Talk:CardBus slot

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Revision as of 04:33, 19 October 2005 by Tonko (Talk | contribs)
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Hei Tonko,

i'm a bit bothered about the separate PCMCIA, CardBus and ExpressCard slot pages. The thing is that all of them are part of the PCMCIA specification, hence all of them are in fact PCMCIA slots. From the bus type view we can still keep them on separate pages since they surely require different driver support etc. . From the physical view they are all PC Card slots since PC Card is the name of the mechanical form factor.

However, while i first wanted to suggest joining the pages, i would now say that we should keep them separate. But please be careful with the explanations. CardBus is not backwards compatible with PCMCIA, it is PCMCIA. This is a common misunderstanding. See the PCMCIA and PC Card pages.

Wyrfel 05:15, 19 Oct 2005 (CEST)

To elaborate in short:

  • PCMCIA is an organisation founded to develop the specification. The specification was named after the organisation. The slot was named after the specification. Up to PCMCIA 2.1 there was no separate name for the bus interface.
  • PC Card is the name for the physical form factor defined by the PCMCIA specification. Hence all those cards are in fact PC Cards.
  • CardBus is the name for the 32bit bus interface. You can't oppose a CardBus card to a PC Card, nor can you oppose a CardBus card to a PCMCIA card. A CardBus card is rather a PC Card that is compatible with the CardBus interface (with both the PC Card form factor and the CardBus interface being parts of the PCMCIA specification). Every CardBus card is a PC Card and every PC Card is a PCMCIA card.
  • ExpressCard is just another name for just another bus interface, keeping the same PC Card form factor.

Wyrfel 05:27, 19 Oct 2005 (CEST)

The confusion between PC Card and PCMCIA is no surprise, as they invented the PC Card name years after PCMCIA was in common use, and they where all that time called 'PCMCIA slots'. Only when they came out with CardBus did they decide that the old 'PCMCIA slots' needed to be named something different and came up with 'PC Card'.

So yes I agree that we should use the new name, but at the same time do not be surprised if old-timers still say PCMCIA to PC Card.

--Tonko 05:33, 19 Oct 2005 (CEST)

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