Cardbus or PCMCIA?

Jope · 05 November 2006, 09:02

How to detect these?

Look at the attached picture. If you see the yellow strip of bumps, it is a 32bit cardbus card and you can immediately forget about hunting for Amiga drivers.

For what it's worth, neither of the cards in the picture are suitable for Amiga use, I just dug up the first PCMCIA and Cardbus cards I could find from my box of computer.

keropi · 13 November 2006, 22:20

nice info Jope

did not knew about that...

DJBase · 29 June 2008, 02:12

Just a small note: PCMCIA cards are called PC-Card in the other world.

Akira · 29 June 2008, 07:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jope

There is also another thing that physically separates 16bit and 32bit.. In the picture, looking into the connector, you can see that on the left side there are two guiding strips and on the right side there's only one. For a 16bit card, the single strip is thin, for a 32bit card, the right hand strip is thick. This should prevent you from plugging a 32bit card into a 16bit slot unless you use excess force.

There are exceptions.
The PCMCIA Multicard reader many of us bought, has a cardbus notch on the side but it's actually NOT a cardbus device. It does not have the strip of yellow bumps though so that IS a good measure

Calgor · 29 June 2008, 09:00

http://www.pcmcia.org/faq.htm#terms

The gold strip is for signal noise on the higher speed cardbus (thereby identifying it as a cardbus card).

The keying on the sides of the card is for 3.3V vs 5V. Some pcmcia cards can only do either, some both (same goes for the slots). Don't know what voltage the Amiga slot is supposed to be able to handle - I suppose looking at the schematics might come up with the answer.

There are PCMCIA Type I/II/II cards with increasing thickness - the Amiga can handle up to the Type II cards?

Zetr0 · 29 June 2008, 13:32

the Amiga PCMCIA can support

16 bit PC-Card (type 2), 3.3v cards

alexh · 29 June 2008, 14:13

PCMCIA PC-Card pins are all inline. Whereas the Toshiba and IBM RAM card slot has staggered pins.

Zetr0 · 29 June 2008, 14:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexh

PCMCIA PC-Card pins are all inline. Whereas the Toshiba and IBM RAM card slot has staggered pins.

ahhh the classic 5volt Toshiba Hybrid cards.

yes a I have a fair few here.....

fryguy · 29 June 2008, 16:10

Thanks didn't know that. I just bought a Merlin u530 16bit 3g card for use with my laptop. Would be cool if there was Amiga drivers for it

alexh · 29 June 2008, 16:16

There are no drivers for any 3G cards AFAIK. The only PCMCIA drivers I know of are:

10 Mbit Ethernet (NE2000 + 3C589)
802.11b 11Mbit Wireless Ethernet (Prism2)
Compact Flash
Serial/Modem
And of course Squirrel interfaces.

Calgor · 29 June 2008, 16:44

http://www.pcmcia.org/pccard.htm#lowv

It appears the amiga slot is keyed to accept 5V cards according to the above link, and that someone has to file off part of their 3.3V card to fit it in. However the card would have worked fine, as the amiga is indeed 3.3V!

The low voltage (3.3V) key on the card is thicker (2/3 thickness) than the 5V key (1/3 thickness).

It appears that the PCMCIA specification also allows another low voltage operation of X.X, but that must not have been used (much if at all).

As to cards (and slots) that are supposed to operate at both 5V and 3.3V, not sure what they should be keyed like. (I am guessing the card would be keyed like a 5V so it can fit in all slots, and the slot would be keyed like a 3.3V so it can take all cards, but you never know).

Here's another link showing the thinner edge of the 5V pcmcia card:
http://www.lindy.co.uk/tips/PCMCIA.html

rkauer · 30 June 2008, 01:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexh

There are no drivers for any 3G cards AFAIK. The only PCMCIA drivers I know of are:

10 Mbit Ethernet (NE2000 + 3C589)
802.11b 11Mbit Wireless Ethernet (Prism2)
Compact Flash
Serial/Modem
And of course Squirrel interfaces.

Also some (not so) proprietary Amiga IDE devices (C= Overdrive and Zappo, among others), one ISDN card, etc.

