PCMCIA Defines both the Electrical and Physical specifications for a 68 pin interface residing in one of 3 form factors, which differ only in thickness;
Type I: 3.3mm x 85.6mm x 54.0mm (TxLxW), Version 2.1 allows the length to increase 50mm to 135mm
Type II: 5.0mm x 85.6mm x 54.0mm (TxLxW), Version 2.1 allows the length to increase 50mm to 135mm
Type III: 10.5mm x 85.6mm x 54.0mm (TxLxW)
It's called CardBus when implementing the local PCI bus (32 data bits only). CardBus operates over 32 bits at 33MHz [multiplexed address/data path]. The peak data transfer rate is 132MBps [synchronous burst-transfer orientation]. CardBus Uses only 3.3v VCC as the power supply. Cardbus devices may act as either [System-Bus] Master or Slave, while 16-bit PC Card devices may only act as slaves. CardBus is fully backward compatible with the older PCMCIA [PC-card design]; however there may be some compatibility issues with the early versions of the PCMCIA standards. The implementation of this spec based on the ISA bus is termed the PC Card A 8/16 bit data bus, 26 address lines, no bus mastering operating at ISA Bus speeds (8 MHz) using an ISA-like asynchronous protocol. How ever CardBus offers newer technology with a faster and wider bus, providing higher through-put.
Miniature Card is a smaller implementation of PCMCIA. Miniature Cards dimensions are: 3.5mm x 33mm x 38mm (TxLxW). The electrical specifications are a subset of the PC Card standard, restricted to memory applications only. It uses a 16-bit data bus and a 24-bit address bus to allow a single card to store up to 64MB.
CardBus Applications: Memory Card, Modem [RJ11 interface] Card, Wireless Interface, Ethernet Interface [RJ45], CompactFlash card reader [with a adaptor]
