Smaller, smarter PC cards ahead

By Mark Ward
BBC News Online technology correspondent in San Jose

The days of having to open up your PC to fit a new card to improve its ability to handle graphics or produce sounds could soon be at an end.

Future PC cards will be much smaller

Computer developers are drawing up specifications for smaller, discrete plug-in modules that could take the place of the familiar laptop and PC expansion cards.

The cards will act as readers for smart media, storage systems in their own right, identification tokens as well as upgrading the memory or other capabilities of a laptop or desktop machine.

The first of the new add-on cards are due to be available in 2004.

Transferring data faster

Every Windows-based laptop comes with a couple of slots in its side that accepts so-called PCMCIA cards.

Some of the cards that fit into these slots help laptops join wired and wireless networks. Others are tiny hard disks or modems.

The specifications for these cards defining their size and how they pass data to the laptop are laid down by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA).

Now the PCMCIA is drawing up new specifications for cards that are 40% of the size of the older cards and take advantage of technologies such as USB 2.0 and PCI Express that let data be transferred far faster.

To maintain backwards compatibility the slots for the new cards will be the same width as existing PCMCIA slots, but will be able to take two cards rather than one in each opening.

Paperback PC?

The Newcard specification is also being driven by the increasing sophistication of laptop computers that now have built-in many of the functions that PCMCIA cards used to perform.

For instance increasing numbers of laptops have Ethernet network connections as standard and future laptops will also have wi-fi connections onboard.

The PCMCIA is also expecting home computers to shrink radically in size, perhaps to something no bigger than a large paperback book.

Future Newcards will work with both laptops and futuristic shrunken home PCs.

Companies supporting the Newcard development include Intel, Microsoft, IBM, Dell, HP and Texas Instruments.

Some prototypes were on show at the Intel Developer Forum currently under way in San Jose, California.