Editing PC Card (section)

== Descendants and variants ==

=== ExpressCard ===

ExpressCard is a later specification from the PCMCIA, intended as a replacement for PC Card, built around the [[PCI Express]] and [[USB 2.0]] standards. The PC Card standard is closed to further development and PCMCIA strongly encourages future product designs to utilize the ExpressCard interface. From about 2006, ExpressCard slots replaced PCMCIA slots in laptop computers, with a few laptops having both in the transition period.

ExpressCard and CardBus sockets are physically and electrically incompatible.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.pcmcia.org/faq.htm#expresscard | title = PCMCIA Frequently Asked Questions | url-status = usurped | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061014224844/http://www.pcmcia.org/faq.htm#expresscard | archive-date = 2006-10-14 }}</ref> ExpressCard-to-CardBus and Cardbus-to-ExpressCard adapters are available that connect a Cardbus card to an Expresscard slot, or vice versa, and carry out the required electrical interfacing.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=cardbus+expresscard&x=12&y=30 | title = Newegg.com product search results for CardBus ExpressCard | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090424090159/http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=cardbus+expresscard&x=12&y=30 | archive-date = 2009-04-24 }}</ref> These adapters do not handle older non-Cardbus PCMCIA cards.

PC Card devices can be plugged into an ExpressCard adaptor, which provides a PCI-to-PCIe Bridge.

Despite being much faster in speed/bandwidth, ExpressCard was not as popular as PC Card, due in part to the ubiquity of USB ports on modern computers. Most functionality provided by PC Card or ExpressCard devices is now available as an external USB device. These USB devices have the advantage of being compatible with desktop computers as well as portable devices. (Desktop computers were rarely fitted with a PC Card or ExpressCard slot.) This reduced the requirement for internal [[expansion slot]]s; by 2011, many laptops had none.

Some IBM ThinkPad laptops took their onboard RAM (in sizes ranging from 4 to 16&nbsp;MB) in the factor of an IC-DRAM Card. While very similar in form-factor, these cards did not go into a standard PC Card Slot, often being installed under the keyboard, for example. They also were not pin-compatible, as they had 88 pins but in two staggered rows, as opposed to even rows like PC Cards.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/IC_DRAM_Card|title=IC DRAM Card - ThinkWiki|website=www.thinkwiki.org|access-date=9 May 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171024043232/http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/IC_DRAM_Card|archive-date=24 October 2017}}</ref> These correspond to versions 1 and 2 of the [[JEIDA memory card]] standard.

=== Others ===

The shape is also used by the [[Common Interface]] form of [[conditional-access module]]s for [[Digital Video Broadcasting|DVB]], and by Panasonic for their professional "P2" video acquisition memory cards.

A [[CableCARD]] [[conditional-access module]] is a type II PC Card intended to be plugged into a cable set-top box or digital cable-ready television.

The interface has spawned a generation of flash [[memory card]]s that set out to improve on the size and features of Type I cards: [[CompactFlash]], [[Miniature Card|MiniCard]], [[P2 (storage media)|P2 Card]] and [[SmartMedia]]. For example, the PC Card electrical specification is also used for CompactFlash, so a PC Card CompactFlash adapter can be a passive physical adapter rather than requiring additional circuitry. CompactFlash is a smaller dimensioned 50 pin subset of the 68 pin PC Card interface. It requires a setting for the interface mode of either "memory" or "[[AT Attachment|ATA]] storage".{{cn|date=October 2023}}

The EOMA68 [[open-source hardware]] standard uses the same 68-pin PC Card connectors and corresponds to the PC Card form factor in many other ways.<ref>{{ cite web | author = Ferdinand Thommes | url = https://www.ubuntu-user.com/Magazine/Archive/2014/21/Developing-free-hardware-using-Vivaldi-and-Improv-as-examples/(offset)/2 | title = Developing free hardware using Vivaldi and Improv as examples | work = Ubuntu User magazine | date = 2014 | accessdate = 2020-08-12 }}</ref>