SYS file to include the appropriate DEVICE statements in the following order.

   DEVICE=x   The letter x specifies the Socket Services already installed on the computer.
   DEVICE=y   The letter x specifies the Socket Services already installed on the computer.
   DEVICE=[drive:][path] PCMATADD.SYS /baseslot=n /stbtime=n
where:
   [drive:][path] The parameters [drive:][path] specify the location of the device driver file.

OS/2 CONFIG.SYS File Sequence

The installation program places the appropriate device statements in the OS/2 CONFIG.SYS file. They MUST appear in the following order.

   BASEDEV=OS2DASD.DMD
   DEVICE=C:\OS2\xxxxxx.SYS   (the Card Services statement)
   DEVICE=C:\OS2\PCMATAE.SYS
   DEVICE=C:\OS2\xxxxxxxx.SYS   (the Socket Services statement)
   BASEDEV=PCM2ATA.ADD
   BASEDEV=OS2PCARD.DMD   (Note: Card and Socket Services are not supplied with this option)

switch options for the main device driver
   BASEDEV=PCM2ATA.ADD [/s:n] [/i:m] [/stbtime:n] [/b] where:

Notes About the /b Option:

1. Do not ignore the computer startup socket by the /i option when you use the /b option. Because the PCM2ATA.ADD module cannot examine whether or not the socket can start the operating system, the PCM2ATA.ADD module decreases the number of supported sockets by the /b option and subtracts the number of sockets to be ignored. For example, when you add the /s:4 /b /i:2 options to the PCM2ATA.ADD module, and the OS/2 operating system is started from socket 2, the PCM2ATA.ADD module can manage only two sockets. Sockets 1 and 3 are assigned and socket 4 is ignored.
2. This switch option applies only to the CONFIG.SYS file residing on the PC Card. Do not specify this option on the CONFIG.SYS file that resides on the internal hard disk drive.
3. If you started (booted) from the PC Card, do not remove the card until you shut down the operating system.

PCMCIA Cards

• Type I -3.3mm thick SRAM or EEPROM memory cards.
• Type II -5.0mm thick, include SCSI, sound, modems, NIC, external device interfaces
• Type III -10.5mm thick cards that are most often hard drives.

Software Drivers

There are several layers of software drivers that allow the PCMCIA card and slot to function with the computer. These software drivers allow the applications and user to make use of the PCMCIA hardware. Which drivers are needed depends on the card, and the drivers used.

Card Services

Card Services works with the operating system to allocates memory, interrupts and other system resources to the card and drivers.

   PCMCS.EXE Phoenix DOS Card Services
   IBMDOSCS.SYS Yamato (IBM) DOS Card Services
   PCMCIA.SYS OS/2 2.1 Card Services

Socket Services

Socket Services provides a low level interface for the socket hardware. Socket Services accepts configuration information from Card Services, and reads low level card configuration data from the PCMCIA card.

   PCMSS Phoenix Socket Services
   IBMDSS01.SYS Yamato (IBM) AT bus DOS Socket Services
   IBMDSS02.SYS Yamato (IBM) MCA Socket Services
   IBM2SS01.SYS Yamato (IBM) AT bus OS/2 Socket Services

Client and Super Client Enablers

Client Enablers can configure one specific card for use as a standard peripheral device. A Client Enabler is specific to the card it is written for, and works the same as a driver for that device. Super Client Enablers have the ability to recognize and configure a wider range of cards (two or more).

   ESTDFM.EXE IBM Modem Client Enabler
   MEGAHZ.EXE Megahertz modem Client Enabler
   PCMSCD.EXE Phoenix Super Client Driver
   AUTODRV.SYS Yamato Super Client Driver

Point Enablers

Point Enablers bypass Socket and (or) Card services and function as a Client Enabler. Point Enablers can save memory if one is available for the card, and matches the socket controller. Point Enablers will usually not work with each other, or other PCMCIA drivers. (There are no universal Point Enablers! Each is designed for a specific card, and must be provided by the manufacturer.)

Other Drivers

Some sets of PCMCIA drivers have additional drivers or utilities that take care of one part or another of the complete job. Some PCMCIA drivers, like the IBM-Yamato drivers, require POWER.EXE to be loaded before any of the PCMCIA drivers. The IBM drivers also have a Resource Map Utility that lets you tell the drivers which part of the excluded memory to use;

   DICRMU01.SYS ISA Resource Map Utility (IBM)
   DICRMU02.SYS MCA Resource Map Utility (IBM)

"Universal" PCMCIA Drivers

ThinkPad 350, 360, 510, 720, 750, 755, and PS/Note 425 all have compatible hardware. These models can use the Yamato PCMCIA drivers with EasyPlay. The file TPPCMCIA.EXE, will create an install disk for the Yamato drivers and EasyPlay. The file can be downloaded from the Internet.

