PCMCIA Serial Adapter Cards

PCMCIA serial adapter cards provide one or more serial ports for a host computer. They interface with the host computer via a PCMCIA card bus and add RS232, RS422, or other types of serial ports. PCMCIA is an acronym for Personal Computer Memory Card International Association, an organization that establishes standards for the personal computer card, or PC card as it is commonly known. PMCIA serial adapter cards are 16-bit devices designed for modems, network cards, and gaming devices that require communication across a serial bus. A PCMCIA serial adapter card or PCMCIA adapter also provides an interface between a bus that uses serial communications over a COM port to and from the peripheral serial device. This interface is required when there are no serial ports to link the bus with the peripheral controller, as is often the case with notebook computers.

There are two form factors for PCMCIA cards: Type I and Type II. The Type I form factor is the original type. It is most commonly used for memory. Type I PCMCIA cards are 3.3 mm thick. The Type II form factor is 5 mm thick. It the most common PCMCIA form factor for PCMCIA serial adapter cards. On a PC card serial adapter, the serial ports come in two types: DB-9 pin or DB-25 pin. Both of these types are male so that a female plug with a corresponding number of pins on peripheral devices can connect to them. A PCMCIA serial adapter card or PC card serial adapter uses a 68-pin connector and is approximately 85.6 mm × 54 mm in size.

PCMCIA serial adapter cards differ in terms of features and applications. Hot swapping allows a PCMCIA adapter to be removed from a computer without having to use a software utility to deactivate the device, or simply shut the computer down. In terms of applications, PCMCIA serial adapter cards are used to interface with serial modems, digital cameras, ISDN terminal adapters or modems, bar code scanners, OCR wands, and printers. Suppliers of PCMCIA serial adapter cards use hardware capable of data transfer rates from 500 to 1000 kilobits per second and 64 to 128 byte first-in, first-out (FIFO) buffer rates. A PCMCIA serial adapter card usually provides 1, 2, or 4 ports.

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