Talk:MiniPCI Express slot

Compatibility

Designated slots

According to the design, each slot is intended for a specific purpose. In the X200 for example, the three slots are for:

• Intel® Turbo Memory hard drive cache or Wireless USB (UWB) (half-length slot)
• WWAN 3G card (full-length)
• WLAN card (full-length)

The purpose of each slot decides over:

• antenna cable routing (or placement of other connectors)
• details of some pins of the MiniPCI Express connector
  • RF kill signal (one pin)
  • LED signal lines (several pins, one for each type (WLAN, WWAN) of LED)
  • SIM card slot access (three/four(?) pins giving access to a SIM card (in a slot somewhere))

In case of the X200, I can confirm that the WLAN LED pin of the WLAN slot is connected to the WLAN LED (as everyone might have guessed). Same is true of the WWAN LED pin in the WWAN slot.

Some questions which remain open:

• Does the RF kill hardware switch kill the WWAN slot?
• Is the WWAN LED pin in the WLAN slot connected to something and vice versa?
• Are the wires from the SIM card slot connected to all MiniPCI Express slots or only the WWAN slot?

Questions answered for the ThinkPad X200:

• The WLAN LED pin in the WWAN slot does not go the WWAN LED.
• The RF kill pin is active (grounded) in the WWAN slot at least under some circumstances and there is a SMAPI software switch which might be able to toggle that signal.
• Antenna cables go to their supposed slots by default, but are long enough to be rerouted to any slot.