Short for
Personal Computer Memory Card International Association, and pronounced as separate letters, PCMCIA is an organization consisting of some 500 companies that has developed a
standard for small, credit card-sized
devices, called
PC Cards. 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. There are in fact three types of PCMCIA cards. All three have the same rectangular size (85.6 by 54 millimeters), but different widths
- Type II cards can be up to 5.5 mm thick. These cards are often used for modem and fax modem cards.
As with the cards, PCMCIA slots also come in three sizes:
- A Type II slot can hold one Type II card or one Type I card
In general, you can exchange PC Cards on the fly, without rebooting your computer. For example, you can slip in a fax modem card when you want to send a fax and then, when you're done, replace the fax modem card with a memory card.