For a complete list, look at http://bboah.amiga-resistance.info/c...onnlist_en.cgi and choose PCMCIA (not counting NIC cards, SRAM cards and CF adaptors).

alexh · 30 June 2008, 10:29

http://www.g-mb.de/pcmcia_e.html

rkauer · 30 June 2008, 19:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexh

http://www.g-mb.de/pcmcia_e.html

Thanks Alex for the PCMCIA NIC page. I forgot about it!

05 November 2006, 09:02	#1
Jope - Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Helsinki / Finland Age: 32 Posts: 4,067	Cardbus or PCMCIA? How to detect these? Look at the attached picture. If you see the yellow strip of bumps, it is a 32bit cardbus card and you can immediately forget about hunting for Amiga drivers. For what it's worth, neither of the cards in the picture are suitable for Amiga use, I just dug up the first PCMCIA and Cardbus cards I could find from my box of computer. Attached Thumbnails Last edited by Jope; 14 December 2012 at 08:01. Reason: I had misinformation regarding the voltage key.

13 November 2006, 22:20	#2
keropi . Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Ioannina/Greece Posts: 5,041	nice info Jope did not knew about that... __________________ *A1200D mfilos ed.* : ACA 1231/42 , Indivision MK2 , IDEfix Express , Subway , PicoPSU 120w custom 3.9 ROM/OS**

29 June 2008, 02:12	#3
DJBase Amiga is my Religion Join Date: May 2005 Location: Germany Posts: 446	Just a small note: PCMCIA cards are called PC-Card in the other world. __________________ Commodore A1200HD/40 Blizzard 1260, 64 MB Ram, 32 GB SSD, Indivision AGA, Melody 1200 Pro, Subway USB, Clockport Expander, AmigaOS 3.1 with DOpus Magellan II

29 June 2008, 13:32	#6
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 38 Posts: 9,185	the Amiga PCMCIA can support 16 bit PC-Card (type 2), 3.3v cards __________________ Luscious Linkie Time:- www.AmiBay.com Old Skooler

29 June 2008, 14:13	#7
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 10,551	PCMCIA PC-Card pins are all inline. Whereas the Toshiba and IBM RAM card slot has staggered pins. __________________ Thalion Webshrine

29 June 2008, 09:00	#5
Calgor Amigas > Amigos Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Anrea Posts: 991	http://www.pcmcia.org/faq.htm#terms The gold strip is for signal noise on the higher speed cardbus (thereby identifying it as a cardbus card). The keying on the sides of the card is for 3.3V vs 5V. Some pcmcia cards can only do either, some both (same goes for the slots). Don't know what voltage the Amiga slot is supposed to be able to handle - I suppose looking at the schematics might come up with the answer. There are PCMCIA Type I/II/II cards with increasing thickness - the Amiga can handle up to the Type II cards?

29 June 2008, 16:10	#9
fryguy Registered User Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Karlsborg, Sweden Age: 34 Posts: 466	Thanks didn't know that. I just bought a Merlin u530 16bit 3g card for use with my laptop. Would be cool if there was Amiga drivers for it

29 June 2008, 16:16	#10
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 10,551	There are no drivers for any 3G cards AFAIK. The only PCMCIA drivers I know of are: 10 Mbit Ethernet (NE2000 + 3C589) 802.11b 11Mbit Wireless Ethernet (Prism2) Compact Flash Serial/Modem And of course Squirrel interfaces. __________________ Thalion Webshrine Last edited by alexh; 29 June 2008 at 16:28.

29 June 2008, 16:44	#11
Calgor Amigas > Amigos Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Anrea Posts: 991	http://www.pcmcia.org/pccard.htm#lowv It appears the amiga slot is keyed to accept 5V cards according to the above link, and that someone has to file off part of their 3.3V card to fit it in. However the card would have worked fine, as the amiga is indeed 3.3V! The low voltage (3.3V) key on the card is thicker (2/3 thickness) than the 5V key (1/3 thickness). It appears that the PCMCIA specification also allows another low voltage operation of X.X, but that must not have been used (much if at all). As to cards (and slots) that are supposed to operate at both 5V and 3.3V, not sure what they should be keyed like. (I am guessing the card would be keyed like a 5V so it can fit in all slots, and the slot would be keyed like a 3.3V so it can take all cards, but you never know). Here's another link showing the thinner edge of the 5V pcmcia card: http://www.lindy.co.uk/tips/PCMCIA.html

30 June 2008, 10:29	#13
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 10,551	http://www.g-mb.de/pcmcia_e.html __________________ Thalion Webshrine

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