PC Card

A PC Card is a small tool.

It is shaped like a credit card. It fits into a slot on a laptop.

These cards help a computer do more things. Some cards add more space for files. Other cards help a computer talk to the web.

Some cards are thin. Other cards are thick. Thick cards can hold big parts inside.

Cars used these cards too. A car could use one to play music.

Today, we use new tools instead. But these cards were very helpful for a long time.

A PC Card is a small tool for computers.

It is shaped like a credit card. These cards fit into slots on laptops and PDAs. They help a computer do many new tasks.

At first, these cards were made to add memory. This gave computers more space to store files. Later, people made many other kinds of cards. You could use them for modems or network cards. Some cards even worked as hard disks.

There are different types of cards. Type I cards are thick and used for memory. Type II cards are thinner. They often use a dongle, which is a short cable. This cable helps the card connect to other things. Type III cards are also thick. They can hold larger parts inside.

Some cards were even used in cars. A Mercedes-Benz could use one to play music files. Many laptops used these cards for a long time. Now, most people use a newer tool called ExpressCard instead.

A PC Card is a small tool for computers.

It is shaped like a credit card. These cards fit into slots on laptops and PDAs. They help a computer do many new tasks. Originally, these cards were meant to add memory to a computer. This gave machines more space to store files. Later, people made many other kinds of cards. You could use them for modems or network cards. Some cards even worked as hard disks.

How these cards work depends on their type. Type I cards are thick and use a 16-bit interface. They have 68 holes along a short edge to connect. These are usually used for memory like RAM or flash memory. Type II cards are thinner and allow for more tools. They often use a dongle, which is a short cable. This cable helps the card connect to external parts. Some Type II cards even have a jack that pops out.

Type III cards are thick again to hold bigger parts. They can hold hard disk drives or large connectors. The CardBus version is a faster 32-bit version of the card. It was introduced in 1995 to help computers work better. CardBus can talk to other devices without using the CPU. This is called bus mastering. Most new slots can take both CardBus and older 16-bit cards. However, older slots cannot take the newer CardBus cards.

The history of the card began with a group called PCMCIA. They published the first standard in November 1990. Many different companies soon started making these cards. SanDisk was one of the first to launch a card in 1992. They made a card for the HP 95LX pocket computer. This helped the computer store up to 32 MB of data. The group changed the name to PC Card in March 1995. They did this to avoid confusion with the name of their own group.

These cards were used in many surprising places. Some early digital cameras used them for storage. Even cars like the Mercedes-Benz S-Class used them. In those cars, the card played music files through the audio system. Some arcade games used the cards to swap out software. Even early PlayStation 2 models in Japan had a slot for them. Today, most laptops use a newer tool called ExpressCard. This newer system replaced the PC Card after 2003.

A PC Card is a specialized expansion interface for portable computers like laptops and PDAs.

These cards allow a device to gain new abilities by plugging into a dedicated slot. While they were first designed to add memory for storage, they eventually became a way to add many different tools. This included modems for internet, network cards, and even hard disks. The standard was managed by an organization called the PCMCIA. In March 1995, the name was changed to PC Card to avoid confusion with the organization itself. Today, the PC Card has mostly been replaced by the ExpressCard interface.

The way these cards communicate with a computer depends on their specific technical design. The original 16-bit cards were based on the ISA bus platform. Later, a faster version called CardBus was introduced. CardBus is a 32-bit version that follows the PCI specification. It can operate at speeds up to 33 MHz. One important feature of CardBus is bus mastering. This allows a controller on the card to talk directly to memory or other devices. This process happens without needing to use the computer's main CPU.

There are several different physical shapes, or form factors, for these cards. Type I cards are thick and use a 16-bit interface. They have 68 holes along a short edge for connecting to the computer. These are mostly used for memory types like RAM or flash memory. Type II cards are thinner and allow for more complex tools. Because they are thin, they often use a dongle. A dongle is a short cable that connects the card to an external part. Some Type II cards even feature a retractable jack that pops out for cables.

Type III cards are thicker than Type II cards. This extra thickness allows them to hold larger components inside. You might find hard disk drive cards or cards with full-size connectors in this format. These cards do not require a dongle to work. There was also a Type IV card introduced by Toshiba, though it was not an official standard. Most modern CardBus slots are backward compatible. This means they can accept older 16-bit cards. However, older slots are not forward compatible. This means they cannot accept the newer, faster CardBus cards.

The history of the PC Card began in November 1990. The PCMCIA published the 1.0 standard that year. It was very quickly adopted by more than eighty different vendors. In October 1992, SanDisk launched a PCMCIA card for the HP 95LX pocket computer. This card used a special standard to act like a hard drive. It allowed the device to reach a capacity of 32 MB. As the technology grew, the standard had to change. It needed to support "smart" I/O cards for things like fax and modems. This led to new versions like PCMCIA 2.1, which included Card Services.

PC Cards have appeared in many surprising places beyond just laptops. For example, early digital SLR cameras like the Kodak DCS 300 series used them. Some cars, such as the Mercedes-Benz S-Class from 2006 to 2009, included a reader. Drivers used these cards to play MP3 audio files through the car's infotainment system. In Japan, early PlayStation 2 models even had a slot for them. These slots could be used to install a network adapter or an external hard disk drive. Even arcade machines like the Taito G-NET used them to distribute software. This allowed game developers to replace software without replacing the entire arcade board.

The legacy of the PC Card lives on through newer technologies. The electrical specifications used for PC Cards helped create CompactFlash cards. CompactFlash is a smaller version that uses a 50-pin subset of the original interface. In 2003, the PCMCIA introduced ExpressCard to replace the aging PC Card standard. ExpressCard is built around the PCI Express and USB 2.0 standards. While they are different, you can use adapters to connect a CardBus card to an ExpressCard slot. The PCMCIA organization eventually dissolved in 2009. Its assets were merged into the USB Implementers Forum.