Dockingstation

A docking station ( partly docking station, English to dock -. Dock, dock ) is used to connect portable devices to a fixed network. Docking Stations are applied eg in the field of digital cameras, laptops, MP3 players or PDAs. For notebooks and port replicators are used, the terms are used sometimes misleading.

Originally, the docking station from the time that the mobile devices were large and heavy and certain assemblies were not available in miniature design mostly, and so these were installed in a docking station (expansion cards, optical drives, mass storage ).

Portable devices

Mostly meant by docking stations corresponding to devices that are used to connect electronic devices with data lines and the power supply. When plugging the device into the station the device battery is charged automatically. The power is supplied via the mains as long as the device is plugged. When connecting to computers, a connection is usually also automatically created, which enables the exchange of data.

The docking station for pure power or battery charge is intended to provide the user with a place to store his equipment and increase ease of use, since not every time cable laid or chargers must be inserted individually.

When handheld computers the docking station is sometimes called Cradle (English for cradle ). They used to charge the device battery and the data synchronization with a connected computer. Often starts automatically when plugging the device synchronization software.

For portable multimedia player docking stations often also provide other functions such as remote controls or integrated speakers.

WebOS devices from the company Palm (later HP ) could be loaded via wireless induction on special docks.

Notebooks

Port replicator

A port replicator provides to a laptop via a port on the notebook more connections available separately and so makes it possible with a cable various peripherals (mouse, printer, USB port, monitor, etc.) to connect or disconnect. There are vendor-specific port replicators, on which also the power supply or external monitors can be connected. But a suitable proprietary connection must be present on the notebook. These devices are sometimes marketed as a docking station.

Generic port replicators

Much more common are universal port replicators, which are connected via a Universal Serial Bus (USB ) and are sometimes referred to as USB docking stations. This requires no special properties of the notebook, which is why such a port replicator can be generally used in combination with all notebooks. The various interfaces are thereby connected via converter to the USB, which draws partly strong performance limitations by itself. A port replicator via USB is indeed universally usable, but has a few significant drawbacks:

• A high load of the USB bus leads to a high CPU load at idle
• The power is not possible in this way
• The graphics performance (speed and maximum resolution ) of the graphic solutions of the docking station are compared with the integrated graphics card in the notebook significantly worse
• All USB devices share the maximum bandwidth, resulting particularly in network interfaces to speed losses

For these reasons, at least two to three cables are used in stationary use ( external monitor, USB port replicator, power ) in practice mostly. Similar port replicators exist for the ExpressCard slot, which then fall back on the USB and PCIe connection of this interface and the functionality are comparable.

Perspective the USB docking stations are gradually being replaced by " Thunderbolt docking stations " because at the Thunderbolt interface without loss of performance multiple protocols, among others Monitor, Internet, printer, speakers, hard drives etc. can be served simultaneously. The first manufacturers such as Apple deliberately refrain from selling its own docking stations ( the Thunderbolt display apart ) and leave these aftermarket third parties who need as the basis for their business standardized open interfaces such as USB and Thunderbolt.

Docking Station

Notebooks are mechanically connected via a wide connector on the bottom or back of the docking station. He is replaced by a special vendor-specific interface to use, which is why only certain series can be used with a docking station.

Most all existing interfaces are provided on the notebook to the docking station, often they also have additional interfaces such as PS / 2, serial and parallel port, DVI, Display port or Firewire, which is missing in the mobile device itself for reasons of space. On newer notebooks, two additional screens can be connected to the docking station frequently.

There are also docking stations that allow the installation of additional hardware such as PCI, PCIe plug-in cards, hard drives, CD, DVD and floppy drives. Example, there is also a docking station from HP, in which the hard drive into the docking station can be used over the network as a NAS without a notebook.

• Interface (Software)