What is PCMCIA?

Category: Computing Tags:

PCMCIA is short for Personal Computer Memory Card International Association. It is pronounced as separate letters. PCMCIA is also known as PC Card.

PCMCIA was originally designed for adding memory to portable computers, the PCMCIA standard has been expanded several times and is now suitable for many types of devices. You can exchange PC Cards without rebooting your computer.

There are three types of PCMCIA cards, all of them are rectangular and measure 8.56 by 5.4 cm, but have different widths:

  • Type I cards can be up to 3.3 mm thick and are used primarily for adding additional ROM or RAM to a computer.
  • Type II cards can be up to 5.5 mm thick. These cards are often used for usually used for I/O devices as modem or fax modem cards.
  • Type III cards can be up to 10.5 mm thick, which is sufficiently large for portable disk drives.

As with the cards, PCMCIA slots also come in three sizes:

  • A Type I slot can hold one Type I card
  • A Type II slot can hold one Type II card or one Type I card
  • A Type III slot can hold one Type III card or any combination of two Type I or II cards.

Related Posts:

What is the difference between PCMCIA and ExpressCard?

ExpressCard is the hardware standard replacing PMCIA type II cards. ExpressCards are considered better than PCMCIA cards because they are faster.

What is ExpressCard?

An ExpressCard is an interface to allow peripheral devices to be connected to a computer, usually a laptop computer. ExpressCards is a hardware standard replacing PC cards or PCMCIA cards.

What is CardBus?

CardBus is the latest enhancement to the PCMCIA 5.0 or later. PMCIA stands for Asociación Internacional de Tarjetas de Memoria. CardBus was introduced in 1995 and present in laptops from late 1997 onward. The main purpose of CardBus was to extend the existing PCMCIA bus to allow more powerful devices, and also provide support for 32 Bit I/O.

What is the difference between AGP and PCI?

The primary advantage of AGP over PCI is that it provides a dedicated pathway between the slot and the processor rather than sharing the PCI bus. In addition to a lack of contention for the bus, the point-to-point connection allows for higher clock speeds.

What is the Difference between PCI, PCI-X, and PCI-e?

PCI-X is the upgraded version of PCI. It differs mainly in the fact that the PCI-X bus is 64-bits wide, and runs at higher frequencies of up to 533MHz, compared to PCI frequency that runs up to 66MHz.

What is PCI Express?

PCI Express stands for Peripheral Component Interconnect Express. It is also known as PCIe.

What is AGP Pro?

AGP Pro was launched in 1998 as an AGP interface extension specification for advanced workstations. AGP Pro bus is a specification that provides a direct connection between the graphics adapter and memory.

What is AGP?

AGP is the short for Accelerated Graphics Port. It was designed in 1997 as a successor to PCI type connections.

What is PCI-X?

PCI-X is the short for PCI-eXtended. It was developed in 1998.

What is the difference between ISA and PCI?

ISA is an old technology that has been replaced by PCI, PCIe and so on. ISA slots are usually black, long and the gold contacts are large.

Help us to continue answering your questions. Did you like this article? Make a reference to "https://www.cavsi.com/" or copy and paste the below link:
What is the difference between ISA and PCI?What is the difference between ISA and PCI?