TechBlog from Sewell

PCMCIA card slots are the card slots that most laptops currently have. However, with laptops getting smaller and smaller, this seems likely to change. Many smaller laptops and pocket PCs have Compact Flash slots.

Compact Flash(CF) is derived from PCMCIA. With a Compact flash to PCMCIA converter, you can use many PCMCIA cards with the CF slot on your newer, smaller computer. Before you purchase the CF to PCMCIA adapter, you will want to check on a few things:

1. Make sure that your PCMCIA card operates at 3.3V.
2. Make sure your PCMCIA cards power consumption is 500mA. If it is higher, then your CF slot will not work with it.
3. Make sure that there is a driver available for your Pocket PC to use that PCMCIA card
4. CF slots use 11 address lines to communicate with CF cards, while PCMCIA slots use 26 address lines. Make sure that your PCMCIA card only uses 11 of its 26 for communication.

If you are unsure of any of these specs, then contact the manufacturer or vendor of the PCMCIA card, and ask them the same questions.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 25th, 2005 at 2:28 pm and is filed under PCMCIA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.