PCMCIA Touts Copious ExpressCard Use

Throw away those PC Card devices. There’s a new standard in town according to PCMCIA. The technology trade association for ExpressCard and PC Card technology, has announced that more than 200 ExpressCard notebook computers, modules and components have participated in the ExpressCard compliance program. These products, many of which are available in retail stores and online, range from wireless WAN to TV tuners, gigabit Ethernet, high-capacity data storage, a wireless mouse and expansion solutions. ExpressCard technology is a hardware expansion standard for notebook and desktop computers. It’s intended to replace the current PC Card Standard. ExpressCard and PC Card technologies are found in more than 95 percent of all notebook computers. Currently selling notebook computers with ExpressCard slots are Acer, Alienware, Apple, ASUS Computer, Averatec, Dell, Evesham, Fujitsu, Fujitsu Siemens, Itronix, HP, Lenovo, LG Electronics, Mouse Computer, MSI, PC-Koubou, Sony and Toshiba. To date, approximately 60 companies with 200 products have participated in the ExpressCard Compliance program for systems, modules and components. Of these, 127 products have earned the right to display the ExpressCard logo : an orange rabbit designed to tell consumers that all ExpressCard products are interoperable, hot swappable and plug’n’play. ExpressCard "plug ’n’ play" applications include memory, local area network (LAN), wireless local and wide area network (WLAN, WWAN), memory adapters, parallel adapters, serial adapters, TV tuners, smart card readers, instrumentation, 1394Aa/b (Firewire) and serial ATA (SATA). ExpressCard technology is based on two advanced serial I/O technologies : USB 2.0 and PCI Express. It’s designed to be operating system independent. Products are available that work with all major operating systems. Dell, Fujitsu, Fujitsu Siemens, HP, Intel, Lenovo, Lexar Media, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Sony, Texas Instruments and Toshiba are among those supporting development of the ExpressCard standard.