port replicator v. docking station
Wednesday, April 21, 2010 A port replicator makes it easy to rapidly connect or disconnect multiple laptop peripherals. If a laptop is used for both desktop and mobile computing, it can be tedious to individually plug in or remove accessories such as monitors, keyboards, mice, printers, speakers, network cables, external USB hard drives, and other USB, parallel, and serial devices whenever the computer is moved. These peripherals may all be permanently attached to a port replicator, which connects to the laptop via a single connector. This may be a proprietary connection, a USB port, or a PC Card slot. Some port replicators may charge the laptop as well.
A docking station serves 2 purposes:
- It acts as a port replicator, making it more convenient to dock the computer while reducing wear on the computer’s ports.
- It houses additional components that would normally be found inside a desktop computer, but which can’t be installed within a smaller laptop. These may include expansion cards, hard drives, CD/DVD drives, and speakers.
Docking stations are almost always proprietary; port replicators often aren’t. In summary: port replicators have ports, and docking stations have both ports and drive bays.