Ultrabay

IBM UltraBay UltraBay is IBM's name for the swapable drive slot. Introduced back in the times of the 770 Thinkpads, this technology has gone through redesigns with almost every new generation of Thinkpad models, possibly leading to some confusion that is hopefully cleared up here. The following table gives an overview of the different UltraBay types, in which models they occurred and what drives are available for them. Note that the optical drive bay in G series Thinkpads is not an UltraBay in that the drives are fixed and not removable. On the media side different UltraBays relate to the form factor of the drives they accept, e.g early A, T and X series models can accept UltraBay devices up to 12.5mm in thickness, whereas current T and X series machines are limited to devices no more than 9.5mm thick.

Overview over UltraBay types and available devices

UltraBay Type	featured in	available drives
UltraBay	365(?), 380(?), 380D(?), 380ED(?), 760, 765
UltraBay II	770, 770E, 770ED, 770X, 770Z, SelectaDock III	, ZIP-100, ZIP-250
UltraBay FX	390, 390E, 390X
UltraSlimBay	570, 570E, 600, 600E, 600X	, ZIP-100, ZIP-250, LS-120
UltraBay 2000	A20, A21, A22, A30, T20, T21, T22, T23, X20, X21, X22, X23, X24, Dock, Dock II, UltraBase X2, UltraBase X3	, ZIP-100, ZIP-250, LS-120, LS-240
UltraBay Plus	A30, A30p, A31, A31p, R30, R31, R32, R40, T23, T30, X30, X31, X32	, ZIP-100, ZIP-250, WorkPad Cradle, Numpad
UltraBay Slim	T40, T40p, T41, T41p, T42, T42p, T43, T43p, X40, X41
UltraBay Enhanced	R50, R50p, R51, R51p, R52

Compatibility Matrix (read columns as slots with rows as devices that are compatible)

Slots Devices	UltraBay	UltraBay II	UltraBay FX	UltraSlimBay	UltraBay 2000	UltraBay Plus	UltraBay Slim	UltraBay Enhanced
UltraBay	yes	Adapter	-	-	-	-	-	-
UltraBay II	-	yes	-	-	-	-	-	-
UltraBay FX	-	-	yes	-	-	-	-	-
UltraSlimBay	-	-	-	yes	-	-	-	-
UltraBay 2000	-	-	-	-	yes	yes	-	-
UltraBay Plus	-	-	-	-	-	yes	-	-
UltraBay Slim	-	-	-	-	Adapter	Adapter	yes	yes
UltraBay Enhanced	-	-	-	-	Adapter	Adapter	-	yes

Mechanical Characteristics

• UltraBay FX: The combined floppy drive and CD-ROM, DVD or CDRW mechanism found in the 390/390E/390X.
• UltraSlimBay: Frame, rectangle like blending
• UltraBay 2000: Frame, blending has cut out egde on the right
• UltraBay Plus: same as UltraBay 2000, but can take WorkPad cradle and numpad
• UltraBay Slim: notably thinner than UltraBay 2000, cut out right edge in blending
• UltraBay Enhanced: Accepts UltraBay Slim devices

Linux Support

Since the UltraBay interface is merely an IDE controller, all drives are supported by the IDE driver in the linux kernel. Hotswapping is supposed to be supported as well, using hdparm to (un)register devices. NOTE: This seems to be broken with 2.6 kernels. If UltraBay Plus devices are supported is not known.