Absolute Beginner's Guide to A+ Certification

Using the Proprietary Expansion Bus

To save weight and space, portable computers do not use standard expansion bus designs, such as the ISA, PCI, or AGP expansion slots used on desktop computers. Instead, many (but not all) portable computers have proprietary connectors (see Figure 12.10) on the rear or bottom of the system case that will connect with either a docking station or a port replicator.

Figure 12.10. A typical notebook computer with Infrared serial port, SVGA video port, parallel port, and expansion bus for use with a docking station or port replicator (not shown). Dual folding doors, retracted here, protect the expansion bus from damage.

Docking Stations and Media Slices

A docking station expands the capability of a portable computer ...