PC Card

In computing, PC Agenda (originally PCMCIA Agenda for Personal Computer Anamnesis Agenda International Association) is the anatomy agency of a borderline interface advised for laptop computers. The PC Agenda accepted (as able-bodied as its almsman ExpressCard) was authentic and developed by the Personal Computer Anamnesis Agenda International Association (PCMCIA) which itself was created by a amount of computer industry companies in the United States to action a accepted for memory-expansion cards that would attempt with the JEIDA anamnesis agenda accepted developed in Japan. It was invented by Jacob D. Holm in 1986, and in 1991 the two standards alloyed as JEIDA 4.1 or PCMCIA 2.0 (PC Card).

PC Agenda was originally advised for computer accumulator expansion, but the actuality of a accessible accepted accepted for anthology peripherals led to abounding kinds of accessories getting fabricated accessible in this form. Typical accessories included arrangement cards, modems, and harder disks. The cards were aswell acclimated in aboriginal agenda SLR cameras, such as the Kodak DCS 300 series. The aboriginal use, as accumulator expansion, is no best common.

Many notebooks in the 1990s had two adjoining type-II slots, which accustomed accession of two type-II cards or one, double-thickness, type-III card. The PC agenda anchorage has been abolished by the faster ExpressCard interface, but some avant-garde carriageable computers still use them.

Summary

Pc Card = PCMCIA Card (older name) = 16bit or 32bit.
Pc Card 32bit adaptation = Cardbus (alternative name).
16bit vs 32bit: 32bit includes DMA or Bus Mastering, 16bit does not.
Type I-III:
Type I: 16bit. Formfactor array 3.3 mm.
Type II: 16bit or 32bit. Formfactor array 5.0 mm.
Type III: 16bit or 32bit. Formfactor array 10.5 mm.
Pc Card was abolished by ExpressCard in 2003.

Name

PCMCIA stands for Personal Computer Anamnesis Card International Association, the accumulation of companies that authentic the standard. This acronym was difficult to say and remember, and was sometimes jokingly referred to as "People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms".1 To admit added ambit above memory, and to aid in marketing, the affiliation acquired the rights to the simpler appellation "PC Card" from IBM. This was the name of the accepted from adaptation 2 of the blueprint onwards. These cards are acclimated for wireless networks, modems, and added functions in anthology PCs.

The PCMCIA was attenuated in 2009, and all of its activities are now managed by the USB Implementer's Forum, according to the PCMCIA website.2

Another name for PCMCIA or PC Card is CardBus, the 32-bit adaptation of the PCMCIA PC Card standard. In accession to acknowledging a added bus (32 $.25 instead of 16 bits), CardBus aswell supports bus arrive and operation speeds up to 33 MHz.

Card types

All PC Agenda accessories use a agnate sized amalgamation which is 85.6 mm continued and 54.0 mm wide. This is the aforementioned admeasurement as a acclaim card.3 The anatomy agency is aswell acclimated by the Common Interface anatomy of Conditional Access Modules for DVB broadcasts, and by Panasonic for their able "P2" video accretion anamnesis cards.

The aboriginal accepted was authentic for both 5 volt and 3.3 volt cards. The 3.3 V cards accept a key on the ancillary to anticipate them from getting amid absolutely into a 5 V-only slot. Some cards and some slots accomplish at both voltages as needed. The aboriginal accepted was congenital about an 'enhanced' 16-bit ISA bus platform.

edit Blazon I

Cards advised to the aboriginal blueprint (version 1.x) are blazon I and affection a 16-bit interface. They are 3.3 mm blubbery and affection a bifold row of 34 holes (68 in total) forth a abbreviate bend as a abutting interface. Type-I PC Agenda accessories are about acclimated for anamnesis accessories such as RAM, beam memory, OTP, and SRAM cards.

edit Blazon II

Type-II and aloft PC Agenda accessories use two rows of 34 sockets, and affection a 16- or 32-bit interface. They are 5.0 mm thick. Type-II cards alien I/O support, acceptance accessories to attach an arrangement of peripherals or to board connectors/slots to interfaces for which the host computer had no congenital support. For example, abounding modem, arrangement and TV cards use this anatomy factor. Due to their thinness, a lot of Blazon II interface cards affection miniature interface connectors on the agenda which are acclimated calm with a dongle: a abbreviate cable that adapts from the card's miniature adapter to an alien full-size connector. Some cards instead accept a agglomeration on the end with the connectors. This is added able-bodied and acceptable than a abstracted adapter but can block the added aperture area slots are present in a pair. Some Blazon II cards, a lot of conspicuously arrangement interface and modem cards accept a retractable jack, if pushed in it will pop out, acceptance admittance of a cable from above. If use of the agenda is no best needed, the jack can be pushed aback into the agenda and lock in place, attention it from damage. A lot of arrangement cards accept their jack on one side, while a lot of modems accept their jack on the added side, acceptance the use of both at the aforementioned time as they do not baffle with anniversary other. Wireless Blazon II cards generally had a artificial close bulging out from the end of the card, central which the antennas were housed.

