COMPUTER NEWS & TRENDS PCMCIA announces plans to update ExpressCard standard      PCMCIA, the leading technology trade association for PC Card and ExpressCard technology, announced that the ExpressCard Standard, currently at Release 1.2, is undergoing a significant update to accommodate the faster speeds increasingly demanded by today’s high-performance mobile technologies.      ExpressCard technology (http://www.expresscard.org/) is the next-generation PC Card technology for high-performance expansion of desktop and mobile systems. ExpressCard and PC Card slots can be found on more than 95 percent of notebook computers.      Some of the PCMCIA members showing products at CeBIT were Brainboxes and Village Tronic.      “The ExpressCard format is the future of add-on connectivity for laptop PCs with this continual pressure for reduction in size,” commented Stephen Evans, managing director of Brainboxes. “The high speeds and high data integrity of Brainboxes cards makes them perfectly matched to demands of PC users looking to add reliable and fault-free connectivity to their laptops. This provides an excellent solution to the large number of companies that need to connect to serial devices from their new laptops.”      The cards use the exclusive Boost software developed by Brainboxes to provide excellent compatibility with legacy serial applications. ExpressCard is the next generation of PC Card technology currently being introduced to new notebook computers and is the future of add-on connectivity for the laptop PC, which is under continual pressure to be smaller and thinner.      Brainboxes offers a full range of connectivity options in the range, with one and two port cards available for both RS232 and RS422/485 communications. ExpressCard is a simple expansion option, especially for laptop PCs where space is limited.      An ExpressCard takes up as little as half the space of a PC Card and a type 1 ExpressCard measures only 34x25x5mm. The ExpressCard is also hot swappable so a PC can stay active when expansion options are added or removed, enabling communications, memory and security options to be easily added to a PC with minimum impact.      All Brainboxes ExpressCard serial cards are fully RoHS compliant. They come with full suite of software including drivers for Microsoft Windows Vista and XP (x32 bit and x64 bit editions) and all have Brainboxes’ lifetime support and warranty.      Village Tronic (Hall 13 D34) introduced the ViDock Gfx, a high performance graphics docking station that allows the connections of up to two additional external displays to an ExpressCard equipped notebook.      ViDock Gfx allows IT managers and finance professionals to view large quantities of data across multiple screens. Creative professionals can take advantage of ViDock’s powerful multi-display support to experience the final work on one screen while viewing edit commands on another. Home users and gamers can use ViDock to turn their notebook into a high performance graphics platform, with full HDTV support.      ViDock Gfx takes advantage of the fast connection offered by ExpressCard technology, the latest standard from PCMCIA for notebook expansion, to deliver an uncompromised user experience in term of speed, responsiveness, 3D acceleration and resolution support. Combined with DVI Dual Link and Dual DVI video output, all the displays currently in the market can be supported, including the 30” ones at 2560x1600. The operating system compatibility ensures support for Windows Vista, Windows XP and Mac OS X. Aero accelerated user interface for Vista is supported.      The new ExpressCard Standard 2.0 will support transfer rates ranging from two to 10 times faster than ExpressCard Standard 1.2, depending on the data protocol used. The ExpressCard Standard 2.0 will enable manufacturers to develop higher performance ExpressCard products for consumers. Some of the applications that will benefit from this improved performance includeSerial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) 2.0 adapters supporting large file transfers between computers and various storage devices; very high-performance streaming media and video adapters; and very high-performance storage modules based on Flash memory technologies, e.g. solid-state drive applications.      The ExpressCard Standard is based on the advanced serial I/O technologies, PCI Express and USB. The Standard is being updated to comply with the recent release of the PCI Express specification, Version 2.0, which offers transfer rates of up to 5Gbps, two times faster than its previous version.      The ExpressCard 2.0 Standard will also support the new SuperSpeed USB, which is planned for release later this year as part of the USB 3.0 specification.      The new SuperSpeed USB standard will support speeds of up to 10 times faster than Hi-Speed USB.      “We are inviting all ExpressCard product developers to join in our activities as we formalize the requirements of the new standard,” said Brad Saunders, chairman, PCMCIA. “We hope to build on the solid foundation set by the ExpressCard 1.0 Standard and encourage developers to provide feedback and comment for improvements. This is a terrific opportunity for notebook and module developers to take advantage of the ExpressCard 2.0 Standard to create new, innovative consumer products that leverage these significant performance improvements.”      The ExpressCard 2.0 Standard will support backward compatibility with products compliant with any previous versions of the Standard. Any compliant ExpressCard product will work in any ExpressCard slot, regardless of which version of the Standard the product complies with. A new compliance program will be phased in once the ExpressCard 2.0 Standard is released.      Current ExpressCard plug ‘n’ play applications include memory, local area network (LAN), wireless broadband (WWAN), WiFi, memory adapters, parallel adapters, serial adapters, TV tuners, smart card readers, instrumentation, 1394A&B adapters, serial ATA (SATA) adapters and USB adapters.      Dell, Fujitsu Siemens, HP, Intel, Lenovo, Lexar Media, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Sony, Texas Instruments and Toshiba are among those supporting development of the ExpressCard standard.      PCMCIA (http://www.pcmcia.org/) is a non-profit trade association founded in 1989 to establish technical standards for PC Card technology and to promote interchangeability among computer systems. Based in San Jose, California, the association has a growing membership of 150 companies worldwide.      The PCMCIA also has a specification development and co-publishing relationship with the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) covering PC Card and Smart Media technologies.