For those who aren't aware what PCMCIA stands for: People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms

geerlingguy 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

If you want to refresh an old memory, it actually stands for "Personal Computer Memory Card International Association" but nobody knew that. And it was later called 'PC Card'... then there was the faster ExpressCard that wasn't backwards compatible.

It was fun being able to expand your computer's IO capabilities by adding on a network card, modem, USB, FireWire, etc. with these modules. It's similar to Framework's little USB-C-based modules, though those modules are just too small for a lot of circuits without a very creative design.

▲

simcop2387 7 hours ago | parent [-]

My understanding (probably wrong) is that pcmcia was based off the ISA bus and then pc card updated to pci based and express card was pcie

▲

tonyarkles 6 hours ago | parent [-]

Close! The PC Card rename was because people were confusing the name of the association with the specific form factor.

PCMCIA and PC Card = ISA

CardBus = PCI and ISA - slot was backwards compatible so you could use a PC Card in a CardBus slot

ExpressCard = PCIe

	▲	torgoguys 4 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		That's also not a perfect recollection, but is what my recollection was until I was looking up this history in the past week and found this nugget and posted it elsewhere. Quoting myself: >So we know these were originally called PCMCIA cards, then later PC Cards, right? Well, I think I might have found the first mention of PCMCIA in PC Magazine. It is in a Dec 1991 column by Dvorak where he "introduces" the "PCMCIA PC-Card". Here's a quote, "In fact, the card should be referred to as the PCMCIA PC-Card, or the PC-Card for short. PCMCIA is the Personal Computer Computer Memory Card International Association (Sunnyvale, Calif., 408-720-0107), and it's the governing body that has standardized the specifications for this card worldwide. JEIDA works with the PCMCIA; it's specifications are identical." >So at least according this Dvorak column, these were ALWAYS properly called "PC-Cards" (he used a hyphen), but early on people definitely were calling them PCMCIA cards and I remember the shift to everyone later (much later than this 1991 column) calling them PC Cards.
	▲	geerlingguy 5 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Ah, completely forgot about CardBus. That was a fun time when we also had NuBus kicking around on some older Macs, too.
	▲	5 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		[deleted]

▲

cperciva 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

And obviously PicoPCMCIA means "very small people can't memorize computer industry acronyms".

(Or possibly s/computer/complicated/, that's how I remembered it at least.)

▲

catskull 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I thrifted a shirt once that said it stood for "Peppy Cheerleaders Move Crowds into Anarchy". Wish I still had it!

▲

scoot 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

"For those who have forgotten..."