Why aren't PCMCIA ports found on desktops?

[Kwad Guy]

The PCMCIA port on notebooks is great: It allows
you to hot swap in SCSI devices, ethernet, flash memory
card readers, etc.

How come PCMCIA ports are not found on desktops? It would
be nice to use all those PCMCIA devices on my desktop as
well...

Or perhaps someone makes a PCI PCMCIA card?

kwad

 

[Muadib]

Here's a link to a card:
null

I'm sure that there are others.

 

[cavingjan]

There are several cards on the market that will allow you to do this. Unfortunately its a performance issue. I've had bad luck hot swapping NICs and sound (yes I had an old PCMCIA sound card) but modems are no problems. But look at these devices. They are terribly expensive. I believe most of the PCMCIA modems are software modems. But I could be wrong. Except for the SCSI, most of those things listed have USB counterparts that will be a lot cheaper and should perform better. SCSI type devices will best be served with Firewire.

 

[superbaby]

Usually dongles/cables that attach to the PCMCIA card are too short, you would never be able to get them anywhere near your desktop.

Also there's the issue with cost, these things cost an arm and a leg, including your nutsack. They also perform quite slowly.

 

[Buddha Bart]

My friend had a PCMCIA nic that he had to keep when his laptop died and he switched over to a desktop (token ring) So we got this thing that takes up a 5.25 drive bay, and has 2 pcmcia slots in it. It goes through a ribbon into an ISA card. Cost us like $20 at a computer show.

bart

 

[pdo]

PCMCIA are pricey as hell. It cost me an arm and a leg for my Adaptec SlimSCSI and 3COM NIC. So it wouldn't be a good idea for desktop though.