Personal Computer Memory Card International Association
The Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) was a group of computer hardware manufacturers, operating under that name from 1989 to 2009. Starting with the PCMCIA card in 1990, it created various standards for peripheral interfaces designed for laptop computers.
A PCMCIA device, in this case a 3Com Ethernet card in an IBM ThinkPad 760
PC Card is a parallel peripheral interface for laptop computers and PDAs. The Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) originally introduced the 16-bit ISA-based PCMCIA Card in 1990, but renamed it to PC Card in March 1995 to avoid confusion with the name of the organization. The CardBus PC Card was introduced as a 32-bit version of the original PC Card, based on the PCI specification. The card slots are backward compatible for the original 16-bit card, older slots are not forward compatible with newer cards.
Various PC Cards, with the left one being a CardBus PC Card
Parallel port Ethernet adapters were commonly used before PC Cards. This is an Accton Etherpocket-SP parallel port Ethernet adapter (c. 1990). Supports both coaxial (10BASE2) and twisted pair (10BASE-T) cables. Power is drawn from a PS/2 port passthrough cable.
16-bit Type II PC Card: IBM V.34 data/fax modem, manufactured by TDK
Left: connector of a 16-bit ISA-based PC Card. Right: connector of a 32-bit PCI-based CardBus PC Card. Usually, CardBus PC Card slots are compatible with the ISA-based PC Cards, but not the other way around.
