The future is in the PC cards

The growing use of IC memory cards, with their small size and low power consumption, in key roles in all sorts of handheld equipment is discussed. Three events that have propelled the credit-card-sized descendants of the original battery-packed memory cards are discussed. They are the development of a standard for 68-pin personal computer cards, known as PC cards, that allows them to act as peripherals, such as modems and network ports, as well as storage devices; the development of flash-type nonvolatile memory chips of very high capacity; and the emergence of palmtop and notebook computers.<>