Question What is this connector on a thin client?

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

I was just looking at an Igel M320C thin client, and one of the photos showed this on the bottom:
(over on the right side, bottom) It reminds me of an IDE hookup. Would they have built in an IDE connector for adding a hard drive onto
the edge of a thin client's motherboard??

 

[Tech Junky]

Looks like PATA.... why a thin client designed to boot from a remote system would need local storage I have no idea.

Find a manual and see if it's for data or supplemental power or something else.

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

Looks like PATA.... why a thin client designed to boot from a remote system would need local storage I have no idea.

Find a manual and see if it's for data or supplemental power or something else.

Wow, not much documentation out there any longer. However, I was able to find some photos showing that the base of the unit could add additional connections, such as USB and even wifi options. Evidently it doesn't support an IDE drive. The system DOES have an internal SATA hookup, though.

 

[lakedude]

 

[aigomorla]

My guess is also PATA, seeing that notch in the middle and 40 pin count.
It was probably for a optical CD drive which used PATA seeing how its a additional serial port for Legacy peripherals, Ie.. A Optical CD drive or possibly a Tape Drive.

I am guessing it had its own external enclosure which had a independant power supply or brick, and you just connected the two devices via the PATA cable.

 

[lakedude]

It is for the "connectivity foot".

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

Interesting. I'm guessing they used the IDE hookup as a connector because the world was transferring away from them at that point, and there was probably a surplus of these connectors available very cheaply.