Some Type II cards, most notably network interface and modem cards, have a retractable jack, which can be pushed into the card and will pop out when needed, allowing insertion of a cable from above. This is more robust and convenient than a separate adapter but can block the other slot where slots are present in a pair. Some cards instead have a lump on the end with the connectors. Due to their thinness, most Type II interface cards have miniature interface connectors on the card connecting to a dongle, a short cable that adapts from the card's miniature connector to an external full-size connector. For example, many modem, network, and TV cards accept this configuration. Type-II cards introduced I/O support, allowing devices to attach an array of peripherals or to provide connectors/slots to interfaces for which the host computer had no built-in support. They are 5.0 millimetres (0.20 in) thick. Type II Type-II and above PC Card devices use two rows of 34 sockets, and have a 16- or 32-bit interface. Type-I PC Card devices are typically used for memory devices such as RAM, flash memory, OTP (One-Time Programmable), and SRAM cards. They are 3.3 millimetres (0.13 in) thick and have a dual row of 34 holes (68 in total) along a short edge as a connecting interface. Type I Cards designed to the original specification (PCMCIA 1.0) are type I and have a 16-bit interface. These cards were used for wireless networks, modems, and other functions in notebook PCs.Īfter the release of PCIe-based ExpressCard in 2003, laptop manufacturers started to fit ExpressCard slots to new laptops instead of PC Card slots.Īll PC Card devices use a similar sized package which is 85.6 millimetres (3.37 in) long and 54.0 millimetres (2.13 in) wide, the same size as a credit card. This was the name of the standard from version 2 of the specification onwards. To recognize increased scope beyond memory, and to aid in marketing, the association acquired the rights to the simpler term "PC Card" from IBM. This led to the introduction of release 2.0 of the PCMCIA standard and JEIDA 4.1 in September 1991, which saw corrections and expansion with Card Services (CS) in the PCMCIA 2.1 standard in November 1992. It also needed interrupt facilities and hot plugging, which required the definition of new BIOS and operating system interfaces. It soon became clear that the PCMCIA card standard needed expansion to support "smart" I/O cards to address the emerging need for fax, modem, LAN, harddisk and floppy disk cards. New Media Corporation was one of the first companies established for the express purpose of manufacturing PC Cards they became a major OEM for laptop manufacturers such as Toshiba and Compaq for PC Card products. This had the advantage of raising the upper limit on capacity to the full 32 MB available under DOS 3.22 on the 95LX. These cards conformed to a supplemental PCMCIA-ATA standard that allowed them to appear as more conventional IDE hard drives to the 95LX or a PC. The company was the first to introduce a writeable Flash RAM card for the HP 95LX (an early MS-DOS pocket computer). SanDisk (operating at the time as "SunDisk") launched its PCMCIA card in October 1992. Intel authored the Exchangable Card Architecture (ExCA) specification, but later merged this into the PCMCIA. It corresponds with the Japanese JEIDA memory card 4.0 standard. The PCMCIA 1.0 card standard was published by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association in November 1990 and was soon adopted by more than eighty vendors. History 16-bit Type II PC Card: IBM V.34 data/fax modem, manufactured by TDK The parallel port was commonly used for portable peripherals. The organization dissolved in 2009, with its assets merged into the USB Implementers Forum. The PC Card port has been superseded by the ExpressCard interface since 2003, which was also initially developed by the PCMCIA. The card slots are backwards compatible for the original 16-bit card, older slots are not forward compatible with newer cards.Īlthough originally designed as a standard for memory- expansion cards for computer storage, the existence of a usable general standard for notebook peripherals led to the development of many kinds of devices including network cards, modems, and hard disks. The CardBus PC Card was introduced as a 32-bit version of the original PC Card, based on the PCI specification. The Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) originally introduced the 16-bit ISA-based PCMCIA Card in 1990, but renamed it to PC Card in March 1995 to avoid confusion with the name of the organization. PC Card is a parallel peripheral interface for laptop computers and PDAs. Personal Computer Memory Card International Association Various PC Cards, with the left one being a CardBus PC Card
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