ExpressCards 101
Filling your laptop's empty expansion slot

Notice something weird about your new laptop's expansion slot? It's smaller, more compact form won't allow a PCMCIA card to fit or function. Not to worry, Quatech has the solution to solve your mobile connectivity expansion problems. Quatech's broad line of ExpressCard connectivity products provide RS-232/422/485 serial, EPP parallel, eSATA 2.0 and Ethernet interfaces.

The ExpressCard is the new standard to carry forward the benefits of PCMCIA I/O cards to the next generation of personal computing devices. While the smaller, thinner, modular ExpressCard operates similiarly to the PCMCIA/PC Card, the difference lies within the small form factor and connector interface. Download our featured White Paper - ExpressCards Explained - to learn how to seamlessly upgrade to ExpressCard technology.

ExpressCard advantages include:

• Increase in bandwidth. The increase in speed and decrease in size means that possible ExpressCard applications are unlimited and will efficiently run in the system.
• Lower voltage. ExpressCards dictate a lower voltage rate than PC Cards, resulting in lower power consumption used and extended laptop battery operation.
• Removal of CardBus controller chip. The additional chip, originally found in CardBus', has been eliminated and all interface signals are supplied by the host PC's chipset.
• Forward compatibility with the next generation of laptop interfaces. The ExpressCard is here to stay and will be supported for a long time to come.

As the leader in PCMCIA technology with reliable Serial and Parallel PCMCIA Cards, Quatech now offers the ExpressCard Performance and Connectivity product lines to suit your mobile expansion needs. Utilizing a PCI Express-based design, the ExpressCard Performance Series directly uses the I/O space addresses and interrupts, thus more closely emulating built-in ports than via USB-based design. Because there is no USB stack for the drivers to contend with, throughput can be higher and latency will be lower.

ExpressCard Performance Series

• PCI Express power control and design core
• Adds 1 or 2 high-speed RS-232 or RS-422/485 serial ports
• Adds 1 true EPP parallel port
• Built-in 1024-byte FIFOs buffers increase data transmit/receive speed
• Baud rates up to 921.6Kbps
• Hot plugging and how swapping features

ExpressCard Connectivity Series

• USB 2.0-based design core
• Add 1 RS-232 serial ports
• Add 1 port Gigabit Ethernet
• 2 port eSATA2.0
• Baud rates up to 115.2 Kbps on serial unit
• Serial ATA generation 2 transfer rate of 3.0Gbps
• Hot plugging and how swapping features

The original PC Card/PCMCIA standard addresses the need for memory cards and storage expansion in laptops. The standard was then revised to add I/O mobile capabilities to transfer data through the PC Card/PCMCIA slot. As wired and wireless mobile technology requirements, the PC Card continued to evolve as a versatile expansion slot to meet the many needs of multimedia applications.

Want to know more about ExpressCards? Download "ExpressCards Explained" today!