ExpressCard Standard 2.0 accommodating faster speeds soon

Somewhere in a dark corner at CeBIT, PCMCIA managed to let out a whisper that informed a few flies on a nearby wall that ExpressCard Standard 2.0 was on the way. Today, however, we've received confirmation that said update is on track for a "second-half 2008 / early 2009" delivery. Put simply, v2.0 is "being developed to accommodate the significantly faster speeds increasingly demanded by today's high-performance mobile technologies," and we're also told that it will comply with PCI-Express 2.0 and SuperSpeed USB, which is "planned for release later this year as part of the USB 3.0 specification." For the paranoid, you can rest assured that the new release will be very backwards compatible, though we aren't told when to expect hardware that will reflect the changes.

[Towncivilian @ Jun 3rd 2008 9:32PM]

Does anybody know what PCMCIA stands for?

People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms, obviously.

[SneAKz @ Jun 3rd 2008 9:38PM]

It's Personal Computer Memory Card International Association but yours is much better.

[Flashpoint @ Jun 3rd 2008 9:56PM]

FANTASTIC

USB 3.0

Now I can get those warnings on my laptop of my new devices not being plugged into high-speed ports.

...again

[XGM @ Jun 3rd 2008 10:12PM]

Im stuck with one of them Express 34 slots, and other then one of those wireless cellular cards, I cant find a use for it...

[Raymond @ Jun 3rd 2008 10:36PM]

A eSATA card would be great if your laptop doesn't have an eSATA port.

[XGM @ Jun 3rd 2008 11:42PM]

Yea but then again I have a twin SATA drive enclosure running FireWire 800, and a USB ATA/SATA reader if ever i needed more.

[jhracer3 @ Jun 3rd 2008 11:47PM]

What does having a faster ExpressCard slot actually do for anyone? The only Express cards I've ever seen are EVDO/WWAN cards and audio cards, neither of which come even close to maxing out the bandwidth of an Express card v1 slot.

I suppose you could do external graphics cards, but then again, I though Asus had already shown off an external graphics card using Express Card v1.

[iofthestorm @ Jun 4th 2008 1:39AM]

I think mostly graphics cards will benefit. I like the idea of ASUS ROG XG or whatever, but since it's PCI-E x1 it's actually slower than AGP 8x. This might make it a faster bus for better external graphics for laptops, which is always a plus.

[BrokenMonkey @ Jun 3rd 2008 11:12PM]

Anyone else notice what's wrong with that photoshop? First of all, the connector end is coming out of the laptop. Second of all, the HP laptops have the PC card slot on the other side. Third of all, it's not even in a slot, since the label there is SD-MS/Pro-MMc-XD. Talk about a hack job!

[Flalex @ Jun 3rd 2008 11:37PM]

The card is where it should be, on certain hp's the slot is on that side, above the memory card reader. See the little express card logo? Only the dv9000 laptops have the express card on the right

[XGM @ Jun 3rd 2008 11:46PM]

My friend has that laptop, and the SD-MS/Pro-MMc-XD slots are right under the Express card slot, witch is also labeled properly with that box shaped logo. Also the slot is on the left side.

[Anthony @ Jun 4th 2008 12:43AM]

As the other two said, the little icon of the card with the marks (it's supposed to make it look like it's moving -- express card, get it?) indicate the slot. That's where it is on most HP laptops.

It'd be pretty pathetic to photoshop a photo like that when it's far easier to just take the photo.

[BrokenMonkey @ Jun 4th 2008 8:40AM]

Oh well it's also on the right on the HP Mini-note (the smallest laptop) so I thought it was there for all of them. But that doesn't change the fact that the connector (the black plastic part of the card) is coming out of the laptop.

[michas_pi @ Jun 4th 2008 12:10AM]

Wow, they're getting faster and I've still never used an ExpressCard.

[tekdroid @ Jun 4th 2008 5:36AM]

neither has 99.9% of the market, my guess.

[BradVT @ Jun 4th 2008 12:55AM]

This will be good news for all those people who want to get external graphics cards for their laptops. Should be a pretty big increase in bandwith, am I right?

[Nihility @ Jun 4th 2008 5:59AM]

At the very least, if they still only give it x1 PCI-E lanes it will be twice as fast. The 2.0 version provides twice as much bandwidth per lane. If they also noted that it could be used for external graphics and they add more lanes (which should be possible, each lane requires more power but 2.0 is more efficient than the previous version) we will see much better bandwidth speeds.