PCMCIA & ExpressCard

[Chris C]

Can you clear up my confusion on PCMCIA and ExpressCard?

I'm about to purchase a new Laptop, but the ones I'm interested all have ExpressCard 34/54 slots and no PCMCIA slot. My problem is that I have a 3G Broadband card (Vodafone) which is PCMCIA II - Cardbus, that I need / want to use.

The man in PC World insists that you can use a PCMCIA card in the ExpressCard 54 slot, but from reading the Official Home Page for ExpressCard Technology from PCMCIA website I'm 75% sure that you cannot.

What say you ?

TIA!:confused:

 

[Addis]

I'm not entirely sure on this. It seems that ExpressCard uses the PCI-E bus to transfer data, while the Cardbus transfers over the older PCI bus. I would think that they would be incompatible.

I used to work at PC World, don't trust the b*stards.

 

[Big B]

From the FAQ...

13. Is ExpressCard technology compatible with PC Card technology?
No, the PC Card interface uses either an ISA-based 16-bit or PCI-based 32-bit parallel interface through a 68 contact pin-and-socket connector. The ExpressCard interface uses high-speed PCI Express or USB 2.0 serial interfaces through a 26 contact high-performance beam-on-blade connector. These technologies are not compatible with each other and moving forward to the high performance, compatibility and cost savings of these modern interfaces required sacrificing compatibility with the older PC Card Standard. In the future, we may see adapters that allow the use of older PC Card products on systems without a PC Card slot through both the ExpressCard and USB interfaces.

Doesn't look like it to me...

 

[Addis]

Ah didn't read the FAQ....