edit Blazon III

Type-III PC Agenda accessories are 16-bit or 32-bit. These cards are 10.5 mm thick, acceptance them to board accessories with apparatus that would not fit blazon I or blazon II height. Examples are harder deejay drive cards,3 and interface cards with full-size connectors that do not crave dongles (as is frequently appropriate with blazon II interface cards).

edit Blazon IV

Type-IV cards, alien by Toshiba, accept not been clearly connected or accustomed by the PCMCIA. These cards are 16 mm thick.

edit Compact Flash

Compact Beam is a abate dimensioned 50 pin subset of the 68 pin PCCard interface. It has a "memory" approach and an "ATA storage" interface mode.

Card information structure

The agenda advice anatomy (CIS) is advice stored on a PC agenda that contains advice about the formatting and alignment of the abstracts on the card.4 The CIS aswell contains advice about:

The blazon of card

Supported ability accumulation options

Supported ability extenuative features

The manufacturer

Model number

and so on.

When a agenda is anonymous it is frequently because the CIS advice is either absent or damaged.

CardBus

CardBus are PCMCIA 5.0 or after (JEIDA 4.2 or later) 32-bit PCMCIA devices, alien in 1995 and present in laptops from backward 1997 onward. CardBus is finer a 32-bit, 33 MHz PCI bus in the PC Agenda anatomy factor. CardBus supports bus mastering, which allows a ambassador on the bus to allocution to added accessories or anamnesis after traveling through the CPU. Many chipsets, such as those that abutment Wi-Fi, are accessible for both PCI and CardBus.

The cleft on the larboard duke foreground of the accessory is hardly shallower on a CardBus accessory so, by design, a 32-bit accessory cannot be acquainted into beforehand accessories acknowledging alone 16-bit devices. Most new slots acquire both CardBus and the aboriginal 16-bit PC Agenda devices. CardBus cards can be acclaimed from earlier cards by the attendance of a gold bandage with eight baby studs on the top of the agenda next to the pin sockets.

The acceleration of CardBus interfaces in 32-bit access approach depends on the alteration type; in byte approach it is 33 MB/s, in chat approach 66 MB/s, and in dword approach 132 MB/s.

CardBay

CardBay is a alternative added to the PCMCIA blueprint in 2001. This was advised to add some advanced affinity with USB and IEEE 1394, but was not universally adopted and alone some notebooks accept PC Card controllers with CardBay features. This is an accomplishing of Microsoft and Intel's Drive Bay initiative.

Descendants and variants

The interface has spawned a bearing of beam anamnesis cards that set out to advance on the admeasurement and appearance of Blazon I cards: CompactFlash, MiniCard, P2 Card and SmartMedia. For example, the PC Card electrical blueprint is aswell acclimated for CompactFlash, so a PC Card CompactFlash adapter charge alone be a atrium adapter.

ExpressCard is a after blueprint from the PCMCIA, advised as a backup for PC Card, congenital about the PCI Express and USB 2.0 standards. The PC Card accepted is bankrupt to added development and PCMCIA acerb encourages approaching artefact designs to advance the ExpressCard interface. As of 2007, the majority of laptops now address with alone ExpressCard slots or neither aperture blazon (leaving amplification to USB and Firewire only), for a while some laptops were alien with both CardBus and ExpressCard slots such as the Lenovo Thinkpad T60 and Z60m, the accepted trend (August 2011) is to address laptops with alone USB amplification even fullsize laptops (such as the HP G56-100SA 15.6" Laptop) do not accept centralized amplification slots.

ExpressCard and CardBus sockets are physically and electrically incompatible. Therefore, a simple automated adapter amid the two formats is infeasible.5 However, several companies now aftermath ExpressCard-to-CardBus and Cardbus-to-ExpressCard adapters that use a accessory aperture to acquiesce earlier cards to plan with newer PCs and carnality versa.6

Adapters for PC Cards to Personal Computer ISA slots were accessible as able-bodied as currently there are PC Card (Cardbus) adapters for PCI slots. Wireless (802.11) PCMCIA cards were sometimes awash with PC Card to PCI adapter for desktop use, such as Linksys WPC11 wireless pccard and WDT11 pccard to pci adapter.7

Technological obsolescence

USB accessories are accessible for about all functions for which the PC Card interface was originally used. The ExpressCard which replaces the PC Card, contains a PCIe 1x and a USB 2.0 interface. Cardbus accessories can be acquainted into an ExpressCard adaptor accepting a PCI-to-PCI Bridge.