NT Notebooks Get Plug and Play--Sort of

Notebook vendor Digital Equipment is adding limited support for Plug and Play-like functionality to its Windows NT notebooks to please businesses that want NT on all their desktop and portable PCs. Although Digital ((800) 344-4825) cautions that it isn't doing a full implementation of the Plug and Play standard for Windows NT, the company is looking to add certain capabilities to its latest crop of notebooks, including the HiNote Ultra II.

"I think there are significant market demands to make NT more mobile-friendly," says Steve Smith, product manager for HiNote Ultra II (NT configurations). Customers are increasingly asking how well a portable system runs NT." Later this year, Digital hopes to make its NT notebooks capable of recognizing when they're connected or disconnecte d to a docking station and make the appropriate adjustments.

Components that Digital has control over, such as its own port replicator, docking station, mobile media module, and other components, will be supported first. The company may also support a few popular third-party network interface cards (NICs), hard drives, and modems, but this will be a greater challenge. "We can add Plug and Play-like functionality where we control both ends," says Smith. "However, it's harder when you don't have access to the source files for the drivers of other companies' peripherals."

Digital's efforts in this area illustrate the growing importance of NT in the corporate desktop arena. With Microsoft saying Plug and Play won't be introduced to NT until the version code-named Cairo ships later this decade, notebook vendors will need to roll their own solutions to make NT a better notebook citizen.