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| PC Card (PCMCIA) | |
|---|---|
| Name | PC Card (PCMCIA) |
| Invented | 1990 |
| Inventor | Personal Computer Memory Card International Association |
| Type | Expansion card |
| Used with | Laptop computers, notebooks, palmtops |
PC Card (PCMCIA) The PC Card (PCMCIA) is a hardware interface standard for peripheral expansion on portable computing devices, introduced to provide removable, credit-card–sized functionality for IBM Personal Computer, Apple Macintosh, Compaq, Toshiba, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, NEC, Fujitsu, Acorn, Sony, Panasonic, Gateway, Acer, Lenovo, Samsung, LG, Sharp, Epson, Psion, Atari, Amstrad, Siemens, Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola, BlackBerry, Commodore, Zaurus, RCA, Philips, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric, Olidata, Packard Bell, Tandy, VIA, Intel, AMD, Microsoft, Novell, Sun, DEC.
The PC Card standard defined a removable expansion interface for portable machines from companies such as IBM Personal Computer, Toshiba, Apple Macintosh, Compaq, and Sony and was governed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association, an industry forum including Intel, NEC, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Sharp, Panasonic, and Microsoft. Early adoption involved vendors like 3Com, Xircom, Novatel, Motorola, Ericsson, and Nokia providing Ethernet, modem, wireless, storage device and SCSI solutions for portable platforms produced by Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, and Acer.
Development began amid competition among firms including Intel, NEC, Fujitsu, Panasonic, Toshiba, and Sharp to standardize removable memory and I/O for laptop lines such as ThinkPad, PowerBook, and Satellite. The consortium, the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association, drew participation from technology companies like Microsoft, Sun, DEC, 3Com, Novell, Xircom, Ericsson, Motorola, and Nokia. The specification evolved in response to market needs for ISDN, PSTN modems, and LocalTalk adapters used by vendors including USRobotics and Zoom. Later iterations addressed demands from OEMs such as Compaq, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Gateway, and Acer.
The standard specified electrical, mechanical, and connector interfaces adopted by suppliers like Intel, NEC, Fujitsu, and Toshiba, defining 68-pin and 32-pin signaling compatible with controllers made by Texas Instruments, NEC, VIA, Intel, and Cirrus Logic. Physical dimensions and form factors were implemented by hardware partners including Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, and Siemens and influenced by interconnect standards developed by JEDEC, IEEE, and USB-IF. Power delivery, voltage levels, and card identification used vendor firmware from Microsoft, Intel, VIA, and Fujitsu embedded in systems from IBM, Toshiba, Compaq, Apple, and Dell.
Manufacturers including 3Com, Xircom, IBM, Toshiba, Fujitsu, NEC, Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Compaq produced Type I, Type II, and Type III PC Cards for memory, I/O, and hard disk devices respectively. Type I cards were used by vendors like SanDisk, Toshiba, Fujitsu, and Hynix for flash memory and RAM expansion in notebooks from Apple, IBM, Compaq, and Toshiba. Type II cards carried modem and network adapters produced by 3Com, Xircom, Novatel, USRobotics, Motorola, Ericsson, and Nokia for OEMs including Dell, Gateway, and Acer. Type III accommodated thicker devices from IBM, Fujitsu, and Toshiba such as rotating media built by Hitachi, Seagate, and Western Digital. CardBus, introduced later, aligned with PCI signaling and was implemented by chipset makers like Intel, VIA, SiS, and nVidia in systems by HP, Dell, Lenovo, and Acer.
PC Cards enabled peripheral expansions including modems from USRobotics and Zoom, Ethernet adapters from 3Com and Xircom, wireless networking adapters from Lucent, Orinoco, Cisco, Proxim, and D-Link, SCSI and IDE storage interfaces from Adaptec, Promise, and Maxtor, and GPS modules from Garmin and TomTom. Professional markets used cards for point of sale terminals by NCR and Verifone, industrial control modules by Siemens and Schneider, and medical device interfaces by GE Healthcare and Philips. Portable multimedia solutions used by Apple, Dell, Sony, and Toshiba integrated audio, video capture, and TV tuner cards from makers like Hauppauge and Creative.
Compatibility considerations involved BIOS and driver support from Microsoft and Linux distributions with kernel contributions by developers associated with Red Hat, Debian, Canonical, and SUSE. Hardware interoperability was governed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association with testing labs from organizations such as UL and EIA, and influenced by standards bodies like IEEE, JEDEC, and USB-IF. CardBus and later CardBus to ExpressCard bridging efforts involved companies such as Intel, VIA, nVidia, SiS, and system vendors including HP, Dell, Lenovo, and Acer to maintain backward compatibility and driver ecosystems.
The decline of the PC Card occurred as laptop manufacturers such as Apple, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer, Samsung, and Asus adopted integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and USB devices, and as form factors like ExpressCard and USB-C emerged from innovators including Intel and USB-IF. Components suppliers such as Intel, VIA, NEC, Fujitsu, and Panasonic shifted to newer interfaces, while archival and retrocomputing communities around Computer History Museum, Vintage Computer Federation, Internet Archive, and Retrocomputing Stack Exchange preserve PC Card devices from vendors like 3Com, Xircom, USRobotics, Novatel, Sony, and Panasonic.
Category:Computer hardware standards