Is "Cardbus" the same thing as standard "PCMCIA?"

[MichaelD]

I'm in the process of ordering a wireless adapter for an old (5 years old) laptop. The laptop has a normal PCMCIA slot.

Is Cardbus the same thing as PCMCIA?

 

[Rottie]

I might be wrong I think both are different cardbus is a 32bit and PCMCIA is a 16bit if your old laptop can support both cardbus and PCMCIA that is good.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: Rottie
I might be wrong I think both are different cardbus is a 32bit and PCMCIA is a 16bit if your old laptop can support both cardbus and PCMCIA that is good.

Good catch. Let me look at the user manual and see. Glad I asked! The laptop is "older" but not ancient...I'll check.

*edit*

All the manual says is:

O2Micro OZ 6912TE controller
Single slot for TYPE II
Hot insertion and removal supported

Is Type II 32-bit?

 

[PepperBreath]

PC Card = 16-bit PCMCIA
Cardbus = 32-bit PCMCIA
ExpressCard = PCI-E based Cards

Type I is 16-bit only. Type II can be either 16-bit or 32-bit.

Think of it this way. PC Card is ISA and Cardbus is PCI. Your laptop would have to be pretty old to only support 16-bit Type II PCMCIA cards, like a decade or more old. Chances are pretty good that your laptop is Cardbus ready.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: PepperBreath
PC Card = 16-bit PCMCIA
Cardbus = 32-bit PCMCIA
ExpressCard = PCI-E based Cards

Type I is 16-bit only. Type II can be either 16-bit or 32-bit.

Think of it this way. PC Card is ISA and Cardbus is PCI. Your laptop would have to be pretty old to only support 16-bit Type II PCMCIA cards, like a decade or more old. Chances are pretty good that your laptop is Cardbus ready.

Great explanation! You Da Man.

The laptop is only about 5 years old, 1.6GHz Athlon/256MB RAM/100MB/s LAN and it's even got a CD Burner. Being that the manual says "Type II slot" I'm covered for Card Bus.

Thanks much, PepperBreath.

 

[0roo0roo]

connector looks different.
cardbus/pcmcia has flat connector
the other ones either narrow or has a stairstep

 

[hans007]

pcmcia i think was basically ISA in a card, cardbus was pci more or less, and express card is pci-e x1 more or less.