I do not have these bootstrapping problems because I mostly deal with older hardware when networking (or should that be "newtworking"?) my Newtons. I am surprised that your eMate does not connect straightforwardly to your Performa, and wonder whether diagnosing and curing this problem would not be a better solution than turning to ATA drivers and cards. The software packages are so small that you really don't need a large PCMCIA-based drive. The usual arrangement is simplicity itself, though there may be an extension required to get the serial port to work properly with Newton OS 2.1 ("Apple Serial Tool," maybe - but this is just from memory).
I am not far away, and I have used Newtons more or less daily since around 1997, so I have accumulated a fair bit of the lore and of the gear. I also have multiple spare machines from the past (IIci, IIsi, P6290, P580, Q650, LCIII, LC475, G3s - and that's only some of them) available for beer money should you want to take a drive down the road one Saturday and return with one. I also have spare logic boards for your 5215, should there be a problem with the port/ should you not have the space for a new machine.
Any of these can be set up to network with your eMate in no time. I have all the software, and in fact I should have the serial cable you want, around the basement here somewhere.
If what you are looking for is a note-taking machine, what I can tell you is that NewtonWorks works really well with Office '98 and '01 as well as with Word 6 and 5.1. It is happiest with the Word 6+ format — or with ClarisWorks, obviously. Spreadsheet synching is more problematic.
I am not far away, and I have used Newtons more or less daily since around 1997, so I have accumulated a fair bit of the lore and of the gear. I also have multiple spare machines from the past (IIci, IIsi, P6290, P580, Q650, LCIII, LC475, G3s - and that's only some of them) available for beer money should you want to take a drive down the road one Saturday and return with one. I also have spare logic boards for your 5215, should there be a problem with the port/ should you not have the space for a new machine.
Any of these can be set up to network with your eMate in no time. I have all the software, and in fact I should have the serial cable you want, around the basement here somewhere.
If what you are looking for is a note-taking machine, what I can tell you is that NewtonWorks works really well with Office '98 and '01 as well as with Word 6 and 5.1. It is happiest with the Word 6+ format — or with ClarisWorks, obviously. Spreadsheet synching is more problematic.