Laptop docking port tutorial

Greetings and salutations.

I am a senior at DeVry University, in their EET program.
I, as part of a team of three, have a project to complete which will require
us to control several pager motors with a laptop computer. This is a design
project, not an assigned project.  That is, the team decided what the project
would be, the assignment was to come up with a device that shows our skills
and build it before graduation... so any help will be fair game.  

The motors will not just be on/off, they will be sent a four-bit value which
will then be fed to a DAC, and the resulting voltage will run the motor.  The
idea is to have a range of vibration intensities/frequencies for each motor.

The laptop to be used has one free USB port, (the second USB port will have a
camera attached to it,) an unused PCMCIA slot, and its docking port available
to me for this communication.

We've pretty much decided that the best choice to control these motors would
be through the docking port, via an interface board that we will build.  The
interface board will essentially be a bunch of latches and a D/A converter
multiplexed to the motors.  The DAC will poll each latch, convert the four bit
value it is holding to a voltage, and charge a cap with that voltage.
Alternately, we may just use an R2R network for each motor instead of a DAC
and do away with the multiplexing.  My task is to get the four-bit values into
the latches.

My difficulty is that I know very little about the docking1 port, and a few
quick searches using google did not turn up any information sources.  Could
anyone point me to a website that will give pinouts, and maybe some
information about programming for devices that use the port?  

Is this port simply straight access to the system busses? (like the slots on a
desktop computer's motherboard) If so, the only information I would lack would
be the pinout. If it requires a special software routine like a USB port does,
on the other hand, I would need a rundown on that routine as well.  
Also, sources for the connector would help me out, although I'm sure with more
searching I could probably find that at an online store. :)

If any of you disagree that the docking port would be the best choice for
controlling the motors, I'd like to know that too, and what you think the best
choice in that case would be.

Thanks in advance for any responses.