 | |
| Merged into | USB Implementers Forum |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1989; 36 years ago (1989) |
| Founder | Ian H. S. Cullimore |
| Defunct | 2009; 16 years ago (2009) |
| Type | Non-profitindustry consortium |
| Products | Technical specifications of thePC Card andExpressCard |
| Website | pcmcia.org at theWayback Machine (archived 2008-12-25) |
ThePersonal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) was an industryconsortium ofcomputer hardware manufacturers from 1989 to 2009. Starting with thePCMCIA card in 1990 (the name later simplified toPC Card), it created various standards for peripheral interfaces designed forlaptop computers.
PCMCIA was based on the original initiative of the British mathematician and computer scientistIan H. S. Cullimore,[1] one of the founders of theSunnyvale-basedPoqet Computer Corporation,[1] who was seeking to integrate some kind ofmemory card technology as storage medium into their earlyDOS-basedpalmtop PCs,[1] when traditional floppy drives and harddisks were found to be too power-hungry and large to fit into their battery-powered handheld devices.[1] When in July 1989,[1] Poqet contactedFujitsu for their existing but still non-standardizedSRAM memory cards, andIntel for theirflash technology,[1] the necessity and potential of establishing a worldwide memory card standard became obvious to the parties involved. This led to the foundation of the PCMCIA organization in September 1989.[1][2]
By early 1990, some thirty companies had joined the initiative already, including Poqet, Fujitsu, Intel,Mitsubishi,IBM,Lotus,Microsoft andSCM Microsystems (nowIdentiv).[1]
From 1990 onwards, the association published and maintained a sequence of standards forparallel communication peripheral interfaces inlaptop computers, notably the PCMCIA card, later renamed toPC Card, and succeeded byExpressCard (2003), all of them nowtechnologically obsolete.
The PCMCIA association was dissolved in 2009 and all of its activities have since been managed by theUSB Implementers Forum, according to the PCMCIA website.[3]
As of 2023, PCMCIA is now little used in new hardware, with most removable devices using USB instead. TheLinux kernel project is now moving toward removing obsolete PCMCIA drivers from the mainline kernel.[4]
PCMCIA stands forPersonal Computer Memory Card International Association, the group of companies that defined the standard.
It has been described 'probably one of the most mocked acronyms of the industry'.[5] This acronym was difficult to say and remember, and was sometimes jokingly referred to as "People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms".[6] To recognize increased scope beyond memory, and to aid in marketing, the association acquired the rights to the simpler term "PC Card" fromIBM. This was the name of the standard from version 2 of the specification onwards. These cards were used forwireless networks,modems, and other functions in notebook PCs.
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| Types |
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| Standards |
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| Storage |
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| Peripheral | |
| Audio | |
| Portable | |
| Embedded | |
Interfaces are listed by their speed in the (roughly) ascending order, so the interface at the end of each section should be the fastest.  Category | |
| International | |
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| National | |
