What is a PC Card?

A PC card is a general for the Peripheral Interface for Computer/pocket book Computer Systems. PC playing cards are described and evolved by means of the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA), a group of enterprise organizations inside the U.S. That became set up to project the Japan Electronic Industry Development Association trendy for reminiscence enlargement cards.

No longer normally used for reminiscence enlargement, the PC card has grow to be the overall standard for attaching Computer/pocket book computer peripheral gadgets such as commUnity cards, Modems, tough disks and reminiscence cards for early virtual cameras. Although a few Portable Computer sySTEMs nonetheless use PC playing cards, they have got largely been cHanged through the ExpressCard interface.

What Does PC Card Mean?

Formerly referred to as PCMCIA playing cards, the PC card used a sixty eight-pin, dual-row connecting interface and is about the size of a credit score card. It varies in thickness from 0.Thirteen to 0.Sixty four inches, and was at the beginning built around an improved 16-Bit Industry Standard Architecture Bus Platform.

PC playing cards are available five types:

• Type I Cards: Designed to the authentic specs. They featured a sixteen-bit interface and were typically used for Memory gadgets along with RAM, flash reminiscence, one-time programmable memory and Static random get entry to memory cards.
• Type II Cards: Featured a 16-bit or 32-Bit interface. These playing cards introduced Input/Output guide, which allowed the attachment of a number of peripherals without delay or via a brief cable.
• Type III Cards: These had been additionally 16-bit or 32-bit, and that they accommodated a hard disk force and different interface playing cards with complete-sized connectors.
• Type IV Cards: Introduced by means of Toshiba, they've no longer been formally standardized or sanctioned by means of the PCMCIA.
• Compact Flash Cards: Smaller playing cards that Characteristic a 50-pin PC card interface with both a reminiscence Mode and an ATA Storage interface mode. These are normally utilized in modern unmarried-lens reflex virtual cameras and different gadgets.

Today, almost all of the capabilities the PC card interface become designed for are powered with the aid of USB gadgets. The ExpressCard, which changed the PC Card, has a USB interface.