PCMCIA Assumes Control Of SmartMedia, Mini Card Standards

March 22, 1999 (12:00 AM EST)

PCMCIA Assumes Control Of SmartMedia, Mini Card Standards

By Stephanie Green,

In a move to unify potentially conflicting standards, the PCMCIA standardsorganization is assuming administration of the SmartMedia Card and Miniature Card standards from their respective current standards bodies.

The announcement, made at the giant CeBit '99 computer trade show in Hannover, Germany, would mitigate potential problems VARs could face as smart card technology becomes more pervasive worldwide.

Standards for the Miniature Card previously were managed by the Miniature Card Implementors Forum (MCIF). Now it is being managed by the PCMCIA standards organization. Another body, the Solid State Floppy Disk Card (SSFDC) Forum, will co-administer SmartMedia cards with the PCMCIA.

Separately, PCMCIA, based in San Jose, Calif., unveiled the CardX Standard, which will allow USB and 1394 serial devices to be plug-compatible with PC Cards. Also unveiled was the availability of Release 7.0 of the PC Card standard by March 31.

SmartMedia cards can store transaction-oriented data and are about the size of a credit card. Miniature Cards are portable storage devices for file-oriented content, such as images from a digital camera or audio files from a voice-recording device.