SlimLine
SlimLine ( English for "slim line") is an expression that describes reduced sizes for drives in the IT and entertainment electronics sector . The term is used in notebooks , DVD players , digital cameras , game consoles and much more.
In the IT area
In the IT sector, the term is mainly associated with notebook parts. Except for optical drives, there is no real standard for it. SlimLine designs are used for this, for example, with accumulators and disk drives . Some manufacturers have developed their own standard to accommodate different components in a slot . Acer, for example, calls its own standard Mediabay . It can hold floppy disk drives, optical drives, accumulators or hard drives .
Optical drives
Optical drives such as CD / DVD-ROM drives and CD / DVD burners are the only SlimLine devices with largely uniform dimensions. 12.7 mm in height, 128 mm in width and 129 mm in depth are common. The front side is provided with an aperture (engl. Bezel ) stocked, which is somewhat larger than the cross-section of the actual device. In the past, almost every manufacturer had a different type of cover. For new drives, the manufacturers have agreed on a new standard called the General Bezel Assembling Standard (GBAS). So the bezel just has to match the shape and color of the computer. There is a SATA connector on the back .
Devices with the outdated 50-pin ATAPI connection are hardly available anymore. In the case of ATAPI devices, despite hardware compatibility, an additional BIOS update (if available) may have been necessary to operate a replacement device in the SlimLine slot, but only in rare cases. ATAPI SlimLine drives also have no jumpers and may not work in some notebooks because the drive logs on to the bus with a fixed setting by default , which can only be changed on the software side by means of a firmware update from the manufacturer, if this is possible. If the manufacturer does not provide a solution, it is also possible to convert the solder side of the connection by separating or closing two connections on the connector (pin 47 & pin 45). Most of the time the drives are delivered with the setting Master or CableSelect . With SATA, due to the fact that only one drive can be connected per port, no setting is required.
Because of their low height, slimline drives are also built into computers that are designed for installation in 19-inch racks . Mobile housings according to the SlimLine standard also allow smaller dimensions for optical drives than the usual 5.25-inch devices. Some sub-notebooks (the size of which corresponds roughly to a DIN A5 sheet of paper) also use even thinner optical drives, so-called Ultra-Slimline or UltraSlim with a height of 9.5 mm.
Further use of the term SlimLine
- Particularly flat CD and DVD packaging are also referred to as SlimLine or Slimcase .
- Several manufacturers offer particularly flat slimline keyboards .
Web links
Conversion master / slave and pin assignment 50 pin connector