Connect PCMCIA via USB

**lastberserker** · 04-23-2005, 11:14 PM

Is there such device? I found a plenty PCIMCIA cards that give USB ports. And I found PCI cards that can read PCMCIA cards. And PCI, USB and PCMCIA devices that read various memory types: CF, MMC/SD, etc... I'm sure it must be possible, right?

**Zip-Lock** · 04-24-2005, 02:26 AM

Nah, PCMICA is too fast for USB.

**lastberserker** · 04-24-2005, 02:43 AM

Originally Posted by Zip-Lock

Nah, PCMICA is too fast for USB.

And just what crap, pardon my French, is this?

Originally Posted by http://www.pcmcia.org/faq.htm

What is the throughput of the PC Card interface?
Theoretical maximums are as follows:

CardBus (32 bit burst mode)
* Byte mode: 33 Mbytes/sec
* Word mode: 66 Mbytes/sec
* DWord mode: 132 Mbytes/sec

16-bit Memory Transfers (100 ns Minimum cycle)
* Byte mode: 10 Mbytes/sec
* Word mode: 20 Mbytes/sec

16-bit I/O Transfers (255 ns Minimum cycle)
* Byte mode: 3.92 Mbytes/sec
* Word mode: 7.84 Mbytes/sec

Please note that actual throughput may be substantially less than the theoretical maximums of the interface.

Originally Posted by http://www.usb.org/faq/ans2#q1

Q1: How fast is USB?
A1: High speed USB products have a design data rate of 480 Mb/s. Full speed USB devices signal at 12Mb/s, while low speed devices use a 1.5Mb/s subchannel.

Q2: How does this compare to other connections used with PCs and workstations?
A2: Here's a quick list of the maximum transfer rates for various connections in megabits (Mb) and megabytes (MB) per second:

serial port: 115kbits/s (.115Mbits/s)
standard parallel port: 115kBYTES/s (.115MBYTES/s)
Original USB: 12Mbits/s (1.5MBYTES/s)
ECP/EPP parallel port: 3MBYTES/s
IDE: 3.3-16.7MBYTES/s
SCSI-1: 5MBYTES/s
SCSI-2 (Fast SCSI, Fast Narrow SCSI): 10MBYTES/s
Fast Wide SCSI (Wide SCSI): 20MBYTES/s
Ultra SCSI (SCSI-3, Fast-20, Ultra Narrow): 20MBYTES/s
UltraIDE: 33MBYTES/s
Wide Ultra SCSI (Fast Wide 20): 40MBYTES/s
Ultra2 SCSI: 40MBYTES/s
IEEE-1394: 100-400Mbits/s (12.5--50MBYTES/s)
Hi-Speed USB: 480Mbits/s
Wide Ultra2 SCSI: 80MBYTES/s
Ultra3 SCSI: 80MBYTES/s
Wide Ultra3 SCSI: 160MBYTES/s
FC-AL Fiber Channel: 100-400MBYTES/s

The fastest connection commonly found on PCs is UltraIDE, which is used for hard drives and CD-ROMs.

Not to mention that full speed is not only extremely hard to achieve, but also there are no devices that require it to work properly.

**will1384** · 04-25-2005, 03:40 AM

Is there such device?

yes but its hard to find

The one I saw came with a digital cam
- it had a pcmcia card that you could
atach a compactflash to, and the pcmcia
card pluged into the usb pcmcia card reader

I think it was kodak

**DJSmiley** · 04-25-2005, 05:28 AM

Originally Posted by will1384

yes but its hard to find

The one I saw came with a digital cam
- it had a pcmcia card that you could
atach a compactflash to, and the pcmcia
card pluged into the usb pcmcia card reader

I think it was kodak

The Alcatel Speedtouch 120 and Oriniocco silver/gold USB clients (which are the same) are in fact a PCMCIA card in a USB->PCMCIA adaptor.

However, I still haven't tested if other cards work as well, and at which speed.

**Scouse Monkey** · 04-25-2005, 05:36 AM

There is a thread on this already. I think there may be 1 or 2 solutions found there eventually - i have seen one.

**Scouse Monkey** · 04-25-2005, 05:37 AM

one more thing, as the other thread points out (from memory) the adapters that come with PCMCIA wireless cards DO NOT WORK with anything else - only the wireless card they come with.

**alti** · 04-25-2005, 06:48 AM

Originally Posted by lastberserker

And just what crap, pardon my French, is this?

Not to mention that full speed is not only extremely hard to achieve, but also there are no devices that require it to work properly.

actually, becuase usb transmits bit at a time its speed in MB as listed for the PCMCIA slot is about 60 MB (@ 480 Mb) which is slower then both thease modes
* Word mode: 66 Mbytes/sec
* DWord mode: 132 Mbytes/sec

**lastberserker** · 04-25-2005, 07:21 AM

Originally Posted by Scouse Monkey

There is a thread on this already. I think there may be 1 or 2 solutions found there eventually - i have seen one.

I did

for "PCMCIA" and "USB" before - got 300+ threads

Now I added "reader" to the mix and found this page. Looks like I'd better pay premium for having exotic PCI device than pay for PCMCIA version and exotic PCMCIA-via-USB adapter. Oh well...

Thanks, folks, you rock!