Back Koppelstasie AF محطة إحضان Arabic Docking station Bulgarian Docking station Catalan Dokovací stanice Czech Dockingstation German Sülearvuti dokk ET Telakka (tietokone) Finnish Station d'accueil French Stazione di espansione Italian
In computing, a docking station, port replicator (hub), or dock provides a simplified way to plug-in a mobile device, such as connect common peripherals to a laptop, or charge a smartphone. Because a wide range of dockable devices—from mobile phones to wireless mouse—have different connectors, power signaling, and uses, docks are unstandardized and are therefore often designed for a specific type of device.[citation needed]
A dock can allow some laptop computers to become a substitute for a desktop computer, without sacrificing the mobile computing functionality of the machine. Portable computers can dock and undock hot, cold or standby, depending on the abilities of the system. In a cold dock or undock, one completely shuts the computer down before docking/undocking. In a hot dock or undock, the computer remains running when docked/undocked. Standby docking or undocking, an intermediate style used in some designs, allows the computer to be docked/undocked while powered on, but requires that it be placed into a sleep mode prior to docking/undocking.