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IBM UltraBay
UltraBay is IBM's name for the swapable drive slot. With IBMs words: "The ThinkPad UltraBay, also standard with the system, is an intelligent bay that switches its pinout signals to allow the installation of standard and optional features in what would normally be just the FDD bay." Introduced back in the times of the 770 Thinkpads, this technology has gone through redesigns with almost every new generation of Thinkpad models, possibly leading to some confusion that is hopefully cleared up here. The following table gives an overview of the different UltraBay types, in which models they occurred and what drives are available for them.
Note that the optical drive bay in G series Thinkpads is not an UltraBay in that the drives are fixed and not removable.
On the media side different UltraBays relate to the form factor of the drives they accept, e.g early A, T and X series models can accept UltraBay devices up to 12.5mm in thickness, whereas current T and X series machines are limited to devices no more than 9.5mm thick.
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Overview over UltraBay types and available devices
UltraBay Type |
featured in |
available drives
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UltraBay |
365(?), 380(?), 380D(?), 380ED(?), 760, 765 |
|
UltraBay II |
770, 770E, 770ED, 770X, 770Z, SelectaDock III |
, ZIP-100, ZIP-250
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UltraBay FX |
390, 390E, 390X, i1720, i1721 |
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UltraSlimBay |
570, 570E, 600, 600E, 600X |
, ZIP-100, ZIP-250, LS-120
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UltraBay 2000 |
A20, A21, A22, A30, T20, T21, T22, T23, Dock, Dock II, UltraBase X2 |
, ZIP-100, ZIP-250, LS-120, LS-240
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UltraBay Plus |
A30, A30p, A31, A31p, R30, R31, R32, R40, T23, T30, UltraBase X3 |
, ZIP-100, ZIP-250, WorkPad Cradle, Numpad
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UltraBay Slim |
T40, T40p, T41, T41p, T42, T42p, T43, T43p, UltraBase X4 |
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UltraBay Enhanced |
R50, R50p, R51, R51p, R52 |
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Compatibility Matrix (read columns as slots with rows as devices that are compatible)
Slots Devices |
UltraBay |
UltraBay II |
UltraBay FX |
UltraSlimBay |
UltraBay 2000 |
UltraBay Plus |
UltraBay Slim |
UltraBay Enhanced
|
UltraBay |
yes |
Adapter |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
-
|
UltraBay II |
- |
yes |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
-
|
UltraBay FX |
- |
- |
yes |
- |
- |
- |
- |
-
|
UltraSlimBay |
- |
- |
- |
yes |
- |
- |
- |
-
|
UltraBay 2000 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
yes |
yes |
- |
-
|
UltraBay Plus |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
yes |
- |
-
|
UltraBay Slim |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Adapter |
Adapter |
yes |
yes
|
UltraBay Enhanced |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Adapter |
Adapter |
- |
yes
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Mechanical Characteristics
- UltraBay FX: The combined floppy drive and CD-ROM, DVD or CDRW mechanism found in the 390/390E/390X.
- UltraSlimBay: Frame, rectangle like blending
- UltraBay 2000: Frame, blending has cut out egde on the right
- UltraBay Plus: same as UltraBay 2000, but can take WorkPad cradle and numpad
- UltraBay Slim: notably thinner than UltraBay 2000, cut out right edge in blending
- UltraBay Enhanced: Accepts UltraBay Slim devices
Linux Support
The pinout switching is done by the BIOS and hardware, so that it is completely transparent to the operating system.
Hence, all IDE drives are supported by the IDE driver in the linux kernel. SCSI emulation is possible. Floppy drives are supported by the standard floppy driver. ZIP drive support is possible through the ide-disk driver. Batteries are BIOS controlled, anyway.
Hotswapping is supposed to be supported as well, using hdparm to (un)register devices. NOTE: This seems to be broken with 2.6 kernels.
If UltraBay Plus devices are supported is not known.