PC Cards (PCMCIA) Related Terms and Definitions

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Windows NT operating system version 3.1
• Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server version 3.1
• Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.5, 3.51 and 4.0
• Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.5, 3.51 and 4.0

SUMMARY

This article describes terms related to PCMCIA cards (also known as PC Cards).

MORE INFORMATION

Host Bus Adapter (HBA):

A chip that protects the PCMCIA bus from dependence on a given hardware Architecture by translating between PCMCIA and that architecture.

Socket Services:

The BIOS layer of the PCMCIA software architecture. It handles communication with host bus adapters and provides a core API for client drivers.

Card Services:

The layer of the PCMCIA software architecture that sits between Socket Services and client drivers. It provides API commands for client drivers and arbitrates client-driver access to system resources.

Card Information Structure (CIS):

A data structure within non-volatile memory in each PC Card that contains key identification and configuration information. Card and Socket Services examines the CIS to determine what resources a given card needs.

Driver Stack:

The Card Services, Socket Services, and various client drivers necessary to support PC Card devices.

Point Enabler:

A utility that configures a PC Card and HBA to be available to the system at a particular IRQ and I/O port address combination. If your PC Card comes with a point enabler, you can use this utility rather than full Card and Socket Services, though at some cost in convenience. If your computer does not have Card and Socket Service (CSS), the PC card can use the point enabler to manage system resources. When you are using the point enabler instead of CSS, you may experience conflicts with the memory manager installed in your computer. To avoid memory manager conflicts, you need to exclude the memory range that the PC card is to use. For example, edit the line in CONFIG.SYS file:

   DEVICE = C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE X=DF00H-DFFFH

Tuple is the configuration information built into PCMCIA devices. This configuration information consists of items such as the device name, device type, default I/O address, voltage requirements, function id and other information based on the type of PCMCIA device.

Reference

"Windows Sources," March 1995, "The Primer (Getting Along with PCMCIA)," page 148.