Laptops seem to be a quickly progressing technology, which may soon equal desktop computers. The amount of information available to those who wish to use their laptops for video conferencing on any level is rapidly changing and expanding to meet those needs. USB is one of the more popular uses for video conferencing via laptop or desktop as well as many companies rushing to enhance this interface for those who purposely seek it out.

What should I consider if planning to purchase a laptop to incorporate video conferencing?

PC Cards and USB Ports
Make sure your notebook has more than one PC Card slot, so that you can support several accessories, such as a standard modem card and a GSM modem card, at the same time. If you're planning to plug in videoconferencing cards and digital cameras, you may want to be sure your notebook is equipped with a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port. The Universal Serial Bus (USB) port is a new standard for connecting components such as scanners, printers, cameras, speakers, joysticks, and many other devices to the PC. Almost all new computers come with a USB port.

The importance of PC cards is being eroded by the adoption of the USB connection, but they are far from obsolete. The PC card port accommodates a wide range of products built into a package the size of a credit card. Two of these slots mounted on top of the other will accommodate the thicker PC card, Type III format, a format generally only used for plug in, miniature hard disks. You will find this Type III on larger laptops, but only a single thickness Type II or Type I PC card slot on smaller ones. You can connect to a network via USB, but you will need a PC card network adaptor if you want to connect at faster speeds (100Mb/s instead of the more common 10Mb/s). If you plan to use a digital camera, a single PC card slot is recommended to accommodate a memory card adaptor, and then the laptop can read the camera's memory cards directly – much faster than linking by cable. Finally, if you want to use SCSI hardware with your laptop there are solutions that connect external SCSI hard drives and tape drives via USB, but the speedier Fast and Ultra SCSI standards are only available by using a SCSI PC card adaptor. All of these options are lost to you if you select a laptop without a PC card slot.

There are different ways how to detect, which video port is used in your laptop:
· From the official specs
· From the output of lspci
If your laptop doesn’t support a video port by itself you may try an according*PCMCIA card, for instance the IBM Smart Capture video capture card. A driver is contributed by Koji Okamura <oka@nanotsu.kobe-u.ac.jp> http://www.mickey.ai.kyutech.ac.jp/~ohashi/scc/ See also ftp://csb.stanford.edu/pub/pcmcia/contrib/README
 

RAM
What chip do I need? In today's market the MMX chip is reigning supreme for notebooks and portables. It provides advanced support for graphics and video. This can assist in Web browsing and in video conferencing and presentations. To ensure you receive the most quality for your chip, an upgrade in RAM is a good addition to have.
Additional memory will improve the overall performance of a slower processor at less cost than upgrading to the higher processor.

The amount of video RAM varies across different laptops. The bare minimum should be 2.5Mb (for 800 x 600 SVGA screens) or 4Mb (1024 x 768 XGA screens) depending on what you're looking for. Ideally, regardless of the maximum resolution, you should go for a laptop with 8Mb of video RAM. Some laptops rely on the main system RAM for graphics acceleration. If this is the case make sure a laptop has at least 64Mb system Ram so it can do this without adversely affecting its overall performance.

Compatibility
Now we get into device compatibility and manual driver updates. Unfortunately, having researched many video cards and capture boards, the vast differences for each card and summarily driver updates are extensive. Most video cards in a laptop come equipped with the motherboard, except in high-end laptops. Most driver updates must be done via the laptop manufacturer due to non-specific compatibility via individual PC’s. As well, due to constant modifications, some video card driver updates are unable to offer even generic driver updates online. This is not to say that video conferencing is a difficult process using a laptop. The best advice to give regarding how to maintain and update your video card is to know your computer. If in doubt of which upgrade is best for your card, always contact your laptop manufacturer for specific and reliable assistance.

What to consider before purchasing a notebook:
· CPU-600MHz or higher is recommended for fast processing and longer battery life
· SCREEN- 13.3 or higher
· MEMORY- 64MB or higher. The maximum you can afford is best recommended when purchasing to save on upgrades at a later date.
· HARD DISK- 8.2 GB or higher.
· KEYBOARD-This is an individual preference.
· BATTERY-Lithium-Ion recommended for more power. NiMH or NiCad is recommended for recharging
· PORTS- Video in and out. USB. The more ports, the better!
· CARDBUS, EXPANSION SLOTS, PCMCIA- should have at least 2 PCMCIA 11 slots. Cardbus and Zoomed Video Support.
· ACCESSORIES- Network PMCIA card, Docking Station/Port Replicator, Extra Battery Life, Fax/Modem, External Mouse/ Keyboard, Notebook Bag.
 

**** Your best bet when purchasing a laptop/notebook is to buy brand name. This will save you hassles in the event the smaller notebook company goes out of business and leaves you with a laptop and no support.
 

*PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) is an international standards body and trade association. It is also a hardware and software standard which controls how PCMCIA cards will function. PCMCIA cards are computer devices the size of a credit card that can be plugged in to a supporting slot on a computer. PCMCIA cards are available as modems, network cards, or many other devices. The PCMCIA card is also referred to as PC Card. There are two types of PCMCIA cards. The "PC Card" which is the older 16-bit version and the "CardBus" which is the newer 32-bit version of the card

*CardBus is a 32-bit bus mastering architecture for PC Cards. It was standardized in May 1996 by the standards association "PCMCIA". It is similar to the PCI bus It is an advanced version of the older 16-bit 'PC Card' technology. It uses a 3.3 V, 32-bit data bus running at 33Mhz.and provides for Bus-mastering, CardBus Fast Ethernet PC Cards such as the 3Com products run at almost 90 Mbps unlike the 16-bit Fast Ethernet PC Cards which operate at only about 20-30 Mbps. CardBus cards should be backward compatible to 16-bit PC Cards. Older style PC Cards should also work in CardBus slots