Hardware compatibility issues in the PC card power interface

Abstract

The PC Card market has moved far beyond its original target of a memory card standard interface. Today there is a constant flow of new applications for PC Card slots. This trend started with fdmodems and went on to GPS, Ethemet, SCSl, pagers, hard disk drives, data acquisition devices, multi-function cards, and wireless everything. As their sophistication increases, so do the power requirements of the new PC Cards. For portable products running on batteries, power management and allocation is of major importance.