Card Memory Requirements

PCMCIA Card Services requires 4K to load and function. Some PCMCIA cards will not make any other requirements, but some do. Modems and most memory cards do not need any more memory. The memory that is needed has to be set aside in the CONFIG.SYS file. To exclude 4K for Card Services, the EMM386 line may look like this:

DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE X=B000-BFFF

DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE X=D400-D7FF

The exclude range will need to be increased if a PCMCIA card is installed that needs more memory reserved for it. Here are some of the common memory requirements that would need to be added to

Card Services 4K;
IBM Token Ring card 16K RAM + 8K ROM = 24K
IBM Ethernet = 16K
IBM 3270 card = 8K

AdapterID 0EFDA "PCMCIA ADAPTER/A"

Peter's version:

fixedresources
pos[3]=X1011111b
pos[2]=XXXX0011b
pos[1]=1110XXX0b
pos[0]=XXXX0X0Xb

"I/O Address"
I/O address. Each adapter must have a unique address range.
   <A3E0-A3E1>, A3E2-A3E3, A3E4-A3E5, A3E6-A3E7, A3E8-A3E9, A3EA-A3EB, A3EC-A3ED,A3EE-A3EF, B3E0-B3E1, B3E2-B3E3, B3E4-B3E5, B3E6-B3E7, B3E8-B3E9, B3EA-B3EB, B3EC-B3ED, B3EE-B3EF, 03E0-03E1

Actual ADF I/O Choice

Choice  "A3E0-A3E1"
  pos[1]=XXXX000Xb pos[2]=1010XXXXb
  io 0A3E0h-0A3E1h

Note: This version of @0EFDA.ADF uses pos[1] and pos[2]

Huh... Default location for VG-469 registers is 3E0h/3E1h or 3E2h/3E3h

AdapterID 0EFDAh "TWO SLOT PCMCIA ADAPTER FOR MICROCHANNEL"

The option disk ADF is 08/10/1994

fixedresources
pos[7]=X1011111b
pos[6]=101X0011b
pos[5]=1110XXX0b
pos[4]=XXXX0X0Xb
pos[3]=X1011111b
pos[2]=10100011b
pos[1]=1110XXX0b
pos[0]=XXXX0X0Xb

"I/O Address"

Choice  "03E0-03E1"
  pos[1]=XXXX000Xb
  pos[5]=XXXX001Xb
  io 003E0h-003E1h
Choice  "03E2-03E3"
  pos[1]=XXXX002Xb
  pos[5]=XXXX003Xb
  io 003E2h-003E3h

Further meditation shows the 94 version fixedresources has pos[4-7] added.

Option disk fixedresources pos[2] is 10100011b, Peter's pos[2] is XXXX0011b

Option disk '94

pos[7]=X1011111b
pos[6]=101X0011b
pos[5]=1110XXX0b
pos[4]=XXXX0X0Xb
pos[3]=X1011111b
pos[2]=10100011b
pos[1]=1110XXX0b
pos[0]=XXXX0X0Xb

Peter's

pos[3]=X1011111b
pos[2]=XXXX0011b
pos[1]=1110XXX0b
pos[0]=XXXX0X0Xb

I/O Addresses

Option Disk uses pos[1] and pos[5], Peter's uses pos[1] and pos[2]

Option disk

Choice  "03E0-03E1"
  pos[1]=XXXX000Xb
  pos[5]=XXXX001Xb
  io 003E0h-003E1h
Choice  "03E2-03E3"
  pos[1]=XXXX002Xb
  pos[5]=XXXX003Xb
  io 003E2h-003E3h

Peter's

Choice  "03E0-03E1"
  pos[1]=XXXX000Xb pos[2]=0000XXXXb
  io 003E0h-003E1h

So, the two ADFs are different, the '94 version adds more fixedresources, changes the pos[x] used for I/O, and now has been pared down to only TWO I/O addresses. It sure seems like IBM wouldn't want so many I/O choices, that would make troubleshooting more complex, plus 003E0-003E1 and 003E2-003E3 are used by the VADEM VG-468.